Organizing the Kids Outdoor Toys

I am ALWAYS looking for new ways to organize my life and I have blogged about it A TON! I have always felt like I am a pretty efficient person, but now that Grayson is mobile, my world looks a WHOLE lot different. I always joke that my kids have sucked my brains out of me, but really it is multiple kids that takes them completely! I felt like I had a hold on things for while, but I am constantly being pulled in a million directions and it is HARD to stay organized! With that being said, I will continue to improve upon my organization and that too will be ever evolving as the family dynamic and schedules change…. man, us mamas can never get too comfortable can we?

Living in a neighbor with tons of kids and having a lot of friends who have kids, we get a lot of hand-me-downs! Trust me, I am NOT complaining, I love it, but the “stuff” starts to add up quick. I really want to organize the garage, but I need to enlist the help of my hubby (who has had another huge project he has been occupied with) so until he finishes that, I have to put that on the to do list. Part of the garage includes all of the boys outside toys. I have all their bikes, wagons etc. on one side and everything else I had been throwing in bins which just WASN’T working. We could never find anything and when we did we would have to dig through everything else just to get to it.

My friend Lisa, over at Organize 365, sells Clever Container and was kind enough to let me try out one of the Gear Pockets.

So instead of waiting for my hubby to do the entire garage, I used this to inspire me to organize the kids outside toys!

What a MESS! We could never find a thing. Love the bins, but just wasn’t working for this space. So I cleared everything out and started to fill up those pockets!!

Sigh…. I feel better already. Some things I love about this:

• I had a TON of pockets to keep things categorized (which my OCD mind loves)!


• The mesh pockets are breathable so if things are wet, it doesn’t matter, I can still throw them in and they will dry AND it doesn’t matter if something is dirty because the fabric is totally wipeable.


• There are different sized pockets so you can organize accordingly


• It hangs on the wall so I can keep things off the floor! I remember Nate Berkus once said that in ANY space, to keep it clean and organized, you should go up. He meant to use the space on walls to hang shelves or anything that can allow you to not have everything piling up on your floors!


• There are 4 extra hooks on the bottom I didn’t use. I figured we can add Grayson (and mine and the hubs when we get them) bike helmets.

Isn’t it beautiful???!!!  Now I won’t have Cody asking me all the time, “Where is my…..”. The neighborhood kids know the certain toys we have and they couldn’t find his other shovel because it was hidden behind all the mess! Now, they can come over and see it all right there in my gear pockets! I still don’t have a great place to put his bikes, wagon and some other big items, but that will just have to wait until daddy can help. I mean, we can’t do it all right?!

Lisa has been instrumental in helping me get more organized. If you are local to Cincinnati, you can check her out at the places below: