wfmw stuffed animal storage

WFMW - Stuffed Animal Storage

I once read an article about children and stuffed animals. She talked

about how kids often own many stuffed animals and asked something

along the lines of, "What happened to the days when a child had just

ONE beloved stuffed animal?" She suggested to her readers that they

pair down their child's stuffed animal collection to just one beloved

stuffed animal. The child would appreciate the animal more and there

would be less clutter to clean.

I thought about her words. I agreed with her words. Oh, how nice it

would be to clean a child's room when they have only one stuffed

animal that gets lovingly placed on the pillow each morning!

Then reality brought that fantasy to a screetching halt. I have a

child who would never part with her stuffed animal collection. She

loves stuffed animals more than any other toy. I don't think she could

choose 10 to keep let alone just one. I don't think she would EVER

forgive me if I donated half of her collection let alone all of it

minus one. So what's a stuffed-animal-loving-girl's mom going to do?

Create a perfect stuffed animal storage space...

Our Stuffed Animal Zoo

click for larger view

I bought this shelving unit at IKEA. It is part of their gorm

collection which comes in two depths; this one is the 20 inch deep

shelf. It was $39.99. Because these plain, unfinished pine shelving is

meant more for the garage than a child's bedroom, I prettied it up by

painting it with bright blue enamal paint designed for a kids room.

Then I purchased 1/2" wide elastic. Using a staple gun, I stapled the

elastic to the top of the top shelf, stretched it slightly, and

stapled it to the bottom of the third shelf down before cutting the

extra elastic. (This gave me two shelves for stuffed animals. You

could easily staple under any shelf you want, give you as few or as

many shelves you need.) I repeated this every 3 inches or so, creating

"bars" all the way around. I left the back side against the wall

undone.

Our new stuffed animal zoo works perfectly. It holds the stuffed

animals in so that they don't fall out. It is easy to put the stuffed

animals in...just push them through the "bars". It is easy for the

kids to get their stuffed animals out...just reach in, grab the animal

you want, and pull it through the "bars". I've placed a basket on the

bottom stuffed animal shelf to hold clothing (some of our animals wear

clothes on occasion) and tiny animals that fall out of the zoo.

These shelving unit is large so the bottom shelves are a perfect place

for storing larger toys. I love this solution and I think the IKEA

shelving is perfect for it. You could easily adapt any shelving unit

or bookcase to hold stuffed animals this way, especially if you don't

have quite as many as we do.

Check out more tips at Rocks in My Dryer.