Homemade Toy Sorter

Some people were interested in seeing our homemade toy sorter, and I realized it's a project I've never shared, so here are a couple of pictures. My Dad was a big help to me in making this. It was around the time of my birthday, and we made this and he gave me a table saw to boot - great birthday!! We We used 1x2's for the main braces and just measured based on the tubs we could get. We have two different sizes of dishpans - smaller on the outside, and larger on the inside rows.

After we made the braces, we used 1/8th inch plywood to finish off the bottom, top and sides, and pegboard for the back. This kept everything lightweight, and had the extra benefit of being super-cheap. When we made this back in 2005, we spent under $80 - including all the dishpans.

This has been so helpful to us in our home daycare because I can limit the number of items we get out at once, and then make the kids pick up one container of goodies before they get out another. We organize by category too - different tubs hold different things - wooden blocks, cars, play doh (that one is stored on the top shelf!) and so on. It's been the best thing I've ever had for toy storage.