Okay, I admit it. I have OCD. It stems from my anxiety, It has made being a parent incredibly difficult. Babies and children come with SOOO many things. Especially when they are the first grandchild. So, the way I have dealt with that is trying to find the best, most affordable storage items for majority of their things. Unfortunately, this has come with a lot of trial and error. We have purchased several items that either didn't live up to the hype or weren't what we were looking for. This post will give examples of what we bought and worked or did not work. I would love your feedback on any of these.
We bought this cart for craft storage. There were a lot of positive reviews, so I was excited to get it for my birthday. It has a lot of storage space in the drawers, and I liked the flat top to store other things. However, within a few weeks I noticed one of the bottom drawers wasn't fitting anymore. The side of the bin had completely bent out. It no longer fit in the slats. Then, noticed when sliding the bins in & out, the plastic was being shaved off by the metal parts. We contacted the company through Amazon to see if they could replace the bin that had bent, and they said no. So 0/10 Do not buy.
We are considering replacing the cart with something like this. This is a Trofast system from Ikea. We already have 2 of them for toy storage. They are wonderful. The bins are sturdy, the system is wood. We have a lot of craft supplies and we could probably use to get rid of some of them. The only issue is the kitchen is where we had that stored, so we may need to take up more living room space again, which is fine.
What child doesn't have an insane amount of stuffed animals? My child is no exception. We have tons of squishimals, my old TY beanie babies, build-a-bears, and random stuffed animals. We initially had them stored in a cloth laundry basket, but we immediately out-grew that. So i bought this box, thinking it would hold everything. Absolutely not. This box isn't sturdy at all, holding on to the lid is futile. It also comes with a divider that immediately became useless. This box is a waste of money.
This is what we are considering getting for Christmas. We thought it would serve as double purpose. Easy to put away, and if we got two, they could use them as little chairs to read or sleep on later. I don't know how comfortable they will be, and how long they'll be full of stuffed animals, but that's neither here nor there. 
Wooden and Peg puzzles are the bane of my existence. I bought this puzzle rack thinking it would hold all our puzzles. Positively false. It barely holds half of them, and you barely touch it and it falls over. I am so tired of dealing with it. Not all puzzles are one size fits all either. This would be great if the only puzzles you purchased are from Melissa and Doug, but if they aren't, you need to find alternative storage. 
I went the boring route with puzzles. I busted out my label maker, i printed out tags for each of the puzzles saying what they were, and then I stacked them one on top of another inside a tote box and closed the lid. Eventually we'll upgrade to jigsaw puzzles and we'll need to find some other storage. They are great for cognitive abilities and hand/eye coordination but i truly detest them.
So far, these are the things I dislike the most, storage wise. We have done our best to work with what we have around us and buy the cheapest possible items because we know our kids are only young once and will destroy everything before they grow up.
What are your favorite storage solutions? What items did you buy to store toys, craft supplies and stuffies? Let me know!
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