Fair Play

In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, I'm writing tonight about an organization project that my wife -- yes, my wife, who is usually the antithesis of organized -- has completed in our daughter's room.

Our daughter, who is two, has an ominous collection of toys and clothes that would give the most experienced organizer pause. My wife conquered the problem with the application of eight 3-drawer clear plastic storage towers that I bought from Canadian Tire for $20 apiece.

At a total of $160, this gives us several times the storage capacity that you'd get from spending a similar amount on a cheap dresser. The towers are indestructible, transparent to allow our daughter to see which drawer contains which toys, and short enough at 24" for her to easily reach everything. Her toys and clothes are grouped by category -- one drawer for Lego, another for puzzles, and so on. She took to the system immediately, and I'm proud to say she replaces her toys in the correct drawers. Placed together along the wall, with the casters removed, they provide a good horizontal surface for her overwhelming assortment of stuffed animals. As she grows, we'll replace them with more permanent furniture and repurpose them.