Toy Room Display and Organization Ideas

[EnigmaticClarity]

A thread for all ideas for optimizing the display and organization of toys in our houses. My man cave is a mess so I won't share ideas for optimizing display yet, but I will share the way I organize my figures. It's better than most, but I'm not satisfied with it and want to improve that too.

I keep each 1:12 or smaller scale figure along with its accessories in polypropylene bags bought from clearbags.com, and I store those in stackable plastic containers made by Sterilite. I use several different bag sizes:

• 3" x 6" bags for accessories that go into larger bags with their associated figure. I only use those for fragile and painted accessories; if they're durable and unpainted I just leave them loose in the bag with the figure.
• 4" x 8" bags for small figures. That mostly means female figures and males that are around the average size for a human. I would prefer 3" wide bags, but ClearBags doesn't make 3" x 8" polypropylene bags. I requested that from them a few years ago, but they responded that there isn't enough demand for them to carry that size. Over half of the figures I have are in this size bag.
• 5" x 8" bags for slightly larger figures or figures with stiff, wide capes.
• 6" x 9" bags for even larger figures.
• 8" x 10" bags for very large figures. Every Marvel Legends BAF fits in this size up to and including the MCU Hulkbuster. Much larger BAFs like the Toy Biz Sentinel or Apocalypse don't fit in this size.
• 12" x 16" bags for even larger figures. The BAF Sentinel and Apocalypse do fit in this size, as do most of the larger Jurassic World Hammond Collection 1:18 scale dinosaurs.

Below is a pic of all of my current boxes. I plan to buy a ULine metal rack shelf to put the Sterilite containers on, but I haven't done it yet. Having this arrangement without a rack kinda sucks because you shouldn't stack the boxes more than 4 high, and getting to the boxes that aren't on top of the stack is a pain. A rack shelf solves both of those problems, and a single rack should allow me to store all of the boxes shown below easily with room to double this collection size on that same rack.

When I take figures out to display or my kids take them out to play with the figure's bag goes into the box in the lower-left shown in the pic below. It can be tough to match the bags with its figure when the accessories are similar, so I wish I had been clipping the name of the figure off of its box and putting it into the bags. I may print something out and insert it into bags to solve that issue, but I haven't done it yet. This is particularly problematic for figures that only come with two hands, or for Star Wars Jedi and Sith figures with lightsabers. Matching two hands or a saber to the right figure is a GIANT pain.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

One reason I haven't bought metal shelving for my boxes yet is that it's unattractive. It makes your toy room look more like a machine shop, garage, or basement storage room than a showroom. I'd love to find a better way and it has delayed me buying shelves for years.

I know from threads in our previous forums that some of you solve that issue by putting your shelving in closets. I do have a closet in my toy room, but the size and design of the closet makes fitting shelving in it difficult without wasting about a quarter of the closet's space.

 

[TheSameIdiot]

Always a good idea for a thread.

Everything I own is on display in two Coaster Curio cabinets. (One day I'll take pictures of my display.)

My accessories are stored in small cardboard boxes in a large Rubbermaid tote.

 

[JakeEkiss]

For storage I break up figures by source (Star Wars, marvel, whatever) and keep them in these document boxes:

Then I nest stacks of those in these Sterilite cases:

For accessories I split them up and have most in the mini boxes in these photo cases form Michaels:

For display I have about 6 Billy/Hogbo Ikea bookshelf combos. I use the single-wide, half height ones because I don't like having furniture tall enough to fall on me and the double-wide ones are a little harder to play living-room tetris with should I want to move or redecorate. The single-wides with the hogbo glass door are also *very* easy to dustproof. Simple rubber strip at the top and bottom and you're done.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

How do you guys who store your accessories separate from your figures remember which ones go to which figures? I store them together because I thought I would quickly lose track of a figure's accessories if I didn't keep them together.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

or display I have about 6 Billy/Hogbo Ikea bookshelf combos. I use the single-wide, half height ones because I don't like having furniture tall enough to fall on me

Wall anchors solve the tipping problem, although they obviously make your desire to be able to move the shelves around even harder. Otherwise your setup is the one I've wanted for years.

I posted this pic on the Fwoosh I found while Google searching that's pretty close to my current ideal display setup that I've been wanting for years, and someone who hopefully also is now here said it was theirs. This also is Billy with the glass doors, but they're double-wide and full height with light strips installed. My own plan is the below setup, but I've got a 1915 house with 9' 4" celiings so I'll go even taller by getting the vertical extension to add an extra shelf at the top of the units below. I'll probably also get extra shelves to be able to make some of them only 8" to 10" tall since Billys have adjustable height that will give me more shelves per case.

 

[Justice]

How do you guys who store your accessories separate from your figures remember which ones go to which figures? I store them together because I thought I would quickly lose track of a figure's accessories if I didn't keep them together.

I have mine in little 3x3 or 4x4 baggies labeled with the figure's name on it and then in plastic drawer bins by line. My Marvel is further separated with the little bags inside gallon bags that are alphabetically sorted so all of my A characters are in one bag, etc. Then those big bags are in one big drawer.

 

[Thwiptster]

I posted this pic on the Fwoosh I found while Google searching that's pretty close to my current ideal display setup that I've been wanting for years, and someone who hopefully also is now here said it was theirs. This also is Billy with the glass doors, but they're double-wide and full height with light strips installed.

That’s me. I’ve since moved and had to separate the shelves in my new space, so they’re not all lined up together anymore.

But I did add a couple extra cases to the living room I’m excited to fill up!

And this is how I store my sorted collection. Teams/groups in labeled bins to facilitate rotating displays. I still have a large quantity in bigger bins/drawers that haven’t been filtered down into display-ready groups, and frankly, I own too much anyway. I need to get rid of so much, but it’s just such an involved process to do so and get anything close to the true value of it all.

 

[akajomiha]

For accessories I split them up and have most in the mini boxes in these photo cases form Michaels:

These are the exact ones I use too.

How do you guys who store your accessories separate from your figures remember which ones go to which figures? I store them together because I thought I would quickly lose track of a figure's accessories if I didn't keep them together.

I do something similar to @Justice
I have 6 of the cases shown above, each compartment is labeled, ie: "Marvel Legends A-B". I use a variety of different sized resealable polybags and label them with the individual figure the accessories belong to. It's very helpful for me to have them organized thusly. Years ago I would just have everything in boxes and invariably I would lose things or not have any idea who they belonged to.

Oh, and for my displays I just have some cheap bookshelves and wall mounted shelves set up. Never committed to Detolfs, but I am aiming to replace what I've got with some Billys down the line.

 

[PanchaMaestro]

I started with plastic bins from Container Store labeled with what was in them with painters tape. I just chunked it in. Only Marvel Legends needed more than a bin and those were just labeled "Legends Male Hands" & "Legends Female Heads" etc. It was never that hard to go digging thru the bins to find the hands, extra heads etc of a figure I was selling. I would have to google in package photos sometimes to remember what each figure came with. On the rare occasion I couldn't find one of the pink mystic swirls that came with a Scarlet Witch or something but I'm not really all that sure it cost me all that much.

Last few years as accessories have increased (and gotten smaller) I started the ziploc bag system. Small bag for accessories of a displayed figure or a bigger one for the figure and their accessories labelled with painter's tape. I still use the all in one small plastic bin for some lines I collect more casually. So now I have this Frankenstein's monster system I should make uniform some day. Only lines in my collecting I lost accessories to in mass were the old Playmates Simpsons.

 

[JakeEkiss]

Wall anchors solve the tipping problem, although they obviously make your desire to be able to move the shelves around even harder. Otherwise your setup is the one I've wanted for years.

Yeah, I'm favoring modularity, customizability, and flexibility now. Even though I might never do it, I want the option to, if I get a wild idea, rearrange a room with nothing but a hand truck and an hour's work.

Another cool thing I'm doing with the Hogbos, they come with a board to fill in the glass that's black on one side and white on the other (just particle board with a veneer) and since I've got access to a makerspace I've made a design I intend to laser etch into the board and then paint into that design. My plan is to do a two-tone thing, so white design on the black side, or vice versa. So If I want my shelves to not show off figures, I can just insert those panels and have a really cool custom design.

I'd like to put lights in them as well, but I haven't yet decided quite how I want to manage that while maintaining the modularity and such I mentioned earlier.

 

[joshsquash729]

I'm definitely gonna be creeping and taking notes from you guys on display ideas. I love all the stuff that I have, but sometimes I feel like I struggle to fully enjoy/appreciate it because, just due to the amount that I have vs. the space I have to display it in, I don't feel like everything necessarily gets its fair shot at visibility. In order to condense, I've gotten a fair amount of those tiered shelf organizer things, which work great, but has forced me to kinda keep everything in a big "class photo" type configuration. Especially since I've started to experiment with posing lately, I really wanna be able to see more of the figure than just the waist up on some of them. I know I could, and probably should, just invest in a bigger, nicer shelf, but (insert excuse here). I know sometimes it's about doing things smarter, not necessarily "better" or "bigger".

I'm also starting to learn from past me's mistake of just throwing accessories into baggies and keeping them all together. I really need to go back and properly organize, because now whenever I need to find something, I have to dig through obscene amounts of baggies filled to the brim with extra accessories and BAF parts, most of which I'll probably never use.

 

[TheSameIdiot]

How do you guys who store your accessories separate from your figures remember which ones go to which figures? I store them together because I thought I would quickly lose track of a figure's accessories if I didn't keep them together.

I don't worry about it unless I'm selling something. When I sell stuff, I look at photo or video reviews to see what the figure came with.

I have a relatively small collection, so I can usually find an accessory quickly.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

You guys really haven't sold me on keeping the accessories separate from the figures. So much easier to have them in the bag with the figure. My kids use accessories more than I do, and they'd be bugging the hell out of me to find accessories constantly if I kept them separate. Even when my kids grow out of figures it seems far more efficient to keep them together.

The missing part of the conversation is that you all who keep them separate probably don't store your figures, do you? I know a lot of people are opposed to that entirely, but we haven't brought that point up yet. If you're going to own it why wouldn't you display it is the idea, and I totally get that. I know TSI has said he curates his collection to always be small enough to display for example. My own answer to that is I store them because I don't have enough shelf space to display more than about 5% of what I own, and I enjoy swapping figures in and out of displays every few days, weeks, months, or whatever I have time for.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

And this is how I store my sorted collection. Teams/groups in labeled bins to facilitate rotating displays. I still have a large quantity in bigger bins/drawers that haven’t been filtered down into display-ready groups, and frankly, I own too much anyway. I need to get rid of so much, but it’s just such an involved process to do so and get anything close to the true value of it all.

This is what I'll be moving towards except I've mostly been planning for it to be directly in my toy room, but I should really consider putting it in my basement instead like you have. The difference in what I'm planning is that I use bigger Sterilite 37 gallon bins, and I'm planning to buy extra shelves for my racks spaced to fit exactly two bins per shelf with no stacking to make them easier to get to. Bigger containers means more risk of damage, but that's why every figure is in a 4 mil bag; they're really quite protective from damage or paint loss while in the bags. When I put my figures in their bag I often toss them into their bin from 3-4 feet away because the thicker ultra-clear polypropylene bags protect them so well.