*I was provided with the 12-Bin Organizer from Whitmor. All opinions are my own.

I moved in January and one of the big perks about my new apartment is we have an extra bedroom. It quickly became a toy room/play room for when I babysit. I’ve always kept a handful of toys at my place for kids but now that I have an entire room for playing, I’ve been picking up a lot more toys to keep at my place. My previous toy drawers were full so I thought it was time to get a toy organizer.

When I sat down to look at the toys that I had, I noticed we had a LOT of cars, books and building blocks. We also had a few miniature dolls, baby toys, toy animals, etc. I thought it made sense to have a toy organizer with some smaller bins and bigger bins based on our toys. I had a hard time finding an organizer that didn’t have single sized bins, so I was relieved when I came upon the Whitmor 12-bin organizer. It has four rows, each row can fit 2 of the smaller sized bins and 1 big bin.

When it arrived, it required a little bit of assembly. It includes the 12 plastic bins, 8 poles and two wooden panels. You line a pole up with a hole in the panel and then make sure that the opposite end of the pole lines up with the second panel. I used an electric screwdriver to secure the poles into the panels, placed the bins on the rows and it was ready. I didn’t time it but I would guess that assembly took less than 10 minutes. It immediately felt really sturdy and I felt great about the quality, especially for the price (this sells on Amazon for $73.39 shipped). I filled one of the large bins with a bunch of books so it is quite heavy and the unit doesn’t feel unstable or shaky at all despite the heavy load. Kelsie has only been walking for a few weeks now and she sometimes grabs the sides of it to pull herself up to standing or stabilize herself while walking if she begins to lose balance and it doesn’t wobble or move.

When assembled, the unit is about 33 inches high and 35 inches across. This means that Kelsie (13 months) can access the lower two shelves of bins even while she’s sitting down, while Drew at 3 can easily access all of the bins while standing. I have absolutely loved being able to let Kelsie pick out toys and explore them on her own instead of having to randomly pull out toys and hold them out to see if it is what she wanted. We have toy boxes and a children’s set of drawers that I had used before and she couldn’t easily access things in either of those. Now as soon as she comes over she heads straight for the toy organizer and grabs whatever toys she wants.

The bins can be assembled in a few different ways.  The picture directly below shows a few different ways that the bins can be assembled per row. You can put two big bins next to each other on the same row (row 3 below), or put one big bin in a row with two of the smaller bins (rows 1 and 4 below) in the vertical position. The smaller bins can also be used to fill an entire row if you put four of them in the vertical position (row 2 below). The large bins can be put vertically, and the smaller bins can be put horizontally without falling but doing so results in excess space in the row so you won’t be able to fit all 12 bins on the unit those ways.

The bins can be positioned at an angle to display the contents of the bins or they can be say level on the bars. I like having the toys displayed for the kids (Kelsie in particular) to be able to see easily but putting the bins flat would allow you to fill the bins to the brim. There are grooves on the bottom of each bin that keep the bins held in place whether they are tilted or resting flat.

I can see myself using this unit for years to come. It’s been great to give the kids direct access to their toys in an organized fashion and I have loved watching them use their toys and books more often as a result. You can find out more about the Whitmor brand online. Whitmor products are available both online and in stores at places like Amazon, Target and Walmart among others. Check out my other blog post, 5 Benefits Of Toy Organizers to read more about why we like this organizer.

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

Follow Emily on Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

www.emilyreviews.com/category/emily