How to Organize Outdoor Toys (Ride-On Toys & More!)

Do you have no idea how you can safely store your kids’ small and large toys from your backyard? Here are some great ideas to help you get into the heart of organizing all the jumble of toys outside!

Categorizing outdoor toys can be difficult, especially if your kids have a large collection of them.

While I am sure you enjoy watching them have fun and playing, I guess that you don’t enjoy the unsightly clutter they can add to your yard. Outdoor toys organization can be a handful, but it doesn’t have to be.

Luckily, there are many different ways to store your toys outside, while still keeping them accessible and easy to get to for your child. This post will give you some tips on how to organize outdoor toys, including bulky ride-on toys by storing them in waterproof containers, or other storage solutions that keep the yard clear of toy clutter!

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How do I organize my kid’s toys in the backyard?

When you look out into your backyard and see toys strewn everywhere, it makes you want to rethink how you might have assembled your outdoor areas. For me, these ideas that we will discuss below have been the best and most practical.

Whether or not you have ride-on toys, large toys, small toys, or anything in between, these ideas will be very pleasant in your journey to rid your yard of disordered toys. We will discuss issues that may arise with the changing seasons and how to preserve your children’s toys in their most pristine condition.

Storing Toys For the Seasons

When stowing toys outdoors, you have to think of the effects of the changing seasons on your items. Do you live in a temperate climate, or are there harsh winters and hot summers?

These are factors to think about in your storage ideas and organization. Cold winters bring ice, snow, and rain, which could cause damage to your children’s toys. Hot summers are similar and bring heat and humidity which can sometimes be enough to melt plastics or at least significantly fade brightly colored outdoor items.

Most of these intense seasons require creative ways to protect your children’s items while still allowing you to properly sort out them the way you want.

If you are storing toys in the winter or more rainy seasons, then it is a good idea to place them in a covered environment either under an awning, or a cleared-off spot in the garage or on a shelf in your shed. This protects them from the harsher elements and allows them to be stored where your children can easily access them when the weather is favorable again.

As for the summer, you may not have to be as cautious keeping items out of the elements, but it is a good idea to at least cover them in some capacity, especially if they are plastic, either in an outdoor shed, covered under a tarp or in a covered crate.

How to store summer toys?

Storing toys outdoors in the summer may not seem like that much of a problem, but certain electrical and plastic toys can become warped and wear out much easier in hot weather. They could also become difficult for your children to play with due to the high temperatures that can collect in the plastics.

So, the ideal way to store toys in the summer is to keep them away from the elements! Ways to do this include incorporating different shelves, tarps, and other equipment to put together do-it-yourself projects that will keep your kid’s summer toys lasting for many years to come. Or, more accurately, until they get bored of them.

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How do I keep my kid’s outdoor toys from fading?

The key to keeping outdoor toys from fading is to try to keep them out of sunlight as much as possible. The hot sun can fade colors from many of your children’s favorite toys, and they end up looking worse for wear than they are.

So, with these ideas we will discuss below, there are many different ways to keep the toys out of the sun and look pristine, rather than old and sun-bleached.

How to store outdoor toys for winter?

Storing outdoor toys for winter comes with a different but similar set of issues to storing them in the summertime. The main goal is to keep them away from the elements as much as possible.

This will prevent the toys from collecting ice and snow in the winter, which can melt and ruin any battery-powered or electric toys out there and turn plastics brittle.

Freezing temperatures can also pose an issue with some electrical toys. You want to try your best to keep them in areas where they will not be exposed to extremely low temperatures, which could void their usefulness when they are being used again later.

How do I store toys in my garage?

Storing toys in the garage can seem like a monumental task, especially if your garage is already full of things from your overstock of items. I can tell you that storing toys in the garage is a great solution, and there are so many helpful garage organization tools on the market! You can also feel better about walking around your yard without worrying about tripping over strewn-out toys.

If you want to save the most space and you have smaller to medium-sized toys, you can also invest in a pegboard. I love pegboards because you can find some for fairly cheap, and they are incredibly sturdy! You can hang up various sports equipment and even buy specialized hooks for hanging up things like crates to fill with smaller toys, hula-hoops, and anything else you can think of. Best of all, this is a wall item, so it will save you all the floor space!

How to store a kid’s electric car

A kid’s electric car may seem like an item that is impossible to store without it being in the way in some form, but I’m here to tell you that’s not true! We will discuss a few unique ways to protect and store your kids’ electric vehicles and other rideable toys, so they are out of the way but easy to use!

Some of these ways include building small covered “parking lots” for the toys. This is a nice way to help direct your children to put up their outdoor toys in a specified place, as well. If you want to store the toys for a whole season, you can also invest in a system similar to a bike rack

Many cyclists utilize bike racks to hang even the heaviest of their items on the walls. You can use this same method to hang up your children’s ride-on toys, from electric cars to scooters. This way, the floor of your garage can stay clear, and you can easily take them down when your children want to play with them.

Best outdoor toy storage

When it comes to finding the best solutions for outdoor toy storage, it is all going to depend on what space you have to utilize already. For example, a shed won’t work for you if you don’t have a large yard, but a tidy storage bench might.

Storing ride-on toys in the garage isn’t an option if you don’t have a garage, etc. I’ve explored several different outdoor toy storage solutions below to hopefully give you some ideas no matter what your limitations may be.

Large outdoor toy storage

Shelving

Shelving units are a no-brainer when it comes to organization, but it might not be your first thought when it comes to storing large outdoor toys.

The best way to utilize this method is to pick a clear spot in the corner of a garage or shed. Once you have a designated area you can either repurpose a shelf you are not using or you can measure the toys and the area and buy one that will fit your liking.

Once you have the shelves in place, it’s a simple matter of getting affordable plastic crates or large wire baskets. You can buy crates and baskets as big as you need to fit large items like scooters, inflatable balls, and many more!

You can also label the items by activity or by category of items in which you and your children will be able to see and get to what they would like to play with. This option can be used in a multitude of different ways and can be customized to the items your children usually play with and even other outdoor items you’d like to store.

Hanging Crates

This is a bit of a unique idea which can vary by just how large your children’s toys are. If they are of a reasonable size, then an interesting way to store them in your backyard is to make use of any gates you may have around your backyard area. You can use large plastic, wire, or even wooden crates to store these items. Whatever style and size will suit your needs.

All you need to do is either add a section of wood or a sturdy panel of metal along the fence to hang the crates on. You can drill the crates into the panel along the fence or you can utilize hooks that are similar to the ones some of us use to hang shoe racks on doors. This way, your children can play with and return the items to the crates, and it won’t take up any ground space in the backyard.

Rolling Crates

Rolling crates are a great option for storing children’s toys because they are mobile. This means you can pull it out when they want to play outdoors and roll it into a garage or shed space when they are done.

There are countless options for large plastic wheeled crates which can be an easy solution for most toys and can be rolled under or onto your garage shelves to be more out of the way. Another, but more expensive option, for this type of storage is investing in a garage sports equipment organizer. This one, from Amazon, is a great choice and can hold a variety of items, plus it’s on wheels.

Storage Bench

A nice-sized storage bench for your outdoor toys is also a great storage option. It can double as a seating area while still having space to accommodate different sand toys and whatnots. It’s a dual-purpose deck box that can store pool toys and bungee cords on the inside.

Outdoor storage for ride-on toys

Tarp Covered Toy Lot

If you’re looking for a way to store your children’s ride-on toys outside then this is an easy and do-it-yourself way to create their parking dock. All you need is a tarp, hooks you can screw into wood and wooden or plastic posts.

These items will help create a slanted roof for your tarp-covered lot. You can do this by getting the posts you will use and cutting them to a comfortable height that your children can go under while riding their toys.

Once that height is determined, you can mark a small space on the side of the house, shed, or garage where you can screw in the hooks which will be used to hold the tarp close to the house. Then the two posts you have cut can be secured into the ground, making sure you measure a comfortable distance for it to be used, and then attack hooks to the tops of those as well.

When you are done, you will have a tarp that is hooked to the wall at a slant similar to an awning and attached to the two posts in the ground. So, your children can ride their toys under the awning, and the toys will be kept out of the sun and rain.

Reinvented Table Parking

Another but much easier way to store ride-on toys is to use a table and create another small parking garage. Using a rather long and tall plastic table, you can place it along with the house or any other flat outdoor structure you want it to be located around.

You can even put the table in the garage itself and use the top for more toy storage. Either way, you will place the table and make sure it is tall enough for your children to ride the electric cars under. While this method will not work for older children like the previous method, this is still a simple option to store smaller children’s ride-along toys.

The toys can just be parked under the table, and you can cover the front with a tarp, old curtain, or even a shower curtain cut to fit the space. You can even screw-in hooks on either side of the table’s front to add a curtain rod and make the front covering easy to move, so you can make the table look fashionable, instead of just a clever storage tool.

If you are extra handy and love a project, you can also build the table out of wood and build a wooden door for the front, like a miniature shed.

Wall Hangs

We have mentioned this previously, but wall hangs can be an excellent space saver. You know they can be used to hold bikes, but they can also hold any of your children’s ride-on toys too!

Items like this one can be used to hook on any of the ride-on toys your children have so they are put away on the wall and out of the floor space. This option saves the most floor space and can be used for a variety of options. No matter what the item is, you can find a durable wall hanger for it!

While you may have to be the one to take these items down and put them away for your children, they are easy to grab but won’t fall off the wall.

So, if your goal is to maximize space saving, then this is the best option for you.

Waterproof outdoor toy storage

Storage Shed

If you live in a very rainy climate, then you are probably thinking about how to best save your children’s toys from being drowned out. Well, a good option is a storage shed. While we do not all have the money to go out and buy a storage shed or to build one ourselves, there are ways to utilize your garage or even a garden shed that you may not be used to store toys instead.

You could also utilize any old plastic playhouses that your children may not use, or may not have organized, and turn them into a play area and safe storage space for their toys. This way, you can repurpose items and spaces you already have to be better suited for the organization.

Outdoor Toy Boxes

If you don’t have any extra room in your spaces then you will find sturdy outdoor toy boxes to be a lifesaver and a toy saver! There are different ways to store and create a chic backyard look with an outdoor toy box so it can be an asset to your design rather than an eyesore.

An option like this all-weather-resistant wood-like look can be used to store toys no matter the season and can even blend into your deck or backyard aesthetic. It is a 71-gallon storage bin and can also function as a bench for when you or your children get tired from running around the yard.

A sleeker, yet more expensive option that can really add to your outdoor look and store all your children’s items in this storage bench. Using hidden storage under the seat, this box also is about 70-gallons, and contains a back and armrest to be used as a patio bench that no one would ever suspect is also a toy box! This can even lock and is also weather-resistant and can seat up to three people.

Stackable Storage Drawers

If you have the available space in your garage, you can create a makeshift storage shelf in the corner by using plastic drawers to put away any outdoor toys that need to be kept away from the weather. An option like this plastic stackable drawer set could be a great way to help save space and promote organization while keeping the toys away from any water damage.

You can use any of the store-bought options, or you can create a similar option yourself by using the tips from our previous option on shelving! You can even buy affordable plastic crates and stack them on one another with labels so you can spend less but still organize in the same manner!

There are a lot of simple solutions for outdoor toy storage to help keep your kid’s toys in check!

There are numerous options for storage in this post, and I hope you found one to solve your problem of outdoor toy disarray! If you have a little one with just too many backyard toys hanging around, these outdoor toy storage ideas may help you with just that.

Whether you want to save space while storing large items, want to have a place for your children to park their ride-on toys, or just want a nice solution to keeping your children’s toys safe from water damage, we have covered it all!

So be sure to find an idea that works best for you, and most importantly, remember to have fun with your children, while reminding them to pick up and put away their toys with your newly refined organizing system.