Organized chaos

I've had a few people comment recently on how few toys there seem to be in our house.  Obviously these people were not at my house this past weekend when every toy we own was scattered all over our living room!  So what's the secret?  Well... first it is that I am secretly pretty messy... I just hide it well.  And second... I am just a little bit creative with storage.  All of our toy mess gets hidden when we don't want to be tripping over blocks and puzzle pieces or sometimes when we just want to feel like we live in a house inhabited by adults!

Here is my 3-year-old daughter's desk tucked in a little bay window in our dining room.

And here is the secret storage inside the desk.  It is so convenient that she can just lift the lid and get to all of her drawing and painting supplies.

This gray dresser was a flea market find and I just love the way it looks in the corner of our living room.

You would never guess that this dresser primarily houses puzzles and games.

And for a little bonus, we stash some of our favorite books in a basket below to really maximize storage!

Open basket storage is great, but when you really don't want to worry about organization, I also love these baskets with hinged covers to hide some of our mess.

This top basket doubles as a dress-up bin!

As much as I would like to have every toy put away in it's exact spot every evening in our expansive toy room, that just isn't realistic for our busy lives or our tiny little house.  Since we don't have the time or the space for either of these dreams, this system of tossing toys and craft supplies into their hidden places seems to keep the clutter to a minimum around our house.  What are some of the ways you keep your kiddos chaos organized?