Does Anyone Else Have Millions of Stuffed Animals?

I haven't tried it yet, but I've seen these plastic chains with clips that hangs straight down from the ceiling....the book I saw it in lists them from Organized Living (organizedliving.com). It also suggests trying metal chain from a hardware store.

Me personally...I only keep the really special ones. The stuffed animals that they are given in the Hospital and things. Those to me are the ones that they will want when they get older. When they get them for a gift for Christmas or something when they lose interest I put them in a bag and donate them at Christmas time. They are hardly even played with and who needs 12 Care Bears. That how many my girls got for Christmas last year.
But I do have a friend that really likes to show them off so her husband built a shelf on the top of their sons room. And they put them all along there. It is really neat it looks like a border and as he gets more and more they move closer together and some day I am sure that it will fill up the room.

Put up a clothes line and hang them from the ceiling with clothes pins!

In my house we have copied what stores do. We went to home depot and got plastic chain and large plastic colorful clothes pins. If not clothes pins ribbon works. We hung the chains by simple hooks from the ceiling and clasps the animals along. If you go to any toy store that is how they display their stuffed animals, especially at toys-r-us. It works great. When my oldest wants a bear she goes and unhooks it then she even enjoys putting it up. She has an extensive Care bear collection.

We have a long plate shelf on the wall near the ceiling and we sit all of our stuffed animals up there. It is also nice for those brakeable things you get for your kids that you don't want them to touch.

My children had collected so many stuffed animals that I was going crazy trying to keep them off the floor and clean. I finally had just had enough and said that they both were only allowed to keep 10 stuffed animals each. I explained that dust mites collect in the stuffed animals and that it was impossible to keep the 50+ animals clean. As previously mentioned by someone else I had them tell me or write the reason down for keeping each animal. This helped them decide on which animals to keep and which animals to donate to other chidren who were not as lucky as them. I did end up taking a picture of one or two for them to keep on their desk as memories. HOpe this helps. I am also a mom that will hide toys if I think that the kids are no longer interested in them. After a month passes with no comments from the chidlren about where did these toys go I donate them to charity. It also helped me to realize that some of the toys that were cluttering our lives was not because of my kids sentimental values but MY own. Like "oh I just love the little sweet streets characters and playhouses we need to keep these", when in acutallity my kids didn't care one way or the other about them. Hope this helps and good luck,
Tam

Hello A.! What I did was, I went to Home Depot and bought a plastic type chain and also bought curtain hooks for the heavy type of curtain, when you get home you just insert the curtain hook into the stuffed animal and then hang all the animals on the chain. I just hung mine up far enough where my little one could hold onto it and hang! If you would like me to send you a pic of mine and the type of cutain hook I am talking about please just let me know i would be more than happy to! Hope this would work for you! I had so many stuffed animals when I was little that is what my Mom did for me and it works great! Good luck!

A.,
Just curious, when you say "need" is there a specific reason other than sentimental reasons that you need to keep them? The whole sentimental attachment can be very powerful and sometimes lead us down a very cluttered path. Your kids will always "get" more things/animals, and sometimes we do need to be judicious about what we keep.

The easiest thing would be to store them in a box, but then you can't see them. You could get a curio type/hutch that has glass doors. Like some people would use for china or good dishes. but those can be expensive and take up room.

I did get a shelf from Michaels that was about 5' long and I stained/laquered it, then attached hooks to it. I hung it high enough it would be over a bed/dresser. As I have a Hard Rock Cafe Bear collection. The bears all sit on the shelf and my kids can use the hooks for coats or purses/bags/backpacks.
My shelf is now full (no more bears???)....and it's not extremely wide so a large animal would not fit.

If it's for their room, you could attach a netting type fabric across the ceiling. Like when you suspend balloons. It's bigger than the little corner nets...that don't work. You can double layer it for strength and be sure to attach it in with something sturdy through several folds. you still won't be able to put a bowling ball in it or a hundred animals but it would get them off the floor and something for the kids to look at night. you could even put a decorative take periodically thru the middle areas so you had little "scoops".

Then when your boys get older, if they want to "lighten the load" and don't know how to choose. They can make a list of for each animal of "Why they love this one" the one's with the fewest, least compelling, win a trip to a garage sale or donation center.

I forgot the exact name of it. But try using a net. There in the toy isle at Walmart. All you have to do, is connect it to the walls. Then your done, all that is left is to put the animals on it.

I put two shelves above there windows in there rooms. THen all the animals could be seen withour them all over the place.
The shelves, I believe, were about 18 inches wide and 5 feet long. We got them at menards. Good Luck!

I wish I could remember the magazine I saw it in, but it was like a bean bag chair, but instead of having "beans" in it, you put your stuffed animals in it. You could still see them through the mesh bag and it made a nice place to sit- of course, you still might have some you want to keep extra nice and may not want to sit on them. Anyway, I've heard it is a handy item to keep stuffed animals together.

Hey A.,

My mom did this to my room when I was little and I have since did it to my son's. What we did was take cute ribbons (one's that match the animals or a theme and do them all in pink, or whatever color your child's room is) Tie the ribbons around the animal's neck and tie in a bow in the front. Put nails or hooks in a pattern on the wall and then hang them. It looks so cute and with the hooks, kids can play with whatever one's they want and then easily hang them back up. This works well for sentimental ones that you don't want ruined or wore out from play but still in plain view, just put them up high out of reach.

Hi A.,
I have tons of stuffed animals (bears) too and I use the nets and they work for me but I have also seen these plastic chain things with clips on them which you would just clip the stuffed animal onto it. Also I have thought about putting velcro along the wall and then put a strip some place on my bears and attach them to the wall. I don't have any little ones at home anymore so that would work here. Good Luck