THINK OUTSIDE THE ROOM

HELP YOUR KIDS BE A GOOD SPORT BY MAKING STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR THEIR TOYS AND EQUIPMENT THAT ARE FUNCTIONAL YET FUN

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Creating storage that can change and develop with you as your family grows is important when you have kids. One of the hardest things to store, aside from toys, is sports equipment.

To solve this problem, we not only have to think outside the square but outside the room. Children’s sports are constantly changing. The obvious sports are ball-orientated. Along with this are the things that go with them such as bats, goals, and protective equipment.

From a young age, my son always wanted to take his favourite ball to bed with him until cricket came along and then the bat made it in there.

The first solution was to get a bed with room underneath for trundle storage. This had a divider in it and one side was used for

sports equipment and the other side for toys.

The next step was to allocate a shelf in the garage for the rest of his sports equipment. This meant he could have his favourites with him until it was time to rotate them to the garage when something fell out of favour.

If you don’t have a garage, look for other solutions such as balls in net slings which hang behind doors. These can go in the bedroom or on the back of the laundry door.

Now we move on to the bike. We are a pretty big cycling household with five bikes (at this stage) hanging from the roof of the garage from very simple hooks. Being at the back of the garage they sit perfectly over the bonnet of the car without losing any room.

There are also brackets that go on the wall, where you hang the bike from the front wheel to give you maximum space. This is great when you have the two-wheeler kind but what about the tricycles?

Create your own bike bay to the side of the back door. All you need to do is mark out lines in the ground. Whether you use hardwood planks on the grass or draw lines with chalk on brickwork, just creating simple bays to ‘park’ their bikes will make a world of difference to your yard.

Kids love to feel like they are a grown-up so tell them to ‘park’ their bike before they come inside. This gives them a sense of fun but also gets the trikes out from under your feet.