I am so happy about these playroom bins! I currently have two IKEA EXPEDIT shelving units in our playroom. Originally, I purchased the DRÖNA bins from IKEA as well. They are a perfect fit and hold a lot, but they are made of cardboard and fabric.
After 6 months of using them, I realized we needed a more durable solution. Evan liked to climb in and on them. They were starting to show wear and, before the were totally destroyed, I decided to replace them in the playroom and re-purpose them somewhere else.
I found these bins on Amazon (affiliate) for about $22 for 6 bins! What a deal!
They aren’t as high as the other bins, but they still fit a ton. The only issue I had with them is that they were white. I wanted more color for the playroom and the shelving unit is already white as well.
So I came up with the idea of placing colored paper on the fronts of them and then placing a label on that. First I cut the paper to size and then glued a white index card to the center. Then I laminated the whole thing for durability.
I used clear packing tape to adhere the whole thing to the bin. One and half years and an additional child later, they are still attached so I would say it worked.
I was going to just write on the white index card with permanent marker, but decided to use picture labels so that Evan could identify the toys as well. So I ended up getting self-adhesive label pockets and placed those over the white index card.
I used Google Images to find pictures of the toys because I wanted to get it done and didn’t want to mess with taking my own pics. I printed them out at 3×5 size and slid them in the pockets. Evan loves the pictures and will often just sit and point to the different bins and say what is in them.
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