RLS: Dog Toys

Here’s my next Real Life Solution. And this one is for containing dog toys. For years I’ve said I’m going to teach my dogs the command “pick up your toys” but somehow that hasn’t happened yet. In the meantime, we are a home with dog toys. And when Suzie is bored, she takes all the toys out… and I can’t even be annoyed about the toys being out because it usually means she is occupying herself and not getting into something worse. 

When I redecorated the living room a year and a half ago, I got this great ikea expedit bookshelf. It is fabulous and perfectly meets my living room shelving needs. It houses cookbooks, regular books, pictures, plants, candles, kids books, toy bins for the munchkins, and last but not least, a dog toy bin. 

It works great. Rather than having a separate basket like I used to that traveled around the living room whenever the dogs used it, this one remains neatly in the bookshelf and with the half height bin, the dogs can reach in and get their toys whenever they like. I should note this solution occasionally causes problems when toddlers visit and assume those nicely accessible and colorful toys are for them to chew on… ewww. Yeah, in those cases, best to move the dog toys out of reach and show the kids the bin of blocks. 

And now if only I could actually teach the dogs to pick up their own toys…