Stuffed Animal Cage

No more free range stuffed animals! We needed stuffed animal storage because they are bulky and keeping them in bins meant the one the kids wanted was always on the bottom. But none of us (my husband and I included) could manage to cull them.

I was inspired by the way Walmart contains their giant beach balls -- bungee cord verticals on a fixed frame. I was going to make it free standing til I saw the behind closet door storage plans. Perfect!

I made the frame and shelf from 1x4s because that was the depth of my doorframe -- 3.5 inches. It took (3) 1x4s @6' - One for each side and one cut for the top, bottom, and shelf/support.

I couldn't find bungee cord by the roll (should have checked Amazon first!), so I bought colored 1 inch wide elastic from JoAnns. Each 3 yard pkg cost $4. I needed 3, so that drove the price up. I cut them in half, and the 4.5' lengths have plenty of give on the 6' frame, so you could probably use standard 4' bungee cords from the box store.

I used my router to make the holes for the elastic. I used wooden toy wheels to keep the knotted elastic from being pulled through the holes. You could just drill holes, but my router was new and I wanted to practice with it.

The kids love putting their stuffed toys away now, and they can see all of them so they can pick the ones they want to play with rather than dumping them all out of a bin. I love it.

I've already decided to do the other door with the bottom half of the frame in elastic like this for costume storage, and the top half shelves. Thank you, Ana!