• Give children a simple way to corral a collection of wood blocks.girl playing with blocks image by Cherry-Merry from Fotolia.com
  
  Colorful, practical and durable containers will help your children do more than just build towers with their collection of wood blocks. By choosing accessible storage solutions, the kids will not only find and access the wood blocks on their own, but also tidy up alone by simply tossing the toys into the kid-friendly containers.
  
  

Baskets and Buckets

• Choose open containers such as wicker baskets or colorful metal buckets as toy containers that your children can access easily. Use baskets and buckets with handles that the children can carry from room to room as they play and then store on a chair or in the corner after cleaning up. If your storage space is limited, choose shallow baskets without handles that you can slip onto bookshelves, below a bed or under an end table.
  
  

Drawer Units

• If your children like to organize their blocks by color, shapes or designs, store the toys in stackable plastic, wood or metal drawer units. Help your kids remember which blocks are contained in each drawer by taking a picture of the contents and affixing it to the front of the drawer. The images will also help your children remember where the blocks came from when it comes time to put them back after playtime.
  
  

Canvas Totes

• Enable your children to clean up their wood blocks with minimal noise by storing the toys in soft-sided canvas tote bags. Ensure that the bags have durable handles so the kids can pull the block-laden totes from room to room. If they are having trouble lifting the heavy bags, store the blocks in three to five smaller totes instead of one jumbo-sized bag. Save money by purchasing a variety of inexpensive totes at a dollar store or finding colorful beach bags on clearance at clothing stores as the summer season comes to an end.
  
  

Recycled Containers

• Turn containers that you had used throughout your home into block bins that you won't mind getting dented and scratched as your children toss the blocks back during clean up. Use containers such as old laundry baskets, large plastic tubs that hold snack foods from grocery warehouse stores or shoe boxes, for example. If your children are unenthusiastic about the old containers, take a tip from the Creative Homemaking website and provide paint pens, stickers, glitter glue and self-adhesive foam shapes that they can use to personalize the plain containers.
  
  

Plastic Tubs

• Plastic bins with locking lids will allow you to store the wood blocks and keep the toys dust free when your children no longer want to play with them. Select clear containers or find versions that feature a label holder on the side to help you identify the contents in a closet, for example. Ensure that the bins are durable enough so you can stack several containers full of heavy wood blocks to save storage space.