[Adibidah]

There is the white, and then the wood (pine). They are priced differently. Is it only because of the material they are made out of, or is it also size/quality?

[Tigratrus]

I think there are slight size differences, but mainly you're seeing the price difference caused by the materials used. The pine's prob going to be a bit more expensive, but will likely hold up better under rough service... IE young kids . The storage bins themselves look to be identical materials wise (both Polypropylene).

Our son would likely have been fine with the particle board version, he's pretty easy on his furnishings. Our daughter on the other hand is a born daredevil and the furniture of her room shows it!

What age/type of child's room are you putting it in?

James

[Adibidah]

I have 4 children ... 6 year old, 5 year old, 2 year old, and 8 month old baby. The 2 year old (tiny little girl!) is an extreme daredevil ... she's the one I can see jumping off this stuff! It's going to be in a toy/homeschooling room.

[Tigratrus]

Yay, another homeschooler! We unschool (kinda like Montessori on steroids), and there's quite a few other homeschooler folks around too

Heh. Yup, your two year old sounds a lot like Elizabeth! And yes, she did/*does* jump on just about everything... Given that situation, I'd personally be pretty inclined to go with the pine? Esp since you've got another even younger one?

Wow, hats off on surviving with 4! I think I'd be almost permanently exhausted.

James

[Adibidah]

I guess I can cough up a little more $ to get the better one ... I want them to last! I like that there are built in grooves with the pine, whereas the particle board has the rail-like things you have to install.

Unschooling - we dabbled in that a bit! Right now we just do a lot of reading, with phonics/language arts and math added in. It's crazy around here, with the two younger ones!

I'm on a quest to simplify and organize my home .... which is why I'm going to make my first ever IKEA trip in a week! So if there are any good threads about organizing (especially in a small home), I'll take them!

[Tigratrus]

We've had good luck with the NORBO table for the kids. They have one that they use as a crafts/lunch/snack/whatever table in the kitchen annex/breakfast room. The other two things that have been of huge help with the kids rooms was:

1. The SULTAN ALSARP boxsping provides an *tremendous* amount of storage, esp if you put great big slide out baskets underneath it.

2. BONDE (since replaced by BESTA) in Elizabeth's room. We put two tall units in with the LEKMAN boxes in the bottom two rows. She has one box for each basic type of clothing, and it's done a tremendous job in miimizing the mess. Before she had to pull everything out of her drawers to find what she was looking for, and putting things back was just to much to expect from a 3 year old. With the boxes she's only looking though a single type (skirts, shirts, socks, underwear,nightgowns etc) of clothing, so tossing them all back in is much more doable. We've found that it's largely just a case of needing enough different places to put things so that each sort of thing has a designated area.

James

[Adibidah]

Thank you! I looked up the other items and will make a note to look at them at the store when I go (less than a week now, yay!).

I have spent hours trying to figure out the Trofast system - what bins will fit where, how many, dimensions of ALL of the frames, etc. You should see my OneNote page on it, it's full of information.

One thing I figured out is that you don't use bins in the $99.99 trofast systems where they are wide or tall and also deep. It has the shelf option, the drawer option, and the door option, but I don't see how the bins could fit in there - it's too wide. Am I right, or am I missing something about the frame? In the picture, it appears that there are no grooves for these two frames.

[WrenX]

It seems like that particular Trofast can accept bins--but only on the shelves that you install.

Why am I not surprised to find homeschoolers here? Add our name to that particular list! We use one of the skinny, short Trofasts, outfitted with small shelves, to hold our Montessori materials.

[Adibidah]

Well, I am back from my IKEA trip and ... WOW, was I in HEAVEN! My awesome husband gave me a good amount of money but even then I was wanting (needing?) more, ha ha.

Well, the stairstep Trofast was out of stock in pine, and so I had to readjust my plan. I bought the tall skinny Trofast because it holds the same amount of bins (yet is $30 cheaper). Now my new plan is to get one more of these in the future and it will hold all of our toys. I have scrapped the stairstep plan because my children are just nuts ... the night I came home, the children took the bins, turned them upside down and they were jumping off them. My son (the oldest, almost 7) jumped off and hit his face ... bloody nose, bruised nose/side of eye ... yeah. I won't encourage them by buying something else to jump off of!

Are homeschoolers here because they are so smart?