How to solve your storage woes – GLTC Easy Reach Storage review

August 9, 2017

One of the many things they don’t tell you in NCT classes is about the sheer amount of things that come along with small children. Sure, it starts off small – lovely tiny babygros and a couple of tasteful toys – but a few years and a couple of Christmasses and another child down the line it all escalates dramatically. Even with stealth, dead-of-night clearouts, parenting can involve an overwhelming avalanche of stuff.

GLTC Easy Reach Storage review - Fisher Price vintage camera

So of course, you need places to store it all. But by default, lots of storage is boringly functional and it can be hard to find furniture that is practical for both parents and children and looks good too.

Storage for children's rooms - Easy Reach Storage from GLTC

In a bid to solve our storage woes we’ve been testing out the Great Little Trading Company Easy Reach Storage in the grey star design (find it online here).

Who else *loves* GLTC? It’s always been one of my favourite children’s brands and I’ve spent many an hour rifling through the catalogue and checking out the toy kitchens online. So I was pretty thrilled to be picked to join the GLTC Testing Team recently which means I’ll be testing out products and all sorts of exciting things (read a little bit more about it over on the GLTC blog).

But back to storage…Following our loft conversion, Florence moved into Eliza’s old bedroom, which you can see in her toddler room tour. Although it’s a smallish room it used to have two giant useful cupboards which were great, but unfortunately, had to make way for the loft stairs. And as result F’s room was lacking in storage and we had more of a ‘free-range’ strategy for all for F’s stuff i.e. it was all lined up against the wall.

GLTC Easy Reach storage review - cloud shelves

The Easy Reach Storage is a low and wide unit, with two toy shelves that children can easily access, along with three wheeled cube drawers. These have grey star pattern and chalkboard label for you to mark on the contents (*cough* if you can’t read my writing these currently say ‘secrets’, ‘F’s toys’ and ‘small things’ *cough*).

We thought it would work well for Florence as on the practical side it would store a lot of the loose toys but also make it easy for her to play as she can access everything herself – either from the low shelves or by taking out the drawers.

GLTC Easy Reach Storage - grey stars storage unit

We’ve been using the shelves to store everything from toys to books – anything that she might want to access herself. The top shelf is also proving useful for a multitude of reasons, from being an actual shelf through to a train track ramp and Barbie ‘hotel.’

The three cubes are on wheels so very easy to take out, even when they are ever-so-slightly stuffed to the top with toys.

Assembly-wise, the unit comes in a flat pack, which is very easy to put together (so I’m told). At £229 the unit is not the cheapest, but it’s sturdy and well made, quality piece of furniture. And as an added bonus you can also reverse the drawers if you don’t want the star design on display, which means it can be completely neutral (meaning it would look good in other parts of the house at a later date).

What we like is that it allows you to proudly display the good toys within easy reach and hide all the less-than-pretty toys in the drawers – ou know the ones I mean – as well as holding all the millions of little things too. It’s also a good aid to play as it means you can rotate the toys around at different times.

Great Little Trading Company Easy Reach Storage - toy telescope

It’s a practical and timeless design that’s not tied to a particular age and would be as great for a baby as is for an older child.

We were sent the Easy Reach Storage Grey Star Drawers for this post as part of the GLTC Testing Team More posts…What Kirstie and Phil don’t tell you about building work, and making a felt-ball garland.

8 Comments

  • Alison

    August 9, 2017 at 9:30 am

    I’m a HUGE fan of GLTC. Such great design and stylish but childlike at the same time. Love the look of this!

  • Lori

    August 9, 2017 at 10:05 am

    I’ve never bought from GLTC but I am loving this storage unit! And also I think I’m going to have to pick up that fisher price camera for the new arrival!! What a gorgeous room x

  • Polly Davies

    August 9, 2017 at 1:09 pm

    ah these look great, we have a similar type unit in the playroom and it’s fab!

  • mandy

    August 9, 2017 at 8:38 pm

    I love GLTC things when they are on sale! I picked up a few bits last Christmas for my girl.
    http://www.onesliceoflemon.com/

    1. gillian

      October 19, 2017 at 10:46 pm

      Such lovely things aren’t they? x

  • Slummy single mummy

    August 12, 2017 at 11:38 am

    This looks like a great little unit, and something that could definitely grow with your child. I can picture my teen with it, with all her makeup on the top and hairdryers and whatever teenagers have nowadays in the pull out drawers.

  • Laura Redburn

    August 12, 2017 at 7:14 pm

    gotta love good and easy storage! loving all this colour too!

  • Laura

    August 30, 2017 at 11:53 pm

    Oh wow I love this storage unit – perfect for all the things kids acquire and I know these would come in handy with my boys train set, duple and endless wooden building blocks. This is perfect

    Laura x

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