Storage for stowing all that kid stuff

The child-to-clutter quotient can be huge, what with all the action figures, Barbies, video games, iPods, sports gear, schoolbooks and clothes. So it's no surprise that the latest looks for kids' rooms come with some serious storage.

Containers are designed to fit everything from bookshelves to benches to window seats. And versatile, multitasking furnishings address most of the activities that take place in youngsters' rooms: playing games, entertaining friends, creating, daydreaming, listening to music, watching videos, doing schoolwork, even sleeping.

Manufacturers are dishing up pink and aqua mini-fridges, and plush headboards with plugs for MP3 players, and entertainment centers for systems like the grown-ups have. Plus there's bath furniture, lighting, and all the accessories to match, available from retailers like the Land of Nod, e-tailers and catalogs like Posh Tots and Pottery Barn's PBteen, and the kids' divisions of Ethan Allen, Garnet Hill, and the Company Store.

Naturally, some of this parallels style and design trends from other parts of the home. Coping with clutter is a perennial adult concern, for example, and woven storage baskets, some designed to fit snugly into cubby shelving, are now a universal solution.

For children, these take on an altogether different and playful look. Some baskets come in bright hues or with colorful fabric liners. Besides baskets, there are bins of all types - canvas, metal locker-style, plastic, and bright collapsible mesh. A storage "organizer," a stand housing 23 colorful bins, was a recent special for $40 at Target.

To fill the littlest ones' storage needs comes Pottery Barn Kids' Madison changing-table system ($1,199), which consists of a basic cupboard with a surface for changing baby that also can include a full dresser (two big drawers, two small) and side cabinets with shelves. The whole thing is connected with a shelf across the top, a logical place for a music system and TV when the child is older.

"In the last few years, there's been much more focus on storage and organization," says Jamie LaPorta, merchandising director for the Land of Nod, a Wheeling, Ill.-based company started as a catalog business 11 years ago by first-time parents frustrated with scarce and lackluster kids' furniture. (The company eventually partnered with Crate & Barrel and has plans for shops in other areas.)

"Today, there are so many more choices to customize," LaPorta says.

A popular piece for the Land of Nod (www.landofnod.com) is its Under the Big Top storage system, essentially a set of wire shelves topped with a fabric tent ($19 to $229).

"It adds a bit of whimsy because of its size and scale. It's child-friendly," LaPorta says, and appealing to adults too.

For kids short on space, manufacturers offer built-in bed drawers to stash clothing or toys. Other beds have shelves underneath, or tucked in nicely behind the headboards, for books or baskets. And some headboards are fitted with cork (check out the Display Storage Bed, $1,399 to $1,699 at www.pbteen.com), or shelves that connect to units on either side, like nightstands that have sprouted up the wall.

Among the more clever space-savers is a bunk bed that packs storage into one end (drawers and shelves) and a desk at the other. (Instead of stacking the twin beds, the one underneath extends perpendicular to the top one.)

Another bunk set, from Stanley Furniture's Young America collection (see www.stanleyfurniture.com for store locations), features the usual twin bed over a full-size bed; an optional "captain's drawer storage unit" has four drawers and two shelves.

It all comes in an eye-popping choice of 17 colors, including sour apple, sea grass, watermelon, mustard and tangerine (also basic black, white and antique white).

"The concept of personal style is just as important for children as it is for adults," says Jackie Hirschhaut, vice president of the American Home Furnishings Alliance.

"Childhood is about finding your personality, and one of the best ways to express that is through your surroundings."