Early this year I saw these large stacking bins and thought they would be rather wonderful for small toys, balls, and puzzles.  Found at the Container Store, though a wonderful storage solution, I had a few problems with them.  1) No Container Store near me...and I hate to pay for shipping. 2) The cost.  At $8.99 per bin/basket, I knew they would not be purchased by me or any of my frugal family members without a serious sale.  (Amazon is even more expensive.)

In late July I had the chance to shop.  Child-free.  (With only Walmart, grocery, and hardware stores within 35 minutes of me, this is rare.  Okay, there are a few other stores, but not much.)  I knew I needed to go to KMart and look for a new backpack for Big Sister.  (I prefer to do the choose such things to limit the characters or gaudiness of backpacks.)  Prior to going, I checked the sales flyer to see if any backpacks were on sale.  (They were!)  While browsing the on-line flyer, I was absolutely thrilled to see a very similar stacking basket SET for sale for just $9.99.  (Regular price still reasonable at $14.99 for the SET of 3.)  I was thrilled to see this, but knew I needed to talk to my husband to see just how many, if any, I could buy.

(That might sound strange to you, but our family typically runs a tight budget.  This summer we worked hard at not spending any unneeded money.  I do not work and my husband's company was part of the government sequester.  Initially, the plan was that he-and many others-would lose 20% pay for 22 weeks.  [One day's wages per week.]  That is quite significant.  Thankfully, the furlough did not last that long.  And yes, it is now over for this fiscal year.  But it makes things like bins for organizing an unneeded purchase.)

I bought a couple sets of bins.  I knew the first set would be used in the garage.  I actually have not put the other two sets to work...yet.  I would like all three children to have a set in their bedrooms, but I didn't buy enough.  Oh, another nice thing about these baskets is that they NEST and STACK!

Garage Problem
This was the problem.  We kept all of our balls, bats, and batting tees in our wagon.  The wagon stays parked along the garage wall which means when I am a passenger in the van, I cannot open the door.  Fun, huh?
Garage Solution 
We still need to do something different with the tees, bats, and giant bouncy balls, but the balls are easily accessed now!  Prior to practice a glove can even be found!  Everything in the above picture (except the wagon and extra bats) is pictured below but now organized.
I'm sure some would say that we do not need two tees.  However, our children range in age from nearly 2 to nearly 7.  Our two older children often enjoy pitched balls, but we do still use the tee.  Our littlest one is just starting to attempt to hit a ball, so we do need the toddler tee.

Are you wondering why we have so many tennis balls but no racquets visible?  We use tennis balls for t-ball practice in the backyard!

How do you organize weirdly shaped items like giant balls and tees?  Any advice?

~ Annette {This Simple Mom}
Disclosure: The link to Amazon is an affiliate link.  The links to KMart and the Container Store are not.