Thanks for the ideas. We had one of those racks like Sparky showed but wasn't big enough for a lot of their things and always seems that whichever of them was a toddlers would inevitably dump the bins in the 2 minutes you took your eye of them. That was one reason we went to the totes with lids as the lid stayed on most of the time when they got flipped over.
I really like your closet Sentry. That gives me some ideas. Maybe I just need to figur out a design for their closet in their play room. We keep their board games up on the shelf but then their is all the dead space in the middle. I might need to build a shelf unit similar to what you show to expand it, just bolt it to the wall. Our 2 oldest teens are not so much the problem but the 3 youngest (7 & 6yo boys and our 3yo daughter).... all those dang death trap Lego's or all the crazy small, hard pointed death spikes princess crowns that come with little dolls... my poor sensitive footsies...
Many people miss getting good use of storage space. Closets are a good example. Many people use the shelf up high, then the pole for clothing and keep shoes on the floor. Closet organizing companies have helped many people make better use of their closets. I have a number of closets where I have put shelving units in, usually on the side, to create ways to store certain things. I have a closet that I used a shelf on one side for VHS tapes. Those are gone now. I found a shelving unit with several shelves in it at a yard sale that had been used for VHS tapes that I put on the side of my coat closet in my entry way. It fit in their perfectly and created storage space that would have otherwise gone to waste. We seem to have quite a collection of spray paint. We keep things like that on the shelving unit there. A hall closet upstairs had room for shelving units on both sides. I have used various bins to store things like greeting cards, and other office type supplies on those shelves. Originally, that closet had a shelf at the top and a bar to hang clothing. The original shelf now has a paper sorter such as those used in offices where I keep a collection of card stock that I used when I was teaching, for making classroom materials. It is up high, out of the way, but makes the card stock easily accessible.
Children dumping bins of stuff is really frustrating. If there is no consequence for such behavior, why would they stop? There are parents who keep cleaning up the messes. That only teaches a child that if they make a mess, mom or dad will clean it up. When I was teaching, there were certain children who were frequent mess makers. My cure for any of that was that the mess maker was then the mess cleaner. If a child decided to dump something, they were the person responsible for cleaning it up. I had a student who took a pencil and scribbled on a wall. It was bad. Guess what he spent quite a bit of time doing? Erasing and erasing, then scrubbing and scrubbing. No fun! In some instance, but not all, children had behaviors that caused bins of things to spill, but not necessarily on purpose. They were responsible for cleaning it up, and others could help in most instances. If certain materials were abused in my classroom, they would disappear for a while. I at least needed the children to miss said item and to ask about it. I remember certain children who deliberately made messes, I believe for attention seeking. I would tune into said child, without them necessarily knowing I was tuned in. I might have my head turned 90 degrees, so it didn't appear I was watching them, and when the mess started, I would walk over and remove said item being misused. Sometimes I would say, "That is not how we use that." Sometimes, especially if I had already removed something, I wouldn't say a word. No need for me to be angry, mean, upset, just gently remove said item and set it up on a counter and then proceed to appear as though I was tuned in elsewhere until said child moved on.