FLOATING SHELF

Welcome to A2K.

How old is your daughter?

Whatever age, dodge toy chests. They teach muddle, not order.

What kind of a budget do you have? Lots of places have floating shelves for cheap, all of the hardware included. We have a set of three that we got at Target for something like $5 each.

The mechanism of it, though, was to put in a good strong screw -- the kind that requires a hole drilled in the wall, and has a plastic casing that expands when you screw it in -- leave it sticking out about 1/4 inch, and then have holes or hooks on the back of the shelf.

aeslabby, if you don't mind; can tell me more about the toy chest thing, Noddy? We have none now, will have one built-in at the new house and possibly another.

A toy chest gets the toys up and out of the way, but small pieces naturally fall to the bottom and enthusiastic children slam dunk toys and naturally more small pieces fall to the bottom.

If the toy your child wants is on the bottom of the chest, everything comes out--creating a major pick-up project later.

The lids can be very uncomfortable for careless little fingers.

Boy children are more likely than girl children to use the toy chests as battering rams. Girl children are more likely to dump out all the toys and use the chests as a return-to-the-womb.

Honestly? Would you keep the contents of your desk? refrigerator? top bureau drawer? in a bin?