Gift idea for stuffed animal loving littles

I feel like I struggle with gifts ideas for my kids each birthday and Christmas. Between two sets of grandparents and other relatives who spoil them rotten and fabulous hand-me-downs from friends, they don’t actually need anything. My idea for this Christmas came after I was struggling to help Ladybug and Bear clean up their rooms one day. Where on Earth, were all of their stuffed animals supposed to go? I have tried to thin the herd several times but they genuinely love and play with all of them. So off to Pinterest I went searching for stuffed animal storage ideas.

I stumbled on this plan and loved how simple it was. Beast and I built two of these in basically 3 nap times: 1) for building 2) for painting and 3) for stringing the bungee cord. We got the wood and spray paint from Home Depot and the bungee cords from Amazon. They are able to put their animals in this from the top or sides on their own and the bungee cords make it very easy for them to see and pull out the desired creature when they decide they want it.

And now when I see that stuffed animals are spread throughout the house, I just have to say, “Please put your stuffed animals in your zoo!” Within a matter of minutes, they can clean up the mess and enjoy doing it since they are filling up their “zoo.” The “zoos” fit nicely in the corners of their rooms.

We combined this gift with a ticket to make their own stuffed animals at Build-A-Bear for Christmas. So we had a bit of a theme this year.