When you have a boy, you have a mess.  All the time.  Cars, Legos, and Nerf Guns, oh my!  I’m a big believer in letting kids play.  I’m also a very, casual housekeeper, but sometimes, you just have to clean it up! And by you, I mean the boy-child who made the mess.  Here’s our solution to enjoying an easy clean-up after an epic Nerf Gun battle:  an over the door shoe bag turned Nerf Gun storage.

I picked up this black shoe organizer at the Family Dollar.  You can get them at just about any store and just about any price point.  I doctored ours just a little bit.

I added an elastic loop over the top right pocket.  A few of our Nerf guns are taller and I didn’t want them to flip out of the pocket.  Here’s how:

Adding a loop to your Nerf Gun Storage bag

You’ll need:

• 7 inches of 2 inch wide elastic
• 2 inches of double fold bias tape
• 2 snap sets
• your sewing machine or a needle and thread
• (You could do this with Velcro too, but I wanted the stretchiness of the elastic).

#1  Stitch 2 inch wide elastic (about 7 inches long) over the existing seam between the 2 far right pockets on the top row.  I placed the raw edge of the elastic up against the edge of the right pocket.  That way, the elastic will flip back over the seam. I used a stretch stitch.

#2 Use a small piece of double fold bias tape to re-enforce the right edge where the snaps will be. I didn’t stitch mine on.  Instead, I wrapped it around the edge and applied the snaps over it.

#3 Apply the snaps to the right edge so that the elastic can be unfastened, stretch around the larger Nerf Gun, and refastened. I don’t think it matters, but I always apply male ends of the snaps on the underside.

#4 Apply the coordinating snaps to the end of the elastic.

This Nerf Gun Storage bag was a birthday gift, so I finished it off with a little embroidery.  I was afraid the material wouldn’t hold up to many stitches, so I embroidered a piece of felt and stitched it on the top instead.

***Adam suggested I edit this to add that our house, the Nerf Gun storage bag is hung up on the wall, not the door.  It’s hung at about 5 feet, so that little ones can easily reach everything.  It is hung on screws that are anchored in the wall.  When it’s loaded, it gets pretty heavy and my favorite 3M strips just weren’t up to the task.  I should also add here that I have no affiliations with Nerf or Lego or even Velcro for that matter.  Just a boy-child and his friends!***

Isn’t it easier to savor playtime when the clean up is something the kids can do?  Now, will someone please tell me how to store all these Legos???