Do your kids love Hot Wheels cars? Are you looking for some new ways to store their collection? Well you’re in luck because in this article we’ll look at over 31 Hot Wheels storage ideas to help contain their collection.
These ideas will work for Matchbox cars and other 1/64 scale toy cars too.
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List of Hot Wheels Storage Ideas
Some of the storage ideas in this article involve:
- individual parking spots for each car
- and some of them are more of a “dump bin” type approach where you toss them all in a basket or bin.
Keep in mind not all of these toy car storage solutions will work for you. Some of the ideas may not work in your child’s room, or suit your clean-up style.
But hopefully at least one of them will work.
I have taken some photos using my daughter’s Hot Wheels cars so you can see various storage ideas “in action.” (If you have a keen eye you may see some of the same cars in the different photos.)
1) Hot Wheels Storage Cube
This just looks like a plain storage cube right? Nope…in fact, it is full of surprises.
The lid lifts off, the sides zipper down and you end up with a cool play mat. (Like in the picture below.)
Once zipped up, back into its cube shape, it can hold up to 300 toy cars. Just slide it into a cubby in your cube furniture until next time.
Pretty cool!
2) Book Ledges, Wall Ledges or Picture Ledge Shelves
A great way to display a Hot Wheels collection is to park them on wall-mounted shelves or on a wall ledge like in the picture above. It looks like they have their own parking spot.
If you don’t already have a ledge on your wall (like the basement wall above), then you can buy well-rated acrylic shelves like the ones below.
The small ledge (or little lip) on the front of the shelves helps keep them in place.
Your little boy or girl can display their favorite cars on the shelves. But make sure you don’t put the shelves up too high or you kid won’t be able to reach them.
The nice thing about this option is that the cars each have their own spot…they aren’t just dumped in a bin. So this should help protect their paint job (if that matters to you).
The downside to this type of Hot Wheels storage option is it takes a little longer to clean up and put away the cars compared to just dumping them in a bucket.
3) Put the cars in a zippered carrying case
This zippered carrying case by the company 2TUFF can hold up to 48 toy cars in 2 removable trays.
This would be a cool little case for a play date or sleepover.
And when your child is done playing, they can slip the whole case under their bed for next time.
4) Small Carrying Case with elastic straps – good for road trips and play dates
If your child wants to bring some toy cars into your vehicle on a road trip, check out this 24-car carrying case. It has elastic loops to help hold the toys in place.
Because it is small and only holds 24 cars, it may not be great for home, but it would be good for traveling or play dates.
5) Wall Mounted Display Case
Do you like the idea of having the cars on the wall?
This wall-mounted storage case can hold up to 60 toy cars.
Its a good way to get the cars off the floor or free up shelf space.
It looks really cool but really young kids may not have the dexterity to place their cars on the narrow shelves. And clean-up will take longer than just putting them in a bin or basket.
6) Carney Plastics Hot Wheels Display Case (108 car model)
Here is a Hot Wheels display case by Carney Plastics from Youngstown, Ohio. (Made in the USA.)
This is their 108 car display for Hot Wheels, Matchbox cars and other 1/64 scale toy cars.
They also make an 84-car version, and a 144-car angled display case.
This fantastic looking storage option is more suited to a collector than a little kid who plays with their cars regularly…but who knows, that little kid may grow into a collector one day.
7) Store Hot Wheels in a plastic case with a lid (simple option for kids)
Here is a picture of a repurposed plastic container with a lid that works well to store some Hot Wheels. (It originally came filled with toy magnetic tiles.)
What’s cool is that the lid snaps onto the container and features a carrying handle so it can be brought to playdates or from room-to-room in the house.
Do you have some containers at your house you could repurpose into being a Hot Wheels storage case?
8) Put them in a Fishing Tackle Box – portable storage case
Repurposing a fishing tackle box is a unique way to store Hot Wheels. You can place the little cars in the compartments intended for fishing lures.
There is a clasp to secure the lid, and the box’s carry handle makes it easy to bring the cars outside or into different rooms of the house.
9) Hot Wheels Rolling Storage Cart (for 100 cars)
This licensed Hot Wheels storage cart can hold up to 100 toy cars.
Above is a picture showing the outside of the case, and the picture below shows the inside.
I don’t know if the newest version has an orange plastic separator or if it’s black, but the concept is the same.
This case is highly-rated with tens of thousands of submitted ratings on Amazon.
10) Hot Wheels Car Case for 30 cars
If you have a smaller Hot Wheels collection you can get this 30-car, wheel-shaped carrying case.
Below is a picture showing the inside of this case.
If a Hot Wheels case about this size will work for you, you can click here to check the current price.
11) Wooden Semi Truck Diecast Cars Storage Rack (Etsy)
Doesn’t this look awesome!
This wood semi truck toy car holder can hold up to 48 toy cars – either Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars – and you can have it freestanding, or you can mount it to the wall.
It is made by the Etsy seller TidyTreasuresStore. The product is really well-rated with dozens of happy customers.
How would this look in your child’s bedroom?
12) Put them on a shelf in Storage Baskets or Bins (simple dump bin option)
Hot Wheels storage doesn’t have to be fancy.
If you have a plastic bin or storage basket, you can put the toy cars in there and then just set them on a shelf.
You could add some decorative flair to the basket by putting some Hot Wheels stickers on it.
13) One Storage Ideas NOT to try – Do not try to use a Magnetic Metal Knife Strip
These little cars are metal so you’d think you could hold them on a magnetic strip right? Wrong.
Hot Wheels and most other die-cast metal cars are made of a Zinc alloy and are not magnetic. (Really old dinky cars may work but chances are the ones your kid has will not work.)
Wall-mounted magnetic strips are often marketed as kitchen knife holders, and they work well to hold metal knives, but they won’t work to hold Hot Wheels.
You could glue magnets to your Hot Wheels so they’d stick to the magnetic strip, but then they may not roll as well, you’d devalue your collection (if you care about that), and there are lots of better options.
If you like the idea of utilizing wall space and keeping the floor clear for playing, look into some narrow wall shelves instead.
14) Unique wall-mounted Hot Wheels display shelf (Etsy)
This looks so cool!
The Etsy seller CoolWheelsDisplays makes these Hot Wheels display shelves inside a bike tire. The tire is 24-inches in diameter.
The maker claims it can hold up to 64 cars.
If you are at all interested in this product, I suggest you click to see more pictures of it.
15) Toss them into a Metal Bucket or Plastic Bin (simple clean-up)
Once again, storing a child’s Hot Wheels doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive as long as you’re willing to dump the cars into a bucket or bin.
You probably already have some around your house that are not being used.
In the picture above I put some Hot Wheels into a Christmas tin we have. I think it is a super easy clean up – even for young kids.
16) Get a Furniture Bin for Toys
These are a great idea for a kids room if you have the space for it. The multiple plastic bins make it a versatile toy storage solution. You can dedicate some bins to Hot Wheels, and still have bins left over for other toys.
Cleanup is easy too. The bins are removable so you can set one on the floor and the kids can pick up the cars and put them into the bin.
You can find toy bin furniture like this at most department stores, but if you don’t have one locally, you can check out this well-rated one on Amazon.
17) Store the Hot Wheels under the bed in a tote (out of the way storage)
Children may think monsters live under their bed, but in fact it can be a great place to store Hot Wheels. (Just push the monsters aside.)
There are several under-bed storage options and they depend on how high off the floor your child’s bed is.
You can get low-profile under bed storage totes or you can use zippered under bed storage bags. (Those links will take you to some options on Walmart’s website.)
If your child has a platform bed you could even put a full tote under their bed.
Is there room under your child’s bed to store their Hot Wheels collection?
18) Under Bed Hot Wheel storage in an old drawer
You can use an old dresser drawer as an under-bed storage compartment.
And if you really wanted to organize it further you could use small bins or drawer organizers inside the drawer.
To make the dresser drawer smoothly slide along the laminate flooring I put a felt furniture pad underneath the drawer at each of the four corners.
19) Dedicate a Wooden Crate to storing Hot Wheels
Lots of hardware and department stores sell wooden crates for storing various stuff around the house.
Why not use it for Hot Wheels?
Just make sure you select one that doesn’t have large gaps between the wood where the cars could fall through.
If you want to make the crates look a little more cool (and appealing to kids) you could spray paint it bright red or blue.
And then put some Hot Wheels stickers on it.
20) Mount a wooden drawer organizer to your wall!
Here is a super quick way to make your own Hot Wheels wall storage rack.
Screw a wooden drawer organizer into the wall and then park the toy cars in the compartments.
The drawer organizer in the picture above is only 11.5-inches wide by 7.5-inches so it doesn’t fit many cars, but you can buy larger ones.
21) Put the Hot Wheels in a Dresser Drawer
If your child has a Captain’s bed with drawers or an unused dresser drawer, then you could make this into a Hot Wheels parking space. Or you could just toss them into a drawer organizer basket like I did in the photo above.
You can also purchase a rolling plastic drawer cart and dedicate a drawer to toy cars. (These usually aren’t the most rugged option so it’s hard to say how long it would hold up to rambunctious play.)
22) Make a Car Jar (plastic jar is safer option)
You could make a super cool car jar, but a plastic jar is a safer option especially if you have young kids.
The cars are metal after all, so we don’t want the jar to break during a tantrum prompted by needing to clean up.
Do you have a large plastic peanut butter jar or another large jar around your house that you could use?
23) DIY Parking Garage….using shoe racks!
Do you like tackling DIY projects?
This is an innovative idea I discovered on YouTube. The YouTuber used wooden, slat-style shoe racks to create an incredible Hot Wheels wall display.
She went all out and made it so it can hold about 500 Hot Wheels!
It kind of looks like a wall-mounted DIY parking garage for your toy car collection.
Check out the video below.
24) Mount some strips of Hot Wheels racetrack to the wall
Here is another super cool and unique way to store Hot Wheels.
The Etsy seller TechConnext makes these wall brackets that you screw into your wall, and then you place some Hot Wheels racetrack sections onto the brackets. (You have to supply the racetrack pieces yourself.)
You may be able to pick up a Hot Wheels racetrack set at a garage sale or on Facebook Marketplace.
It helps you utilize wall space and it doubles as cool room décor too.
25) DIY Storage – Store your Hot Wheels in a section of gutter mounted to the wall
This is similar to the wall brackets above, but instead of using sections of racetrack, you use a piece of plastic roof gutter.
If you have the wall space you could mount a short piece of plastic gutter onto the wall. If it had the end caps on it, you could just place all the toy cars in there and not worry about them rolling out onto the floor.
I haven’t tried this myself but if you’re handy with some basic tools, I think you could do it. (Sorry I don’t have a picture of this “in action.”)
26) DIY Hot Wheels wall storage using PVC Pipe
This is another cool DIY project you could tackle…maybe even this weekend!
The photo above is from the website TheGraciousWife.com
They used short sections of 2-inch and 3-inch PVC pipe to create this cool-looking wall storage rack.
Click here to see the full tutorial on TheGraciousWife.com
27) DIY Truck grille Hot Wheels storage display (from ArtsCrackers.com website)
Isn’t this awesome looking!
This is a DIY project that you can find on the Arts & Crackers website. (Check out their site for more info.)
If you’re handy with tools and just happen to have a front grille from a truck like this old Dodge grille, then you could give this a try.
I feel like a kid would fondly remember having this for their entire life.
28) Cardboard Tubes to store Hot Wheels
Cardboard storage tubes like the ones above are usually used to store posters or maps, but they can work well to store Hot Wheels too.
You’ll want to either glue or tape an end cap to close off one end of the tube. Leave the other end open so you can put the cars in.
Most of the Hot Wheels we have are just slightly less than 1.25-inches wide and about 1-inch tall. So they would easily fit inside a 3-inch diameter mailing tube like this. Most cars would likely fit inside a 2-inch diameter tube as well. (As long as the stated diameter is the inside opening diameter, and not the diameter of the outside of the tube.)
Or, you could check your Christmas wrapping paper rolls: do any of them have cardboard tubes that could be repurposed as a Hot Wheels storage tube? How about a paper towel tube? Will it fit your collection?
Paint the cardboard tube red or yellow and you’ve got a cool DIY toy car storage solution.
29) Plastic Sewing Organizer
A simple plastic thread organizer like this can be converted into a toy car display case.
On this plastic organizer’s Amazon product page you’ll see people use it for craft supplies, but lots of people love it to display and carry Hot Wheels. (There are lots of customer submitted photos showing how they use this for Hot Wheels!)
You could buy some stickers and decorate it too.
Click here to see more details.
30) Double-sided Toy Storage Container with compartments
This plastic toy organizer is very similar to the sewing organizer listed above, but this product is marketed as being a toy car container.
It is well-rated with lots of reviews on Amazon if you want to have a look.
31) DIY method to display Hot Wheels still in the box
Do you have lots of Hot Wheels still in the original packaging? Are you looking for a way to display them on your wall?
Check out this video where the YouTuber uses a vinyl H-channel type of molding to create a wall display rack for his Hot Wheels collection that is still in its packaging. (You’ll sometimes here this called “still carded”.)
32) DIY Wall Display using Pizza Savers
Some people are so clever and crafty!
This YouTuber used pizza savers to create an inexpensive Hot Wheels wall display. (What’s a pizza saver? They are the little plastic tripods inside pizza boxes that prevent the pizza toppings from smearing against the top of the pizza box. They may also be called pizza saver stands, pizza tripods, pizza stoppers, or other similar names.)
You could try to buy some pizza savers from a local pizzeria, or you can also buy them from Amazon.
Thanks for checking out the article!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this list of different ways to store Hot Wheels cars.
As you can see they really run the gamut from fantastic to functional. It really just depends on your needs: are you a collector or a parent looking to keep the playroom clean.
Do you prioritize quick and easy clean up or having a nice display?
Will one of these ideas work to store your child’s toy car collection?
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