I looked and looked for a toddler-friendly storage bench that didn't feel too 'cute'. This one works great. For now, with our 11-month old son still doing an army crawl, we have the storage cubes on their sides next to the bench. It gives him 6 open-faced cubbies from which he can gleefully extract his toys. Later, it'll be nice to be able to hide everything away. We have this in a corner of our living room along with a small rug. It makes for a discreet, yet functional play area for the kiddo. It feels sturdy and doesn't seem like it would tip if he used the bench to pull up to standing.