Do your kids have too many toys? Be honest. I know mine sure do, and the only thing that saved my sanity was implementing a toy rotation. It was literally a night and day change in our house dynamics.
I used to feel like toys were literally taking over my house.
Okay maybe not “literally,” I mean they didn’t stage a military coup, set boobie traps with jump ropes, and Legos or anything. And there was never a list of demands left duct taped on my children’s door asking for fresh batteries with a picture of a “hostage toy” roped to a chair. And I’m pretty sure, despite Pixar’s artful story telling, they don’t come alive when my kids leave the room, so our family was of course safe from a literal toy dictatorship.
But that’s what I felt like: my life was being dictated by the demands of too many toys. They demanded my time and energy to help my children keep them picked ups. And quite frankly they were simply causing too many squabbles between my kids too.
Toy rotation doesn’t need to be complicated, or take a lot of time to implement. Don’t let it intimidate you, one day’s worth of work will literally cut your cleaning time down to a fraction of what it was. It will also enable your children to clean better, because lets face it too many toys is far more overwhelming to a child than it is to us, and often times they have no idea how to clean when the mess is so large.
Here’s how you can implement an easy toy rotation in your house. It’s certainly worth a try if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
1) Get the containers you need to store your toys.
Obviously where your storing them will determine the type of container you use. Crawl space storage is slightly different than closet space. Personally I love this laundry basket from Amazon; it’s very sturdy (ours is crammed full of toys at the moment), and it zips. We also use storage tubs like this one, that I scored on clearance at a hardware store that was going out of business. Plain boxes reinforced duct tape also work well. Don’t let not having the perfect container stop you from storing though, you can always use what you have and buy sturdier containers when your budget permits.
2) Ditch the kids or let them have a movie day.
Seriously packing away toys is so much easier without them in the way, discovering “new” toys that they haven’t seen them in ages. If you can get a sitter, or get Dad to spend a few hours with them away from the house and DO IT. Then store the toys as fast as you can while they’re gone.
3) Don’t try to store toys you know are special to your kids or that they need to sleep with.
Personally, I’d be all for storing all but 3 toys per child. Practically speaking though there would be no way I could get away with it. Try to be flexible with your kids if they’re used to always having access to whatever toys they want.
4) Speed fill your containers, don’t worry about sorting too much.
If you’ve got the time, sure go ahead and organize. Quite frankly, though, when I store toys they are loosely sorted. The Legos make it in a box together, the cars make it in a box together, and the dress-up clothes make it in a box together. Everything else is intermixed. Which actually works out great because when I pull out a new box there is a variety of toy types for my kids to choose from. It also makes initially storing the toys go much quicker and makes it easier for kids to clean up after themselves later if they don’t need to worry about putting a toy away in the “right box.”
5) Don’t worry about purging toys.
If you’re going for speed, save purging for another day. Simply throw away the obviously broken toys and store the rest.
6) Once filled put said storage containers out of sight and out of reach.
I’m amazed how quickly my children will forget about certain toys simply because they can’t see them.
7) Allow your kids to get out a new toy box, only when all other toys are put away, but do allow them to get new toys out often, especially if they’re asking.
Stick with this rule, and train your kids how to put their toys away. I’m amazed at how well even my three year old cleans up toys when there are only 10 out as opposed to 50.
8) Keep a portable toy container at the ready.
I keep a laundry hamper in my downstairs closet. If toys aren’t picked up, they wind up in there at the end of the day. I don’t mention these toys to my children, if they ask for them I’ll get them out, but otherwise I just eliminate them from the current rotation.
9) Choose toys to donate after you get a feel for your kids genuine favorites.
After toys have been in storage for a little while it’s much easier to be objective about what your kids do and do not play with. If your child’s forgotten about a toy it’s a safe bet you can get rid of it.
10) Be flexible.
I said it before but it bears repeating. It’s your home, they’re your kids, ultimately how you make toy rotation work is 100% up to your personal preferences.
Personally, I’ve tried to reduce my kids’ toys they always have out to a bare minimum. We have two toy boxes half full that are always out. This gives plenty of room to store stray toys and enough toys for my kids to play with regularly. I also allow them to have their favorite stuffed animals in their bed.
We’ve found a balance that allows them to have choices, reduces squabbles, and enables them to clean much quicker without getting overwhelmed.
How do you handle too many toys in your house?
These are great tips! I’d like it so much if you’d share this post with our Awesome Life Friday Link Up. http://rchreviews.blogspot.com/2015/01/awesome-life-friday-no-1.html
Great tips for clearing out toys. I like the idea of movie time when putting up the toys. Sad I am now at the purging phase and I have been at that phase for quite some time now. It never fails that every year around Christmas my kids get more and more toys and I’m stuck with finding a way to house them.
This is the advice that I needed! I keep on wanting to cut back on the number of toys we have, but get overwhelmed. I have trouble tossing toys, especially when they are in good condition and they were gifts. I think the toy rotation is the way to go. Thank you!
I’m so past that stage of life, but it won’t be long before I’m wrangling grandbaby toys! Thanks for linking up with Sunday Features this week!
Stopping by from the Titus 2sDay Link-up party.
This is one thing we implemented several years ago and has been a life saver. Not only is the playroom easier to pick up, the kids LOVE to go ‘shopping’ for new toys from those we already own but are out of rotation. It also gives me a chance to cull any broken or outgrown toys.
One of my goals for this year is to change out the eclectic (free, but random) shelves I have to store toys on and add in containers to help, well, contain what we do have and make it easier for the kids and husband to see.
Glad to see it is also working for you and helping keep life from being too chaotic. 🙂
I had high hopes when I had one child of toy organization 🙂 Today I’m happy if they wind up in boxes.
This is such a great idea. I wish I’d done it sooner. As it is, my daughter’s behavior led to my breaking point a couple months ago – when I made her stack up everything in her room (books, toys, decorations, everything!) and put it in the garage. I know it was the drastic nature of the consequence that got through to her that night (and OH, it was a bad night after many really hard days!)…but I think the lack of clutter helped her keep up better behavior after that. Her attitude is a million times better these days, but I haven’t put everything back in her room yet. I want to but can’t face the thought of more STUFF. I think it’s time we start a rotation in our house, too! Thanks for linking this up to WFMW!
We’re still working on the after Christmas clutter, I’m hoping in the next few days the house can start feeling normal again.
Been doing this for a few years now with my younger girls. Works wonderfully. We alternate types of toys. We get a couple of types out at a time and keep them out for a week or so. Also we put more away during the school year than we do during the summer. With homeschooling, the temptation for playing with toys verses doing school became to much!
I hold a “move it or lose it” session every night before bed, and sometimes during the day if things are getting out of control. The kids know that means to pick up everything that isn’t mom or dad’s and put it away-and anything left behind is confiscated. I have two large boxes full of stuff, and most of the time they don’t even know it’s gone. I have shoes, jackets, scarves, hats, books, movies and a lot of toys!
At one point I thought about letting them earn stuff back, but I haven’t decided if that teaches the to be lazy?
I currently have a toy rotation but my problem is my son’s memory! He doesn’t forget a thing. He may forget it for a week but then it’s “hey mom, where’s my….” So then I will get it out for him and after too many times of that happening my rotation is gone and all the toys are out again. Suggestions???
My kids are the same way, and honestly it depends on my mood what I do. Most of the time I make them clean up (with my help) the previous boxes that are out before we get out a new one. Occasionally the toys start getting out of control again and it takes me a whole day to get them reigned in. With that being said my kids always have out their absolute favorite toys, so I think that helps some.
Choose a number of toys you want out at a time & tell him. Let him know when rotation time is. Then you can either let him choose the toys each time they are rotated or you choose them. If the rotation is often you can either tell him wait till rotation day for a different toy or for each toy you take out, he or you choose which toy to put away instead. That way you always have the same amount of toys out. Deciding who makes the decisions is based on the child’s age, if the child likes making decisions or not, how much control & initiative you want to give your child, whatever works better for your family etc.
We are really struggling with this in our home. The main issue is how hard it is when the girls do clean their room. There is just too much and I know if I am overwhelmed I can not imagine how overwhelmed they are. Thank you for the great advice! I am going to share this on my facebook page tomorrow.
I’m in the process of toy organization!
My son is also one who never forgets anything. I thought about setting up a toy catalog with pictures of the toys. Maybe putting them into categories (week, month) for checkouts. I am thinking that if he wants a new toy-he will have to put one away.
Puzzles are our biggest challenge!