How to Get Control of All the Toys in your Home
Toys being all over the house is probably one of the top annoyances when it comes to organizing the home for parents. In this post I’m gonna go over the 2 things I personally do that make cleanup a little bit more manageable. Less time cleaning toys, means more time doing the things I love.
Rotate
I recommend not having all the toys available at one given time, especially while the kids are of preschool age. Section off either a third or a quarter of the toys, and make those toys unavailable to play with. Put them high in bins where the kids can’t reach them. This is the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind,” being used in a constructive way. Younger kids tend not to notice if a toy has disappeared—with the exception to favorite toys—because they have such short attention spans, their mind is on what’s in front of them. After a month or two—whatever works for you and your schedule—swap out a set of toys with one set that you had stored away.
Some tips to help with rotating toys
It’s okay if when you’re putting the new set away in storage that you don’t have all the pieces. You can always collect the stragglers and put them away when you find them. I recommend putting them somewhere you can access somewhat easily, if your storage spot is in the attic which requires a lot of steps to get to, you’ll likely not put the stragglers away when you find them.
I find it helpful to have only 1-2 large sets of toys available at one time. These are toys like legos, train tracks, lincoln logs, or anything with a bunch of small pieces that easily get lost. Chaos tends to happen when you have more than 2 large sets out at the same time.
I also recommend having one room be the home for each toy at any given time. If the room it lives in for this month is the kid’s room, let it have a spot where it can live in that room. If that toy starts to migrate to another room like the bathroom, get a handle on it by grabbing it when you see it in the bathroom/living room/car, and put it in the room it belongs. When you move it to the room it’s meant to be in, it makes managing all those little toys much easier since they are in the same vicinity.
Regulate
To keep toys from getting overwhelming, I recommend donating/discarding old toys regularly—once every 3-4 months. As the parent, at the end of the day you ultimately have the authority to make decisions regarding the things your kids play with.
Some tips to help with regulating toys
Go through and donate/discard toys BEFORE birthdays and holidays—these distinctive days are almost guaranteed to bring an influx of new toys. By donating/discarding old toys preemptively, you’re evading the overwhelming chaos of having to organize a bajillion toys that are out at the same time. On the plus side, is if someone is upset about a toy you’ve gotten rid of, the new toys will almost certainly help assuage any tantrums. This is also a good demonstration of the rule, “if something comes in, something must go out,” rule.
Here’s a list of toys you can usually safely discard if you don’t know where to start:
- broken toys
- toys with missing pieces
- toys you don’t like
- toys that are never played with
- outgrown toys
If you’ve gathered some toys to donate/discard and find that you’re not ready to commit to actually discarding those toys, put them in a bag—label the bag, “discard”—and put them high away someplace you’ll remember for about a year. If nobody has noticed or cared that those toys have been missing for a year, It’s most likely safe to discard.
Bonus tip below for children at heart*
Detach
We’re the adults, and if we’re being honest, there may be toys that we are attached to—maybe for nostalgic reasons, because we want our kids to experience something we enjoyed in our own childhood. Maybe there was an expensive toy that we purchased for our children that has spent all of its time collecting dust on a shelf and we’re avoiding the guilt that might come up if we get rid of it. If it hasn’t been played with, is covered in dust, or you seem unable to let it go, it’s usually time for it to go.
Some tips to help with detaching from toys
If you don’t interact with it in some way—including looking at it—and you’re still storing it somewhere, know that it’s okay to pass along to someone else. Think about the years it has been stored in a box versus the years it could be played with by someone else.
Visualize what it would feel like to not have that toy. Sit with that feeling for a while, maybe ten minutes. How do you feel? Be honest with yourself, you might be surprised at how okay you are.
Are there any tips for tackling toys that you use that I didn’t talk about? Comment below!
Thanks so much for reading!
