Toy rotation

Toys…If you have kids chances are you have an over abundance of toys.  Always cleaning up toys can really get under a persons skin!!  I  go through the toy room every 3 months or so but I find it’s hard to get rid of enough because they are mostly good toys! I don’t have  issues getting rid of things in other areas of the house but for some reason I hold back when it comes to toys. I get sentimental thinking that someone went to the effort to look for and buy it for them.  And often times they are better toys than what I would spend money on.  But there are just to many and the kids get overwhelmed with choice.  I find my kids just stick with the same things and don’t branch out to often.  No amount of organizing, containerizing and labeling has completely solved our toy problem.  It certainly helps but there has just been something not quite right and I couldn’t figure out what.  So when I came across a post about toy rotation I knew this might be the solution.  I’ve heard of toy rotation before but hesitated because up until this year I was a stay at home mom who homeschooled so I didn’t want to limit my kids toys if I could help it.  But now that I’m working and they are at school there is less time to play at home.  The article I read was by Kelly at Happy you happy family  She lays it out for you and has great printables to go along with your project.  The following is how I adapted it to work for me and some of my own tips and tricks.

Step 1

Talk to your kids

To avoid the most amount of discomfort make sure you tell your kids what you are doing before you start.  I told my kids that we were going to take all the toys and sort them into different bins and then only have 1 bin out at a time while the others went on vacation.   I have a 7 and 4 year old,  I explained to them that I am tired of cleaning up their toys.  I don’t like fighting with them about it and this would make it easier and faster if there were less toys out at once.   They seemed to go along with it pretty good.  I told them we might get rid of a few things but for the most part I was just going to pack some away to play with later.

Feeling meter: I got this, so far so good

Step 2

Gather all the toys

The kids have a dedicated play room plus toys in their bedrooms.  I grabbed some laundry baskets and started hauling stuff down to our sorting zone which I decided would be in the play room.   I really tried to grab EVERYTHING but after the whole project was said and done I realized I missed a few odds and ends that were hidden under furniture and other random places. ( I will touch on how to deal with this later in the post)   It was chaotic…so many toys all in a huge pile.

Feeling meter: I was overwhelmed at this point and wishing I had a professional organizer rather than being one!

Step 3

Sort and toss

I proceeded to sort the toys into the following categories

• Pretending toys (dress up clothes, dolls, figurines etc)

• Creative toys (Craft supplies, craft kits etc.)

• Movement toys (Big trucks, jump rope, ride on toys etc.)

• Learning toys (Science kit, games, puzzles etc.)

• Misc. (If you aren’t sure which category to put them in)

As I went through the toys I also made sure to get rid of anything that was broken, the kids don’t play with or doubles.  Now I am a firm believer for including your kids in this process.  It might be hard with a lot of protests, but I believe the more we trust our kids with these decisions the more we are setting them up for success down the line.  I ask my kids if a particular toy is something they still like or play with.  If they say yes and I’m not sold on it, I will still keep the toy but just keep an eye on if they are actually going to use it.  The great thing about the toy rotation is that your kids may actually end up playing with toys that normally get lost in the shuffle.  Also with a smaller amount of toys out you can more easily see what they are playing with.

The junky kids meals toys on the other hand I just got rid of without asking.  I have  explained to them in the past that those toys are not meant to last or have around that long.  IF I think a particular happy meal toy is special, I’ll ask but 90% I don’t.

With this particular project I was surprised at how many toys we got rid of.  We had just done a purge not long ago but looking at the toys from the perspective of a toy rotation helped us get rid of more.  I tried to theme the bins and so it made it obvious when we had an outlier toy that just didn’t go with anything.  So in all we filled up one big garbage bag.

Feeling meter:  Was still feeling overwhelmed but focusing on one thing at a time was helping

Step 4

Distribute

So at this point I realized the containers I had were not big enough so I had to run to Wal-mart to grab some rubbermaid bins.  I tried to get the biggest and cheapest ones I could find and settled on these.  I set up the containers in the living room, where there was more space and then proceeded to fill them up!   Make sure you put a variety of things from each category into the bins.  I tried to theme the bins and put things that they usually play with together in them. (Like the cars and tracks)  With things like cars or barbies I would put those into smaller containers and would count them as 1 toy.  At this point you can kind of decide how many toys you want in each bin.  My goal with this experiment was to really limit clean up and the amount of toys that just end up everywhere.  I ended up putting about a dozen toys in each bin and had 7 bins.  One thing I did a bit differently was that I kept some toys out. I didn’t quite pack everything away.  I let them keep their stuffies in their rooms along with all books and their special collections like pokemon cards.  In the play room we also kept some stuffies, some learning games, card games, and flashcards.  I also kept out all the coloring books, and crayons. Any crafty stuff also stayed out unless it was a craft kit, those I did pack away.  I moved the rest of their games to where we keep games.  Now all the games are together for family game night.  (Kids Settlers of Catan anyone?)

Feeling meter:  Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel or “smelling the barn ” as they say.  This energized me to just push through and finish the job.

Step 5

Frequency

Next I had to decide how often we were going to rotate the toys.  You could do daily, weekly, monthly.  This all depends on how much your kids are home and how many toys you want to have out.  For us I think bi-weekly is what will work.  If I see the kids are getting bored before the 2 weeks then I have no problem switching it up sooner.  I don’t plan on keeping a really strict schedule.  The whole point of this project, and organizing in general is to make your life easier, and having a date on the calendar to switch out toys would just be one more thing to do on an already busy calendar, and I don’t need that.  So we will kind of go with the flow.

Feeling meter: I’m feeling good.  I made the decision to not over think it and that has helped me to be more chill.

Step 6

Storage

Now one thing to keep in mind is how you are going to store these large boxes of toys. I admit it seemed like a lot.  I would recommend picking a place that is relatively accessible for you but that the kids can’t get at as easily.  Ours are just stacked in the garage for now.  Our garage is already quite full so it isn’t ideal, I would way rather have them in the basement.  But we currently have temporary tenants so I’m ok with this solution for now.  Now, here is where you have to stay strong!  Your kids will likely ask for some specific toy or beg you to let them just have one more bin.  JUST SAY NO! You can do it! I believe in you! If there is something they really, really want, maybe consider switching out the bins a bit sooner.  But don’t start switching toys from bin to bin or bringing out extra toys.  This is a very slippery slope.

Feeling meter:  Feeling good! There are way less toys out and the play room feels so fresh and clean even with some toys on the floor.  I’m excited I can possibly get rid of the toy box!  The relief you feel after decluttering and seeing big change is really so great and sometimes surprising at just how much lighter you feel.  Like you didn’t even know how much that was weighing on you.  This is how I felt when I now looked at the playroom.

Thoughts about this experiment so far

I’m very pleased and my kids have been quite accepting of this toy rotation. I’m really quite proud of them.   My youngest is 4 so it did take him a little longer to understand that the toys weren’t getting thrown away but just packed away for another time.  I switched the first bin out after 2 weeks.  What I learned in those 2 weeks is that my kids do not need a room full of toys to keep themselves occupied, who knew?! ( Me… I knew, that’s who)  If what they want or need for a game of pretend isn’t available they would just use something else and pretend it was that thing.  I noticed them getting a little bit more creative with their play and there was less fighting over toys ( Hallelujah!! ) I also noticed them drawing, writing and reading more which is so great!! I love seeing their creative minds work.  It’s my favorite thing to observe.   They also played with things they normally wouldn’t.  My 7 year old and I played a game of uno.  Since the very first time she played this and lost she didn’t want to play again lol! But since there were a lot less games out she was willing to try again which I think is important, especially for her competitive spirit.

As I mentioned earlier in the post I did end up finding some odds and ends that we had missed in our massive toy gather. (lego pieces, cars, doll clothes)  The easiest way I have found to deal with this is to have a small container where I put missed toys and as we rotate I will incorporate these back in with the proper sets of toys.

But how do I incorporate new toys?

Ok so I have yet to experience this BUT I know it’s coming soon with Christmas so my plan of action is to keep their regular bin of toys out along with new toys until it’s time to switch bins.  At this point I will try to add new toys to the bins that still have a bit of room.  If at all possible I want to avoid adding more bins so  if there isn’t room for all the new toys then some of the old toys are going to have to go.  It’s a life lesson I think more of us could practice, including myself.  Another thing I am hoping to do is encourage family and friends to gift experiences or things they actually need rather than stuff.  I could really go into the topic of the over abundance of gifts but I will save that for another post!!

I hope you took something away from this post!! Thanks for reading all the way to the end and if you think I’ve left anything out please let me know!  Also feel free to share your toy organizing ideas and photos.  Maybe there is another method I haven’t tried and could test out for you guys! (my poor kids)

Doing it one bite at a time,

Amanda