How Do I Organize Those Small Toy Pieces to Keep Them Away from My 19 Month Old?

J.,
Do you have a cat? If so, (or not) try to get a hold of the plastic container that the cat liter comes in, the top will close tightly on it and the little one can't get into it without your help. Or if you wanted, you could go to Wal Mart and get a container that has a tight closing lid. You older one would have to also have your help opening either of them, so you would know "where" the toys are and they can be neatly put away and tightly "locked" up so the little one can't play without you knowing it. Good luck!

I enlisted the help of my (then) 3 year old to help me sort through her toys to find anything that might be a choking hazard and we "put them away for awhile" (i.e. totally threw them out!!) We discussed choking hazards and she was even more stringent than I was. It worked out great, and she wanted to be sure to keep her stuff safe from her baby sister, and keep her sister safe from choking.

Hi J.,

I have another baby coming very soon, so I just transitioned my 21 month old son into my 6 year olds room! Yikes! What I did was put all of the choke-able toys into storage bins in the closet, and then I put a lock on the closet doors. I found one for sliding closet doors on ebay & it works great! My 6 year old can open & close it on his own, but my little one can't reach it. Now,my 6 year old can choose to play with those toys when the little one is napping, or up on his bunk bed where the little one can't reach. Sometimes on the weekends, I'm able to distract the little one enough that the older one can play in his room on his own for a while with the door closed, but they usually choose to play together, so then they just play with toys that are safe for the little one.

Hope that helps,
C. : )

I have an 8 and 2 yr old. They used to share a room but the only thing my little one did in there was sleep. I didn't allow her to play in there and still don't. I have all of our 2 yr olds toys organized neatly against one wall in our dinning room. She can pull the bins out and play in the living room.

I also trained my 8 yr old not to leave anything small enough to fit through a toilet paper roll on the floor. I did this by going through her room every day and taking away anything that was on the floor. After about a week she realized that her littlest petshops where disappearing. Now I find shirts and socks on her floor but no littlest petshops. Even though the 2 yr old doesn't play in there my 8 yr old knows that the same policy goes for the whole house.

I have a 4 yr old and a 1 yr old, so I know exactly where you are coming from about him not letting her play by herself! She knows that the 1 yr old is not allowed to play with small toys because of the choking hazard. Do you know those zippered bags that Robeez come in? I have many of DD's small toys organized in those and the cool thing about that is they have a little handle so she can take them with her if we go out anywhere like a restaurant. You could also use the see-through zippered bags that pillowcases come in for the toys with more pieces eg Legos. Her Barbies and other small dolls are in a shoe box.

I use old diaper wipe boxes for small toy parts. I also decorated old formula tins. I took fine sand paper to the inside rim of the tins to get rid of any sharp edges. One more idea; my girlfriend collected plastic clear peanut butter jars. You can see what's in the jar and the lid is great for little hands.