I need suggestions for how to organize our toys/games. I am a pediatric occupational therapist so even before having my own kids (I now have 5 year and 2 year old boys) I had a pretty big collection of toys and games. Now as you can imagine they seem to multiply continually! We have a play room dedicated to all this stuff which thankfully has 2 closets, plus in the room I have a couple shelving situations (one bookshelf and one of those ones with square openings with canvas "drawers") and then a bunch of random bins and such mostly from Ikea.
The problem is, I think we have so much stuff that the kids and even I forget what we have. Things are stacked in their places and just kind of stay there. The kids pull out the same 3-4 containers of stuff over and over and then get bored. I sometimes say to my 5 year old when he's begging me to turn on the tv, "this house is full of toys!" and then he asks me what should I play with, and I find myself at a loss too!
So I'm ready to tackle this but don't know how. The only thought I've had is to imitate the activity trays in Montessori classrooms and then re-organize the closets in similar ways so I can periodically, maybe once/month, rotate the trays in the shelves that are at their fingertips in the playroom. That sounds like it could work, but I'm not sure, and also it sounds expensive! I'm willing to spend some to get control of this once and for all, but obviously I'm interested in budget ideas as well.
So, who has tackled a similar situation and can tell me what's working for you?
Thanks in advance!
Sounds like you need to get rid of a LOT.
Throw away, donate and THEN organize.
My kids never had more than a large cabinet, for puzzles, games, blocks, art supplies, etc, a bookshelf for books and knick knacks and a few large bins und for their babies, dolls and playmobils.
You can also box some some toys up and rotate them in and out every 3 to 6 months (that's what day cares and preschools do.
Get rid of anything that is too young, broken or that you don't think they will play with any more. Buy some storage containers with lids in multiple sizes for the closet and sort by similar item (all balls go together, all lego's in one). I would also install some sort of shelving system. Take a picture of what is inside and tape it to the front of the container so you can see what is inside, otherwise those are the toys that will never get played with. We don't have a closet but a long TV type stand with the cloth bins identified underneath and all the big toys set on top.
Get rid of stuff. I did this last winter. I got rid of half their toys. They didn't play with them, and my son only asked after 1 toy. No one misses the rest.
In child care we rotate the toys every month and sometimes we put out some of the more special ones when they go along with the theme of the month. Of course that won't work with your home but it's a good idea.
Have different categories of toys. Manipulatives, blocks, vehicles, puzzles, board games, dolls/homemaking, pretend play, etc....and only have a few items out. I would always use the ones that are lower sizes or less age appropriate first so they can be given away. A lot of my pretend play was too little or to young for the kids in my 4/5 year classroom. They had been for the 3/4 year classroom. The older kids didn't like to do pretend play with dress up if the clothes were for "babies".
Thinking this through is a great idea.
You might google "child care classroom organizational ideas".
We sort through our stuff every 6 months, to coincide with birthdays and holidays.
Start a bucket at a time. Create two piles or boxes. One medium size box is for keeping, one large sized box is for donating. Have the kids help go through each toy and decide if it is being kept or being donated. Use the one touch rule. You pick it up and decide one or the other, no 'maybe'.
If you get done and the 'keep' box is overflowing, go through that box of stuff again, to make sure they really want/need to keep all of it.
Once you have all of the donations decided, packed up and out of the way, then go through the keep box and organize based on sets, collections, size, etc. It helps to have clear bins so that the kids can see the toys inside.
I just went through this and still tweaking when I can. I have the kids shelves that have the multi colored bins. We have one of the big wooden with plastic bends and then 4 of the wooden with cloth bins we got from Lakeside Collection. I would suggest getting rid of some. We were really good about it in the past and got lazy so made organizing a lot harder but usually every birthday and every Christmas before our kid can open the new toys to play with they have to go through and get rid of some toys to donate to Salvation Army or someone in need. They enjoy doing this plus it keeps from getting too many toys that are never played with. My neighbor bought a shelf from IKEA that had large square shelves and then used diaper boxes and other small boxes that fit in those squares to divide the toys up. GoodLuck
You could try putting pictures of the contents on the front of the bins. Sort of labels for the pre-literate. We have those IKEA shelving units with the square openings and the bins that fit them. Because the bins were so big, stuff would get lost in the bottom and never played with. I recently bought a bunch of cheap plastic storage boxed that are stackable and fit into the bins. We now organize a lot into boxes within the bins. DS (7) can remember where everything is. If he couldn't I was going to put labels on the front of each bin - for example - small figures/lego/K-Nex/small puzzles etc. Since we got the boxes (about 4 months ago) - DS has been playing with a lot more toys - previously he would just pull out the legos and playmobil.
Take half the toys & games and put them in the attic or basement. Bring them out in 6 months and they will feel like new. You can also have a "rainy day" or "blizzard" section - you don't want to be in the attic all the time, but on special occasions, you want the option to haul something out. Otherwise mark your calendar for 4 months or 6 months - you can switch things twice a year or 3 times, no more. Once a month, as you suggest, is going to be a lot of work for you if the toys are somewhere else, but that's the only way to really cut down on the sheer volume of stuff you have.
Your kids are telling you that they have too many choices and can't do the thought processing associated with deciding, so they go for the same standard toys every time. Keep an assortment of different-themed toys and things that use different skills (you are already an expert on things like gross motor, fine motor, deductive, auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc.). Be sure there are different things for each child because their needs, development and interests are different.
Donate anything you think they are really done with. Have them go with you to a social service agency that accepts used toys and gain the experience of donating.
Make sure boxes are labeled on the side with a photo of what's inside if it's not otherwise obvious - you don't have to take a picture - just print out something from a website or cut out a part of the original box, and paste that pic on the side. You can also attack something to the canvas drawers you already have.
Use storage bins or rolling carts if you find them at yard sales or the dollar store. We just used Rubbermaid-type bins with handles (for dragging out of the closet) and well-fitting lids. We had some milk crates for larger items that didn't fall through the openings, and it was easy to stack the crates and see inside. (Later, he used those when he went to camp for an easy-to-assemble bookcase.) Again, put a photo on the side (not the top - they can't see it when things are stacked!), which lets pre-reading kids figure out what's where, and it also helps the ability to clean up logically. "Clean up your room" is too general for kids, but "put all the cars in this box" is much more manageable. Mix things together in a logical way even if they weren't purchased together - all the Legos go in one bin, all of the train tracks and cars go on another one.
I don't know if this would work for you, but we had a handyman build a large table for us, and it was a place for our son to set up all his trains. We had it in the basement. We started with the Brio and Thomas trains, and he added in his own Lego structures/creations, and some other things he got from an older friend of the family. He mixed in K'nex and Construx (not sure if the latter is still around), and had a huge set-up. As he grew into Hot Wheels, the Brio stuff got sold and he moved into cars and race tracks and so on. We put the Rubbermaid bins underneath the table, but he could slide them out whenever he wanted to. The handyman made 2 sets of legs so we could raise the table up when he got older. I don't know if you have that kind of space, but it's a great way to have a big place where stuff can be spread out and not picked up every day, but still not be in the way. Mixing toys from different sets helped build his creativity and the sophistication of his creations - maybe it's just a coincidence, but he's now a civil engineer employed by a big construction company - and it all started in our basement!
Good luck.
