By Jackie Leffner
Continuing with our kid series, this week our home organization tips are focusing on toy rooms. Now that the kids are home more often, we tend to find toys ALL OVER the house. They start playing with one thing and by the end of the day I swear they have played with every toy possible. So, how do we wrangle it in to eliminate the toy frustration? Involving them in the organizing process and setting clear expectations that before they move on to something else, their current area must be cleaned up, tidied, or put away. If it is not, that means they will have to spend more time after dinner cleaning up the house rather than doing our fun family activity.
We have tried a lot of things in our house and seen a lot of things when helping others organize their homes. We have found that having a toy rotation and a kid-friendly organization system are the two main keys to success.
Kid-Friendly Organization System – what does that even mean?
For me, “put it back from where you got it” always made sense. Not sure why we’d take the nerf guns out of one bin and when we go to put it back put it in with the barbies; however, what we’ve found is that it doesn’t need to make sense to us – it needs to make sense to those actually putting the items away. So, unless you want to be the one cleaning up the kids’ toys all summer, make sure it makes sense to them.
Our number 1 recommendation is to sort by color! ROY-G-BIV. Our friends at The Home Edit use this for ALL systems – not just for kids and it helps make it so easy to put away. Arrange everything by color and you will have a gorgeous toy room, and your kids will know automatically where everything is supposed to go.
Toy Rotation
Toy rotation systems help to keep toys fresh and exciting for kids while also having the added benefit of reducing clutter and sensory overload. I know I have been there where it feels like there are 100,000 toys in the house and the kids look at me and say, “I have nothing to do.” Isn’t that frustrating? Toy rotation helps them feel like they are getting brand new toys every rotation. Bonus – it could result in spending less money on new toys!
So, how do we do it?
- Bring ALL the toys in your house together & out.
Yes, we want to focus on the toy room – but where are all those other sneaky toys currently hiding out that will magically appear once you are done organizing? So do a quick sweep & ask your kids to help by bringing toys that are not in their right home to you.
- Categorize into Donate, Trash, Keep
As professional organizers, we are huge advocates for throwing out the minimum number of items. We can repurpose it, donate it, or even sell it depending on what it is! So, make sure you are not just automatically defaulting to the trash bin. Donating toys to a local nonprofit serving children could help your kids be more willing to part with items they are not in love with – especially if they know it is going to help another kid find joy.
- For those in the Keep pile – sort into groups.
Groups that we have used in the past include electronic games, music toys, building blocks, cars/trucks/trains, puzzles, stuffed animals. That is what most of our toys consist of – but use groups that make sense for the age of your kids and the toys that you have in your house.
- Get your bins set up!
Depending on your budget and volume of toys, your bin needs will change; however, we’ve really liked the following two options: Clear Organizer Box or Rainbow Cube Storage.
- Place something from each group into each bin.
The recommended number of toys is 4-6 to help keep their attention and not lose focus. If you have different aged children, you may need 1 bin per age group to keep this working smoothly for you! This is an opportunity to use your creativity – you can either throw random toys into the bins, or create themes! Completely up to you (or your kids!).
- Number each bin and choose your rotation cycle.
We recommend rotating every 1-2 weeks depending on the age of your kids and how often they get bored. This keeps the rotation easy & fresh. Put a number on the outside of each bin so when you put #3 back, you know to grab #4! It takes the guessing game out of the rotation.
Implementing toy rotations and changing organization systems can be overwhelming. If you want more hands-on advice for your particular situation, reach out to schedule your complimentary consultation with one of our professional organizers today! Meat and Potatoes Organizing has experience working with kids to implement effective systems that make both us and them happy 😉 We would love to help spark joy in your everyday life by transforming your home into functional, beautiful spaces, one area at a time.
