The weeks after Christmas are a great time to take a look at organizing the kids’ toy room. Or toy closet… toy area… wherever you have the kids keep their toys. Right now our boys have all their toys in their bedrooms and closets. 4 boys in 2 rooms means that we have to be pretty efficient with storage. Some of my strategies are
-
*Keep only large toys in the toy box
*Use labeled bins for small toys. Each label has a picture and a word on it.
*Either fix or toss broken toys.
*Limit gifts to certain categories. For example, the boys play with Legos so I have encouraged relatives to stick to that category rather than expand to K’Nex and Lincoln Logs and so on. It’s more fun to play with a lot of one thing than small bits of many. Plus, it’s easier to organize.
*The small chunky board books for the little ones fit nicely in a plastic basket on the shelf. Larger books stand neatly on the same shelf.
*Each boy has at least 2 “treasure spots”. For the younger ones, it’s two baskets on the bookshelf that hold whatever they want to keep. (I do encourage them to only treasure items that have no other home.)
3 or 4 times a year, I go through the toys with the boys and return items to their proper boxes. We also look at how many items can be culled from the room. Anything they’ve outgrown goes. Broken items are dealt with, and I encourage them to donate or sell as much as I can from their remaining supply. They’ve been surprisingly receptive to this, especially if they get to sell items at a garage sale. Anything that doesn’t sell goes to charity. Even the two packrats are willing to evaluate and decide whether or not an item still makes them smile. I will push them to give up things they’ve obviously outgrown, but am sure to respect their wishes if they want to keep something.
So how about you? Any neat tips and tricks on keeping the kids’ stuff under control?
by AmyL
[tags]home, kids, parents, children, toys, neatness, organization, mess, lincoln logs, legos, boxes[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by Patrick Q, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
7 responses so far ↓
nan // Feb 1, 2008 at 6:44 am
Aha! I am mostly commenting out of a selfish hope that many people will make great suggestions… And I will get to read them! Here are some to get the ball rolling:
We use fishing tackle boxes-plastic boxes with moveable inserts- for organizing tools, craft supplies, and anything else with small pieces. (not Lego, there is too much of that!) these boxes can be stacked one on top of the other. They are see-through, and clip closed securely.
For SMALL puzzles, I stick the pieces into a ziploc bag with the cut-out picture from the box. They can all go in a bigger container then, instead of lying shabbily on a shelf.
We have too many books for our small house, so we stack them on the shelves instead of standing them on end.
AmyL // Feb 1, 2008 at 9:06 am
Ahhhhh, Legos! They. Are. Everywhere.
Lol. I used to go nuts about that, because the pieces would be literally all over the house yet the boys rarely actually built anything with them. They’d just throw them all over. Literally.
It took me several different organizing attempts, but the one that stuck was to buy a drawer cart like the one found here: http://www.sterilite.com/Category.html?Section=Storage&ProductCategory=151#
I have the 7 drawer option, and I sat down and sorted the pieces into categories. I labeled each drawer and have been bugging the boys to honor the labeling. I know for a fact that they still shove pieces willy nilly, but it’s not as bad as it was.
I get to see quite a few creations and they’re not throwing pieces (as much) anymore. The categories I used are: People/Wheels, flats, narrows, small unique, large unique, blocks, and angled.
The whole thing worked so well that I got a second unit for the younger boys’ Rokenbok sets. All the small pieces are contained and with the clear drawers the boys can find what they want easily. Also, the drawers come right out so they can pull one and set it on the floor to search. It also makes a great target at cleanup time. Just throw the pieces in and slide the drawer back in place.
IntheFastLane // Feb 1, 2008 at 9:52 am
We have tried sorting legos by color and then all people and equipment have a seperate box. This sort of works and sort of doesn’t. But, at least there is a place they are “supposed” to go.
The other thing that gets overwhelming is artwork. My 8 year old is a prolific artist and we tend to have valuable creations all over our house that cannot be thrown away. I have designated one drawer on his desk for completed artwork and we sort through it every so often and the really important ones go in an art box for posterity.
AmyL // Feb 1, 2008 at 11:38 am
Lol. I did the sorting by color thing and failed miserably. The categories have held with about 60% accuracy, and like you said: at least everything has a designated place. I occasionally dump out containers and re-sort for the little boys. Perhaps I’ll do that with Legos at some point.
Have you considered taking pictures of the art and keeping a digital record? I love the art box for posterity idea.
Reach For The Stars // Mar 14, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Great tips on organizing. I am definately going to bookmark this one. I have a hard time keeping my girls room clean and I think I really need to get organized. Thanks for the post.
AmyL // Mar 14, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Leslie // Apr 24, 2008 at 6:16 pm
For an eco-friendly (and more durable) alternative to storing toys in ziplocs, try mesh fabric bags with zippers. (You can find them at KidsKlutterKatchers.com). These bags also work great for keeping small legos and toys sorted within other containers/bins. They also perfectly fit our Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles so we don’t lose pieces or need to reassemble them during clean-up.
Leave a Comment