Toys migrate. They multiply. Toys hurt your feet. Or is that just me? They seem to be everywhere in your home. Showing up in the most annoying and unexpected places. Sometimes it can feel like you are spending all your spare time taking toys back to where they belong. If there are two or more children in your home, God help you!
Even though I limit the number of toys my children have, in total number and amount out at one time, they still seem to end up in the most unlikely and annoying places. Do not even get me started on Lego’s! So, to combat this I have compiled a few tips we use in our home to solve the problems surrounding toys: too many and all over.
Tips to Keep Toys in Their Place
Implementing these simple tips will help you maintain your sanity and keep toys where you want them! The best part is that these tips only take a weekend to get up at most. Some tips you can do right this instant. Either way wading through the toys can clean and organize your home, it can also make you some money!
Use the bins/baskets trick in each room.
This is the simplest trick, but it is oh so effective! Each room needs to have a Take It Back Bin. What exactly is a Take It Back Bin? The idea is fairly simple.
Imagine that your child takes his/her cars to the kitchen to play with while you are cooking dinner. That is great because then they will be occupied and you can keep an eye on them while you are preparing dinner. Before the Take It Back Bin those toys might just stay in the kitchen or dining room. Maybe they make it back to the play room, the living room, or their bedroom, maybe not.
If you have a Take It Back Bin in place, then when the kids finish playing with that particular toy, the toy goes into this bin. At the end of the day or week, whatever is in the bin, you and your child then put away into its correct home!
If you collect more toys than the bin can hold then complete this process more than once a week. In our home we have instituted a rule that the Take It Back Bin must be emptied each night.
How do I get them to do this? I make it a game with your kids to get them to put their toys back. I have a sticker chart that whoever wins gets a star, 20 stars and they get to pick a prize from my prize box. Items in my prize box include: books, puzzles, coloring books, stickers that I get on sale or from the Dollar Store. Both my kids race to get everything back in their homes to win that star. This tip alone has been a HUGE time saver in my house.
Make storage work for you and your toys.
Everyone has different needs and different size living areas. Storage needs to work for what space you have.
In our home we have very little built-in storage. Our home is smaller, so I make sure that the storage I choose fits the size of my home. Buying a huge bulky storage unit will just overpower the room.
Additionally, I make sure that the storage is clever. An example of this is putting shelves above the doorway or putting boxes under the couch to store toys in the family room.
Take a look around your home, where can you add simple storage that will not take up a ton of space? Not sure what to use or do not have a big budget to buy new organization tools? Check out my post on organizing the toy room using storage from the dollar store.
Every toy needs to have a home.
This is one I truly struggle with. I know that to have a neat and tidy home, everything needs somewhere to go.
Otherwise it will start to look like my desk! A mountain of junk that you cannot wade through. This is a work in progress at our house. But I know that if I can either sell, give, or toss/recycle, then I am at least heading in the right direction on this one. I am sad to say that I do not have this one 100% down.
But with the kids toys I remove a toy for every toy that is new. We either donate it or sell it. That way we do not have to continue to expand the organization system, we will have a home for the new toy where the previous toy was.
Review the toy situation. At least once a year (or quarterly if you are ambitious).
As children get older, it makes sense to take a look at what toys they no longer are playing with. If your child is no longer an infant, then it is time to get rid of those toys! Once you have separated out the toys no longer needed, it is time to decide to give it away or sell it. If you have older children, get them involved. They could even help chose what could be donated for children in need.
Stash your books in a small space.
My kids bed rooms are not super huge. Since we do not have a ton of space to work with a full bookshelf, we got creative and used small spice racks from IKEA in a tight corner that had no other use. These also work great behind a door. They are very versatile and can be customized how you want.
Remember to go through your books regularly and donate ones you no longer use to your local library or sell them on your Mom to Mom group! Keeping the number of books limited is not a bad idea. Get in the habit of going to the library with your kids to replace keeping books in your home or sign up for a free kids e-book app like Libby.
Rotate!!
This is an easy and inexpensive thing to do that keeps your kiddos interested in the toys they are playing with. To do this I stash toys into large plastic bins and put them on a shelf in the basement.
When they get bored with the toys they are playing with just pack them up and bring up a new bin. Viola! New toys for your kids, at least they feel new.
If you implement all these simple tips to keep your toys organized and in check you will find you have tamed the toy problem in your home. It will help keep your sanity, teach your kids the gift they get by giving to the less fortunate and of course keep your home cleaner!
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Have a ton of extra toys that you want to sell but are not sure where to start? Check out my post on how to sell on Facebook Mom 2 Mom groups and find out what other items you can sell to make $100 quickly.