Is your play kids’ playroom a hodgepodge of lost board game pieces and Happy Meal figures? Do you feel like you will snap if you step on one more (insert swear word of choice here) Lego piece?
While a certain amount of chaos cannot be avoided in a home with little ones, there are a few steps you can take to preserve your sanity and avoid the complete occupation of your home by toys.
1 – Sort, sort, sort! Head to your local dollar store and load up on bins of all sizes. Start ‘collections’. For example, little people, little animals, vehicles, doll accessories, blocks, balls, etc. Collections also make toys more inviting to play with and lend themselves well to sorting.
2 – You will inevitably have small toys that cannot be sorted. Have a ‘random’ bin, where kids can put small toys that don’t have a category. We call ours the BORJ (bin of random junk) and it has drastically lowered the incidence of toy-related injuries in our house. NOTE: Keep the BORJ the same size. If it starts to get too full, that’s a good sign you need to throw out some items.
3. Be sure to label each bin with words and pictures so even toddlers can help tidy.
4. Also, be sure to store bins at child level so they can pull them out more independently as well as help you tidy more effectively.
5. Consider rotating toys. This can be as simple as putting a toy away and pulling it back out a month or two later. Or you can set up a system for rotating specific toys regularly (a post on this topic to come soon).
6. Establish a nightly tidy-up routine with the expectation that each toy should be in its home before getting ready for bed. I know it’s far easier to do it yourself after the kids are asleep, but getting them to help will reinforce the idea that they are a part of the ‘family team’. It will also become another subconscious sign that it’s time for the body and mind to start winding down and prepping for sleep.
7. Create play ‘areas’. This helps keep craft items, for example, in one part of the house or blocks in another (instead of throughout the house). Along with a main play area, with lots of space for building type toys, imaginative play, and gross motor play, I suggest a quiet area of your house for books and puzzles and another area for crafting and creating.
8. And finally, why not consider purchasing fewer toys and renting toys instead. I know of a fantastic little company that could help you out;)
~D.
