How To Organize Your Kids Toys

Today I wanted to talk about an area that causes a lot of frustration for a lot of parents everywhere…. KIDS TOYS!  We live in a time of plenty, and that is easily seen in the sheer amount of toys that most children now days own!  In America, many people spend a good portion of their free time accumulating possessions, and the rest of that time attempting to clean up those same possessions!  Kids toys are no exception to that!

Here are some statistics that might surprise you. Did you know….

• There are 300,000 items in the average American home (LA Times).
• 25% of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park cars inside them and 32% only have room for one vehicle. (U.S. Department of Energy).
• British research has found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 on a daily basis. (The Telegraph).
• 3.1% of the world’s children live in America, but they own 40% of the toys consumed globally (UCLA).

It has been said:  we don’t possess things; they end up possessing us.  Think about it, how often do you buy your young child the newest, latest and greatest at Christmas time only for them to set it aside and play with the box instead?  The more years that I have done this parenting thing, the more I have come to realize that kids really do love simple!  I have also noticed that the more cluttered and chaotic a room was, the less likely my kids were to play in it and enjoy it for any length of time.  It would be easy to think that if you just throw your kid into a room of 238 toys they should be happy for a long time.  However, I have found and studies show, that is really not the case!  They get overwhelmed, overstimulated, and their imagination and creativity gets crushed in all the clutter!

Don’t get me wrong, we still have a fair share of toys in our house.  We also have rules we try to adhere to in order to keep them under control.  First I try to limit what I buy for my kids to what I like to call “imaginative toys” or “open ended toys.”  In other words, I try to stick to toys that foster and help to develop my kids’ imagination and creativity.  Examples would include:  legos, blocks, lincoln logs, dolls, play dishes, small plastic or wooden animals, or people and their houses.  I try to stay away from anything that makes noise or requires a battery..

This also leads me into my first step in how to organize your kids toys, first you need to …..

• DECIDE WHAT TO KEEP AND WHAT TO GET RID OF 

I would advise you start by tossing or donating anything that your kids no longer play with, is broken, or no longer works.  If you are like me and you want to keep things that encourage more open ended play, you can also get rid of your noise making, battery sucking toys too! (This is a bonus for you also, just in case you are looking for a little less noise during play time! *wink wink*

• DIVIDE ALL TOYS INTO LIKE CATEGORIES

Now that you have tossed or donated everything you no longer need, you can now divide all the toys you are keeping into like categories.  This may take some time depending on your situation and how many toys you are keeping, but trust me it will be worth it when you are done! An example of this would be putting blocks in one pile, dinosaurs in another pile, barbies in another pile, and so on.

 

• EVALUATE WHERE YOU WILL BE STORING EVERYTHING

This step is pretty crucial because everything you are keeping now needs a home!  Do you have the space to provide a home for everything you are keeping?  If the answer is “no” you may still have some purging to do!  We have had a variety of toy arrangements over the years, some have worked better than others.  Right now we keep all of our toys in our kids’ bedrooms and the majority of them are stored in my daughters bedroom.  How you store them and where you store them is up to you, this is just what works for us!

• GO SHOPPING

Now you get to put all of your categories into some sort of bucket or storage container!  Evaluate every category that needs a container and make note of what size of a container you may need.  If you do not have any laying around, you may need to go shopping.  I got my bins and my labels both from Target, I will link them both here and here.  They come in a variety of sizes and are relatively inexpensive.  It is important that you label your bins when you are done, if you do not it is only a matter of time before all your hard work is undone because no one knows where to put things away!  What kind of bins and buckets you use is completely up you and your situation, here is a pic of ours…

These are a tad bit smaller for some of our smaller toys. This one is for my daughters barbies…

This one is obviously bigger! We have a few of these also. This one is for dinosaurs…

Also note: Some items may be too big for a basket or a bucket but they still need a spot on a shelf somewhere. Here is an example…..

• PUT IT ALL AWAY AND LABEL

The last and final step, and my most favorite, is to put it all away and label it!  The only word of caution I have here is just to make sure all of your categories find a home.  If for some reason your container is too small or you did not buy enough, you either need to purge some more or you need to find it some sort of home!  This is also where you get to see all of your hard work pay off and the peace of having an organized space floods over you!  It is such a great feeling and I am positive your kids, your husband, and even you, will thank you for it, trust me!

Here is a pic of the finished product…..

If you don’t have a closet with the shelf space, I have also used storage cubbies in the past too.  They have worked really well and hold a large amount of toys and books!  I will link to them here.

I should also note that we have a rule where we only get to take out one bucket at a time! This may be a hard one at first, but stick with it, do not let them take out another bucket until the previous one is cleaned up!  If they do not adhere to this rule take away the entire bucket of toys until they have earned it back.  They will soon catch on, and you will now have kids who can clean up after themselves, who are responsible, and also know how take care of their things!

I hope this post has inspired you to get your kids toys organized once and for all!  If you found this post helpful in anyway please pin it, share it, and do all the things you do to spread it around!

Happy Organizing Friends!