We have too many toys at our house. I realized this as I was looking at toy storage/organization sites, thinking about the chore of sorting all the toys, finding the missing pieces, and keeping them sorted despite the best efforts of the children. So instead of investing in new toy storage options, I decided to cut down on the clutter.
I have friends who regularly sort through their kids toys, send some away, rotate old toys out and "new" old toys in from storage. My problem with this is that they aren't my toys. When I have tried to get rid of old toys, before I manage to take them to Goodwill the kids will ask me "Where did the big rabbit go?" and we'll get them out of the box. I don't know which toys they want to get rid of. For example, they have a strange fascination with Mr. Potato head, which would go to the dump if I had my choice.
On the other hand, every time I have tried to get the kids to get rid of toys, suddenly they all become precious, no matter how long they have been unattended. So this time, instead of choosing which ones to give away, I had them choose which ones to keep.
I made the executive decision that we would keep all legos, dollhouse toys, dress up toys and kitchen toys. We also ended up keeping all the bath toys for now. We also kept all the toys from Christmas---it seemed too harsh to ask them to choose gifts that were just given. Then I took all the other toys and put them in our library, trying to put them in categories on the bottom library shelves. We had the baby toys, the small plastic animal toys, the small stuffed animals, the big stuffed animals (under the piano), the balls, the outdoor toys... you get the idea.
Then the best part. I gave Eleanor and Amanda each a basket and told them to choose the toys they wanted to keep. All the other toys would go "on vacation" for a while. Also: toys that you pick out don't "belong" to you, they belong to our family---you have to share the things in your basket with your siblings.
Eleanor claimed that she didn't need too many toys anymore, but she filled her basket to overflowing. She had to take some things out when she realized she needed "one more thing..." Amanda chose most of the toys I thought she would, with a few surprises, and when her basket was about 3/4 full, she was done and didn't need any more. I filled Luke's basket, since he was mostly interested in playing with the toys that his sisters had picked out. The girls definitely didn't pick the toys I would have, but they sure have a sense of "ownership" of the toys they picked. I admit to putting a few things in Luke's basket that I thought the girls should have picked: frisbees and jump ropes, a few balls, and so on. You can't only play with inside toys...
Michael and I packed all the leftovers in 4 boxes, and put them in the basement. It worked great! Now we have few enough toys so that we can keep track of them, they aren't so overwhelming, and well loved toys don't get "lost" at the bottom of the toy box. Everything now has a place, and I didn't even have to buy any more plastic "toy organizers."
I should let you know about the few snafus: there were a few toys I definitely wanted to give away (Mr. Potato head) but I didn't get them into the box fast enough and the kids are playing with them. I forgot to put a few toys in the "toy store", so we just kept those out. But I think we put away between 1/3 and 1/2 of our toys. I'd recommend this to anyone who is overwhelmed by the number of toys they have, but has a problem getting rid of them. Anyone else have any good tips for toy organizing?
I have friends who regularly sort through their kids toys, send some away, rotate old toys out and "new" old toys in from storage. My problem with this is that they aren't my toys. When I have tried to get rid of old toys, before I manage to take them to Goodwill the kids will ask me "Where did the big rabbit go?" and we'll get them out of the box. I don't know which toys they want to get rid of. For example, they have a strange fascination with Mr. Potato head, which would go to the dump if I had my choice.
On the other hand, every time I have tried to get the kids to get rid of toys, suddenly they all become precious, no matter how long they have been unattended. So this time, instead of choosing which ones to give away, I had them choose which ones to keep.
I made the executive decision that we would keep all legos, dollhouse toys, dress up toys and kitchen toys. We also ended up keeping all the bath toys for now. We also kept all the toys from Christmas---it seemed too harsh to ask them to choose gifts that were just given. Then I took all the other toys and put them in our library, trying to put them in categories on the bottom library shelves. We had the baby toys, the small plastic animal toys, the small stuffed animals, the big stuffed animals (under the piano), the balls, the outdoor toys... you get the idea.
Then the best part. I gave Eleanor and Amanda each a basket and told them to choose the toys they wanted to keep. All the other toys would go "on vacation" for a while. Also: toys that you pick out don't "belong" to you, they belong to our family---you have to share the things in your basket with your siblings.
Eleanor claimed that she didn't need too many toys anymore, but she filled her basket to overflowing. She had to take some things out when she realized she needed "one more thing..." Amanda chose most of the toys I thought she would, with a few surprises, and when her basket was about 3/4 full, she was done and didn't need any more. I filled Luke's basket, since he was mostly interested in playing with the toys that his sisters had picked out. The girls definitely didn't pick the toys I would have, but they sure have a sense of "ownership" of the toys they picked. I admit to putting a few things in Luke's basket that I thought the girls should have picked: frisbees and jump ropes, a few balls, and so on. You can't only play with inside toys...
Michael and I packed all the leftovers in 4 boxes, and put them in the basement. It worked great! Now we have few enough toys so that we can keep track of them, they aren't so overwhelming, and well loved toys don't get "lost" at the bottom of the toy box. Everything now has a place, and I didn't even have to buy any more plastic "toy organizers."
I should let you know about the few snafus: there were a few toys I definitely wanted to give away (Mr. Potato head) but I didn't get them into the box fast enough and the kids are playing with them. I forgot to put a few toys in the "toy store", so we just kept those out. But I think we put away between 1/3 and 1/2 of our toys. I'd recommend this to anyone who is overwhelmed by the number of toys they have, but has a problem getting rid of them. Anyone else have any good tips for toy organizing?
Comments
I'll go to the play room when the grands are visiting, and it's toy-chaos; and after they're gone, I go back and it's spic and span. And I didn't hear any fussing about putting the toys away.
The other thing this has taught me is that putting toys away is not all that bad a thing: just don't make it complicated. For example, I may go down to "play with" the grands, but while they like me around, they really don't need my continuous interaction to play happily - so I've taken to continuously picking up the toy that was just abandoned and putting it away while continuing to chat with the tykes. It's amazing how many toys one can put away - without disturbing child-karma - and then when gramma calls 'lunch' there are only 2 or 3 things to be dumped into the toy bin.
I wish I'd learned this 50 years ago, but...
I can empathize with Eleanor. Each familiar object is full of memories, and throwing the object tosses memories of happiness and companionship, comforting feelings and delight.
Chanson---That method seems to be popular. I always felt a bit resentful---after all, they were the kids' toys, not mine! I couldn't figure out which toys were the kids' favorites and which ones were mine =)