Do your kids get bored with their toys?
Does clean up take forever?
Toy rotation saved my sanity.
Before we started rotating toys, every toy would be dragged out and dumped out creating a gigantic mess.
I don’t think toys were even played with but rather just dumped out on the floor!
I was a full-time working from home Mom and I could not take it anymore!
The first time I organized the toys, Lil B was 3 years old and M-Woww was 1-year-old.
I decided to take one night after they were in bed to reorganize the toys.
This year with Lil B being 4 (and more attached to certain toys) I wanted him to be a part of the process.
Yet at the same time there were some toys that I wanted gone and I knew they were not necessarily his favorite toys but he may want to keep them.
This is where I did a secret “mom-ninja toy sweep”.
During nap time I made a sweep through the pile of toys and got rid of the ones I wanted gone. For older kids you may want to start the process when they are at school so you can also “mom-ninja toy sweep”.
How to Organize your Toys
Step 1: Dump out all the toys on the floor and yes, I mean all of them. You have to see what you have in order to know how many toys you are working with and what you need to purge or store.
Step 2: Group toys into like piles. For example, I had a pile of cars, a pile of blocks, a pile of dolls, etc, etc.
Step 3: Purge! I can’t say this enough but it is a lot easier to manage without as many toys around.
First get rid of any broken or missing pieces of toys.
Second, go back through and think about, do my kids love this toy or even do you love it?
This is a great time to take away those crazy toys that make noise randomly throughout the day and night. Donate the toys that are still good and throw away/recycle the broken ones.
Step 4: Now that you have piles of toys around the room, take a look and see how many storage boxes you will need. The first year we had 6 boxes, this year we consolidated even more down to 4. It is up to you how many boxes you can store or want.
Step 5: Fill the boxes. I kept some sort of theme to each box but I made sure to give a variety of toys for each box.
For example, in each of our 4 boxes there is some sort of dress up clothes, building blocks (of some type), and puzzles.
For themes, one box has all the pirate and princess stuff, one has trains, one has cars, and one has science stuff and animals. I also made sure there were favorite toys of both kids in each box (so even in the primarily car box there are M-Woww’s favorites too).
And then you are done, well almost….don’t forget to label your boxes.
I suggest numbering the boxes and adding a little description about what is in the box. If you are really detailed you can write every toy…but I just listed a few of the main toys so I know what is in the box.
You never know when a toy emergency may come up and you have to locate a certain toy.
I made a free printable that you can print and write on (Click on ToyBoxLabels for black and white version or ToyBoxLabels_Color for Color version).
How we Store Toys during the Week:
We have the ever popular Expedit bookcase from Ikea that houses the toys that are out for week.
All the toys from that week’s open box are put away in one of the baskets during the week.
I tried to make picture labels and have each toy go in a certain basket but this was not realistic for my children or my sanity.
I quickly ditched the labels and then told them it doesn’t matter which basket the toy is put in, just put the toy in a basket. This makes for a much faster clean up.
How we Rotate:
Every Sunday night we pack up the box that is currently out all baskets are emptied and put back into the box.
I can quickly see if everything is put away because all the baskets are emptied.
On Monday we open the next box.
There are many ways you can rotate, weekly, monthly, do what works for you.
For us, weekly works well. It keeps them engaged and it is a month before the see the same box again.
Breaking the Rules:
We do have some toys that stay out all the time.
The play kitchen and food is always out.
Also, Lil B keeps out his most favorite cars (but they are stored in his room). M-Woww’s new princess castle and baby doll are also left out and will be stored in her room.
There are many ways you can organize and rotate toys. This is just one example and what works for us.
Let me know how do you manage toys at your house?
You may also like our popular posts:
10 Questions to Ask Your Child about their Artwork
That was the best toy storage read I’ve come across. I’m gonna do this tonight thanks to your 5 simple and logical steps.
By the end of the night I don’t feel sane and logic doesn’t come Easy! So thank u
NAJ X
I agree…I am not sane or logical at night! Good luck, let us know how it goes!
We have a similar process . we use the shoebox sized storage and stack them in the crawlspace. One themed toy per box. The larger items like Barbie’s, vehicles, superheroes get larger bins. Dress up stays in girls’ room( ages 5&7). Train table in boys. ( age 2).kitchen is always out in finished basement with one toy bin rack. We swap monthly or at their request. So much less clutter and they forget about toys they had so they’re like new when they come out. When my daughter was in preschool with picture labeled so it would be liken the class and would he easy for play date clean up. Now we just make sure everything is in a bin.
Sounds like you have a great system that works for your family! I love when we get out an old bin and they act like the toys are new all over again. 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
Your easy solution makes me feel extra confident that I can do this and keep up guilt free. And l love that we’re not the only ones who forego labeling
Different things work for different families and labeling was not working for us! 🙂 Use what works for you and modify when needed. Good luck! 🙂
I love this idea! I set these systems up for my clients, but I really like your idea of weekly rotation. Thanks for making it easy to manage so moms could work this into a weekly schedule. One of the biggest problems I hear about toy rotation is that even the parents forget 🙂 Pinning and sharing now!
Thank you for sharing! By putting the kids in charge of remembering to rotate, I don’t have to worry about forgetting! Weekly rotation may be a lot for some families but it works for us. Thank you for commenting 🙂
Thanks for this post! I especially love how you store the contents of that week’s box in the baskets, that’s a revelation!
I am so glad you found this post helpful. I hope it helps! 🙂
One of my favorite toy storage methods I have read about. I currently just did a sweep of all toys and put them in categories for rotation (all cars together, all trains, etc). They can have 2-3 category boxes out at one time. But, I love the idea of mixed favorite toys in one box out for one week and then see that box only once per month … hmmnn. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
I do have a few favorite toys sprinkled through out the boxes. In each box, it is funny to see that the “favorite” toy remains the same even after a month of not seeing it. I am glad you have found a system that works for your family!
Something that I’m definitely going to try. Thank you
Thank you! Let us know how it goes! 🙂
This was a great read and wish I could manage something similar yet my issue is I have an I kea storage unit with 6 large tubs yet each one is full of each toy ie,, marble run, wood train set,farm set, cars, plastic train set,mega blocks and then I still have lots of toys everywhere like dress up box, Peppa pig stuff etc in your opinion am I doomed for your idea? As I can’t see mixing it all up would help? X
My advice is purge out more toys. The first time I did this toy organization I ended up with 6 large bins but the second time I was able to easily reduce it to four bins. I took notice what toys did not hold their attention and took those out. Sometimes when there is too many toys it makes it too hard to organize. Good luck! Let’s us know what you find works for you.
I would also purge from the pile of other toys. Then, take out 5 of the storage bins and put them in the attic. Leave one storage bin available to play for one week. Then switch it out the next week for bin #2. If your child never asks for one of the bins or is consistently requesting a certain one, you can get rid of a whole bin!
One helpful strategy for me when purging is to choose toys made of wood, building toys, and favorite toys. Everything else can probably be given away. I’ve found that with less variety of toys comes more creativity! ( no action figures –> create action figures out of Legos!)
I’m also working toward not owning items made in China, etc, where we know the working conditions are unfair and sometimes abusive. That will really limit your selection!
Thank you for sharing! Purging is the key to keeping toys under control! 🙂 We went from 6 bins to the first year, then down to 4 and now I think we can even go less. 🙂
such a great post. I’ve actually just brought 4 storage boxes but wasn’t sure how to get organised and didn’t want to leave the whole box indoors so was going to pack it each night and put back in the garage but what you’ve done with the bookcase is much better. Can I ask what size your large boxes are though? I’m not sure I’ll fix enough toys in mine to keep the children entertained for a whole week, my 3 year old daughter has the attention span of a gnat :-\
This may surprise you but my children have had better attention span with less toys. Keep the toys that keep them engaged. I will have to look at what size our boxes are but I have found every year when I re-organize I weed out more toys and to be honest my kids play more! My oldest was 3 years old when I started this weekly rotation and before we started the rotation schedule he would literally dump out every toy but not play with it. This rotation schedule got him interested and playing with the toys and helped my sanity! 🙂 Good luck!
wat a great idea! i wil try it, by the way, any idea for keeping kids artwork?
Oh, yes… we have a post…. https://innovationkidslab.com/organize-school-papers-the-easy-way/. It saved my sanity with all the artwork that comes home!
We keep all of my daughter’s toys in a locked closet. In her room she has two plastic drawers of toys at a time, plus one more toy that doesn’t fit into a drawer. Once a week or so after her room is clean we switch out the toys she has for something else in the closet. She loves looking in the closet because it’s like shopping for toys all over again.
Sounds like you have a system that works for you! That is awesome! I love when they get excited to see the “old” toys as if they were new.
Oh, we so need this! We are blessed/cursed to have very loving grandparents who over indulge toy giving (ie every trip to the store (hardware, grocery, pharmacy, etc) new toys arrive home with the kids who are a boy and girl, 6 and 5 respectively. Often as not it is whatever junk that catches their eye, but some very nice stuff too, and don’t get me started on birthdays, and Christmas.
So true…it is a blessing and a curse to have loving grandparents. I have been trying to train my own Dad that experiences like a trip to the zoo or museum maybe a better option! Good luck!
What a great idea about putting a little bit of variety in each box! Why didn’t I think of that! Can’t wait to do this tomorrow. Thank you for sharing!
I hope the variety tip has helped! 🙂
I love your idea and am going to implement it out home. I too am curious about your tub size. Thanks!
Our tubs are 116 Quart size. When we first started we had 6 bins but I have been able to dwindle it down to 4 bins right now. Good luck!
Thank you so much for this! I have 2 girls (almost) 3 and 1! And they have more toys then I have any idea where to put, half their room is full on one side, the other side being their beds, half of their closet which is huge! Half of our living room, and some in the basement that still aren’t unpacked from when we bought our house, we stopped buying them toys. My husband and I have huge families who spoil them enough. My biggest problem is their bigger toys. For Christmas alone (from family) they got a kitchen, ride in car, ride on car, elephant ride on toy, giant ball pit, an alphabet train ride on toy! Too much! My oldest does the same thing with dumping everything out, I try to keep different toys in different areas of the house but never works. It’s so hard to get rid of some stuff because I never know when my little one wants to play with! Thanks again!
I hope you have found a system that works. That is awesome your families want to spoil them I can totally understand that, one suggestion is to have them purchase things like a museum or zoo pass instead of toys. But I know with family it can be difficult! Good luck!
I have seven children that range from ages 2-12. Our “littles” toys are pretty well organized but it needs a good purge. Our older three hardly play with toys, although legos are always a hit. I wonder how this will work with so many factors (age, space, etc)…I’ll have to let you know what I come up with but I’m certainly open to ideas!
That is quite an age range! I would try to keep to open-ended toys that can be for many ages like Tinker Toys or Magna Tiles (these are two of our favorites). Keep us posted on how it goes!
I’m really looking forward to trying this at our house! Do you have any suggestions for baby toys? I have 3 boys- 4, 2, and 10 months. Would you mix some baby toys in each box or just keep a separate tub? Although…some days I think I should just get rid of them all together and just let him play with the big boy toys. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I do keep the baby toys separate. I have one bin that is just for the baby. I will pull out different toy for her each week that I keep in a basket. Her favorite thing to do is pull toys out the basket and then put them back in. She does play with the “big kid toys” as long as there are no small pieces. All legos stay up in the older kids bedrooms until the baby is older. 🙂
Hi! Wonderfully inspiring post! I’ve been doing a similar, less organized process with my 3 and 1 year old boys. I have trouble with larger toys, as some others have mentioned. I have a full bin of just Little People items (school, fire station, etc.), a huge pile of Imaginext things (Batcave, castle, etc.), play kitchen, train table, basketball hoop, Wheelies garage, and other large collections of things. As I’m typing this, I realize I might just need to be more ruthless about purging, but they do actually play with all those things. If only I could get bins large enough to hide away the larger toys in our garage. They boys share a room, and I have moved the train table to the guest room, but I’m trying to really keep the toys contained to just their bedroom. Oh, the blessing/curse of thoughtful grandparents!
Oh, so true about the “blessing” of grandparents. We have the same problem. 🙂 But purging is the key for us. We talk about blessing other boys and girls with toys. For the larger toys, like my daughter’s doll house that is in her room. I try to steer the grandparents away from those bigger toy purchases and instead buy “experiences” like a trip to the zoo or museum.
I have a really hard time with toy organization and rotation. He seems to want to play with everything and it’s always a mess. How do you get over the guilt of taking the toys away for a month?
I found by limiting how many toys are out they become much more engaged with the toys. Also, when they open a new box it’s like Christmas because all the toys are “new” again. To start the process maybe leave out his absolute favorite toys?
Awesome post!! We are moving from MA to SC in 3 weeks and I have packed a lt of toys away. And was wondering how to organize them after the move!!! I am so going to be making bins and rotating!!!
Thank you so much:)
I love how simple but complete this post is. But I’d like to know– do you include stuffed animals and books in your rotation? How do you tackle those? Also big things like kid chairs, pianos, etcetera?
Hi Crystal! I rotate books on their own. I don’t have a set schedule, rather when I see they are no longer going to the book basket I will change it out with some other books. Any big items we do not rotate and they are located in the child’s specific room. For example, my daughter has a princess castle and that is in her room. Surprisingly, we don’t have a lot of stuffed animals but the absolute favorite animals could stay in your child’s room and rotate the rest. I hope this helps!
Love this post, I have done some version of this (especially the purge) but love the themes and the weekly rotation. Mine has been rotated more randomly b/c the bins were so out of the way it’s hard to get to them. Where do you keep the “off cycle” boxes? And we too have an overrun stuffed animal tub. My girls (ages 2, 4, and 6) rotate their favorites often but now it’s so many they don’t even know what they have. I attach too b/c show and tell at school comes up and I think penguin puppet, that’s a wonderful ‘p’ week show & tell. Maybe I need a show and tell bin for those things!
We keep the off boxes in the garage or now we have downsized more toys so the boxes fit in a closet. Usually when I see my children are no longer excited to pull a toy out of the box I will pass the toy on to someone else or donate it. Good luck!