Is It Just Me, Or Do Toys Procreate??

Sherry inquired about a great topic: TOYS!

Toys are a necessary part of childhood. As much as they clutter our homes and I would prefer to donate them all to Goodwill, that obviously is not possible. While I have definitely not mastered the art of toy organization, I do have some tips! And, mamas, please feel free to share your own. I am always looking for new ways to contain the chaos!

The most important thing I try to remind myself is this is a short season of life. One day, our living rooms will actually look nice again, and we won't step on Legos in the middle of the night. Of course, that will be the day that we will wish for all the toys to come back again, if it means having our kids little again!!

But all of those sentimental feelings we know we'll one day have do not change the fact that the toys are taking over the house now!

I do believe it is important for children to love their home and be free to play in it. But I also do not think it needs to look like a day care! Disclaimer: If you have an infant, your living room will resemble a day care because of all of the equipment babies require, but once your children have outgrown that stage, there should be a healthy balance, in my opinion.

I understand that homes come in all shapes and sizes, so these ideas may not work for everyone. Also, we each have our own personal tolerance of how much mess we can handle. Some of these ideas may work for you, some may not. That's obviously fine!

The first thing I always encourage moms to do is purge! I try to only keep toys my children actually play with. If my kids have a toy where its only function is me cleaning it up, it leaves the house. If there are parts to a toy that are never actually with the toy and do not serve a necessary function, I throw those away. That was actually hard for me to do, at first, but it is very liberating. My kids are not yet to an age where they can manage 1000 parts for an individual toy. My nephew is 8, and he actually is mature enough to do that....so I would not advise throwing parts away if kids can actually keep track of them.

Even toys that are gifts or were expensive become a burden if kids don't play with them. Pass them on to a family who will play with it. You could gather a group of friends together and do a toy swap! I have never done that, but I bet it would be a blast!

Side note: If I am purging while my kids are awake (which is how I normally do it to show them that passing toys on is important) and they want to keep a toy, I tell them they have to play with it for the next 20 minutes. Usually, about 2 minutes later they put it in the giveaway pile.

Once you have pared your toy collection down to those they do enjoy......

- Rotate your toys. Invest in a few storage bins (3-4 is what covered our needs. I think they're 66 quarts?!). Excluding your kids' absolute favorite toys, divide all of your toys evenly among them. Leave one out for the kids to play with, and put the rest in a closet/garage/basement. In a week or two, collect all of the toys back to the bin and rotate in a new one. It is amazing how the toys feel like new again!! My kids LOVE when the new bins come out; they actually play with toys that have been ignored for awhile.

Kids do not need near as many toys as we all own. But if they are like my kids, they do have a lot of toys they really enjoy playing with. The rotation system is a win-win: you keep all of the toys but it is a manageable amount.

- Think before purchasing new toys. If you're like us, most toys are graciously given to us by friends and family, so you cannot always control what is given. However, when you buy a new toy, really think through what your kids will enjoy, rather than what is cheap or on sale. I used to buy something because it was cheap, and this was the fastest way to junk up the house!

For Christmas/birthdays, I buy fewer, higher quality toys. My kids would rather have 2-3 really great toys than 10 subpar toys.

- If possible, avoid storing toys in the main living areas. Truthfully, our current house is the only one we've lived in where this has been possible (because of the floor plan), but it has been really nice not having a toy box in the living room! Of course, toys will make their way there, but it does help if that is not their starting location.

- Store games and other toys that have a lot of necessary pieces up high. Kids have to ask to play with them, so you can make sure they get put away with all of the pieces.

- When it is time to pick up toys, I tell ask my kids to pick them up and gently tell them, "You get to keep the toys you pick up." Which they have learned means: if you want your toys to be there tomorrow, you have to pick them up. Whatever toys they don't pick up, I put away for a few days. (In full disclosure, since moving, I have gotten away from this, but I need to start it again).

All of the advice in the world does not change the fact that toys are a constant battle. I hope some of this helps, and if you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments!!