What to do with All Those Toys. Ok, so the holidays just happened. New toys were squeeled over with delight. Yay!!!! In addition to the holiday influx, it seems like it is birthday central for all my kids' friends. We seem to be in birthday season, so every weekend...and every week at school...my soon-to-be-5-year-old twins (they turn 5 this Saturday!) are getting little toys as party favors. Seriously, it is a bit crazy. So much little stuff accumulates, seemingly no matter what you do. As a result, I find myself in the midst of reorganizing my kids' toys. Want to see what I'm doing? I'll share some photos soon, but in the meantime...
Here is what I recommend:
* Before you start, gather together the following items:
- ziplock bags
- grocery bags
- pen
- sticky notes
1. Set aside some time. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get a project done that has to be completed in one sitting or else you have to start all over again. This can be one of those projects. Make sure you have at least a couple of hours available to get this done. You may decide to just do one area at a time (inside, outside, etc.), so that its more manageable with your schedule.
2. Take care of the kids. If you have little ones, say under 3 years old, organize a playdate with some friends or Daddy/Nana/a babysitter to take the kids to the park. It is really tough to sort and organize when the kids are undoing everything you are trying to do! If you have older kids, get them involved in the process. It will be a good learning experience for them and they will be more likely to keep up the system you set up for them if they have some say in the process and help to make it happen.
3. Assess what you have. Get everything into one place, to the extent you can. Go through your house and find all the little items that need matching up and/or sorting. Grab a basket or a bag to collect things and then put them all in one room. It might be better NOT to put all the stuff in the room that the toys will ultimately be stored in (for instance, your kids' rooms). Maybe put it all in your living room or your bedroom, anywhere you will have the space available to spread out and see what you have.
4. Sort. Go through the stuff and sort it into 4 piles: 1) Keep, 2) Sell, 3) Give away and 4) Throw away.
- Keep: For things that you are keeping, look to see if you already have a good organization solution for that type of toy. If you do, put it away where it goes. If you don't, gather the pieces together and put them in a temporary bag (for instance, a ziplock bag or grocery bag, depending on the size).
- Sell - For toys you want to sell, put these items in your garage or another storage area. Try to gather all the pieces together (including any directions) and put them in ziplock bags. Assess whether you need to clean anything and put a sticky note on those items if you don't have the time to clean it right now. If something is ready to sell, get out your camera and take some photos of it RIGHT NOW. Then when you're ready to list it on Craig's List, eBay, your mom's group or whatever, you'll be ready to go.
- Give away - Simply put these toys in a bag or a box. Make sure they are not really throw away items. No one wants to receive toys that are broken, missing parts, or just plain worn out.
- Throw away - Hooray! This one is easy - toss it in a garbage bag and you're done. Be sure to recycle where you can.
5. Try NOT to go shopping. Now that you know what you have, you can see what kind of containers you need. Look around the house for baskets, bins, etc. that can be reused for your purposes. If you really find you need some new containers, its ok to go shopping. Look for inexpensive solutions that are not necessarily labeled as "toy storage". For instance, The Container Store has shoe boxes for only $1.99 and up that work great for small toys with lots of pieces - they are clear so you and the kids can easily see what is inside them and they stack nicely on shelves.
6. Put away. Group like items (e.g, doll clothes, cars, train tracks and trains, action figures) and put them each in a box. Ta-da! If you want to make labels for your boxes, this is a great way to remember what goes where...and it helps your kids learn to read too! For example, put a label on the side of your car box that says "CARS" and also has an picture of a toy car. This will be a good visual cue for them and will help them to remember that the idea is not to mix all the stuff back together!
7. Train the kids. Work with your kids on establishing a routine of taking out one thing at a time to play with and to clean it up before moving on to the next thine. Make it a part of your bedtime routine to clean up all the toys before reading books or whatever it is you do right before bed.
8. Have a mechanism for failure. There will be times when your kids will get something new that doesn't fit in your system or when your babysitter is over and doesn't know where something goes. Have a small basket in our living room that is available for "I don't know where this goes" toys. Aim to put things that accumulate in it away each night. If you do need to add something additional, you'll at least have a temporary place for it.
9. Play! Now that you have a system for your kids' toys, if you can keep it up, you'll be able to enjoy the relief that comes with not tripping over toys (well, at least constantly!) and you and your kids can JUST PLAY.
Now go have some fun!
Original Simplicity Sake post.
