The gift giving is over, the wrapping paper and tree are at the curb, and a mountain of new toys threatens to overtake your home. No matter how careful you are, it's difficult to curb the deluge of new play things your child receives during the holidays. And the worst part is, all of that stuff can not only overwhelm your home but your little one as well. Here are a few of my favorite tips and tricks from around the web for taming the toys in your home and giving yourself (and your child) a fresh start this year:
1. Less is More. Kids can become overwhelmed when presented with a large quantity of toys at once. Limiting the amount of toys your child has to choose from can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Joanna Goddard of A Cup of Jo says, "With Toby, I've been putting a blanket over his toys, so he can focus on playing with one thing at a time. His room looks simple and inviting with just a few favorite toys."
Sherry Petersik of Young House Love echoes that sentiment in her post on kids' stuff: "I finally decided not to leave every last toy that Clara might play with out at all times. So many friends of mine said their kids were happier/more stimulated if their toys were switched out, instead of just giving them free reign of a million things at once."
2. Have a System. There are many systems for keeping your kids' toys at a manageable level. Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day says, "I keep my kids toys on one shelf in clear bins. Anything that doesn't fit on that shelf gets donated." While Kelly of The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking chooses to separate her children's toys into clear plastic bins. "Each morning we pull a bin of toys out of the cabinet. The children only play with the toys in that bin for that day. At the end of the day we pick up all the toys and put them back in the right bin. Tomorrow, we'll play with the next bin."
3. Work with Your Decor. Every toy doesn't have to be hidden away in a play room or toy box. Melanie Blodgett of You Are My Fave advocates having functional and good-looking storage in the room in which you spend the most time as well as allowing attractive toys to function as decor in your space while Jordan Ferney chooses quality toys that are "beautiful and interesting" for her children.
The bottom line is, there is no right or wrong way to tame the toys in your home. Find out what works for you and your family and stick to it. Not sure where to start? Revisit Apartment Therapy's 7-Day Toy Cure from last year. It's designed to work for you whenever you're ready. Do you have any great tips and tricks for curbing the toy clutter in your home? We'd love to hear about them!
(Images via Shutterstock and Oh Happy Day)
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The blanket-over-the-toys trick works so well for us! My 2.5 year old has a new train table, and we've been covering it with a sheet before nap and bedtime, so that he puts the trains to sleep. He won't settle down if he sees them.
I found the best way to tame toys. We adopted a one year old collie from the Humane Society. Every day he chews up at least one toy that I hate . . . that I may have "accidentally" left out.
My triplets' birthday is right between xmas and new years...you can imagine the amount of toys they receive in a very short span of time! Our solution is to take them away for litterally half a year. We take them out in the summer time and it's Christmas all over again. This has worked well up to now...I imagine they will become more insistent as they grow older and want to play with their new toys right away...but for now it works.
Our home is quite small and storage is a problem. I am in the process of dividing the children's toys into different brightly coloured storage boxes which can be stacked and stored under a table or in a corner.Each box contains a category of toys: cars, farm toys, cooking toys,dolls stuff,etc. The children can then choose a container of toys and when they are finished the toys get packed away in the box. Books are still a huge headache as we are all avid readers and it is REALLY difficult to go through the books and give away one's the children seldom read but that is my next project
i've always liked the "one in, one out" rule. My niece got more than 50 new toys for Christmas. It seems so excessive and just insane to me. It also makes sense why my sister-in-law is always complaining her house seems too small since the child arrived. Keeping the sheer volume down to begin with is a good starting place.
I rotate my 1.5 yo daughter's toys weekly -- sometimes daily -- and I go through them every month or so to see what is really trash, what really belongs in my kitchen (oh hey! I don't need new spoons after all), and what should be donated since she has aged out of it.
Then I sort and store a lot of it in baskets under our coffee table or in big, cute boxes from Ikea.
There are some things I leave out all the time: balls, toy kitchen stuff, crayons, her baby doll. Other things get rotated: puzzles, books, transportation toys, manipulatives like beads and pom poms, and other games that I keep in gallon zip bags or "busy bags."
This is the only way I have found so that I'm not always putting away a million little toys and she doesn't get too bored.
We've made peace with meshing our living space with her belongings since we don't have a dedicated playroom.
In her room we only keep stuffed animals and books. Anything else and she'd never go to sleep!
After Christmas, the Christmas Grinch visited us and took toys to the Goodwill. Confession--a couple of age-inappropriate things (e.g. vocabulary flashcards--he is one) and a stuffed elf he received went directly into the Grinch's bag.
http://thislittlepiggyhadroastbeets.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-grinch.html
I rotate in and out a toy every week, so we are still introducing the Christmas gifts. His room still gets messy, but it is manageable to throw toys in an Ikea box every evening.
Toys in active use go here: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80172827/
Inactive toys go in the Hemnes storage bench.
Taming the toy clutter via donation as well as incorporating a system of "toy rotation" has allowed us to reclaim our living room!
So, how do y'all discuss this ? We have a 2 year old and a 6 year old. Obviously, the younger one will forget about what's gone after a day or two of distracting her. But the 6yo? She likes sharing, she's very generous, but the idea that something won't eventually be given back is turning out to be very difficult for her. What tack do you take when explaining to the kids what you're doing? Anything you skip completely? I don't have a problem ending the conversation with her still not happy and letting her know that I can't make her happy 100% of the time. But I kind of feel like I'm doing such a poor job explaining the what/why that it's no wonder she's still crabby and sad after a week.
great article... i'm new to this scene (5 month old baby boy) so i am anticipating the wild and crazy toy times... keeping on top of it in the beginning (or trying to at least) and donating and recycling seems great. makes total sense that less toys = more ... more imagination, less over stimulation... thanks for the post and the great links from tried and true artful mamas.