Newsletters

Watch Marie Kondo Organize a Messy Kids’ Toy Area

Laura Schocker
Laura SchockerChief Content Officer
Laura Schocker is an editor, writer, and homebody with more than a decade of experience in lifestyle and digital journalism. Before Apartment Therapy Media, she worked as the digital director at Real Simple and the executive healthy living editor at The Huffington Post. Her writing has also appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, BBC.com, Prevention, TheBump.com, and TheNest.com, among others. Laura is a three-time Webby winner and was chosen as one of Folio's Top Women in Media. She has a bachelor's and master's degree in Magazine Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She lives in NYC's Upper West Side with her husband, daughter, and two plants.
Follow
published Aug 26, 2018
comments
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.

Marie Kondo is known for her ability to take even the trickiest of messes and transform them into folded, controlled spaces that, in her words, “spark joy.”

When the bestselling author of the “Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” came into our studios recently to demo how her new organizational boxes work, we challenged her to pack a carry-on suitcase—no problem. But then we asked the mom of two and inventor of the viral KonMari method to tackle an even trickier problem: the toy area.

We’ve seen so many that look like the “before” in the video above: scattered, disorganized, and Legos everywhere. And even if you can manage to corral this area into some sense of control for a bit, it’s hard to find a system that works (and that kids understand) long term. So we asked Kondo to work her magic. Watch the video above to see it all take shape.

Here, a few of her best tricks:

    1. Sort like toys together. This is similar to how she organizes, well, everything, including clothing and other household objects. Use a different basket or other container to sort each category.

    2. Look for clear pouches. Use them to keep anything loose. They’re especially helpful for kids (and you) to easily see what’s inside—no rooting around for the right toys. Stack them vertically in baskets, rather than throwing them in, to save space. We used Muji pouches in the video shoot—find them here.

    3. Only hang on to the toys you really love. Kondo is known for her “spark joy” method, and it applies to kids’ toys too: Keep only the best toys, or the ones your kids are still playing with. Ask them to donate the ones they don’t love anymore to a child who will. This can help to free up precious space—and make room for new toys to enter.