I know I’m not the only one out there who doesn’t like to be swallowed up by their children’s toys. So, when my toddler’s bedroom was barely navigable, practically requiring a path to be cleared to reach his bed, we knew we had to take steps to take control over the toy situation.
The weird thing is, we don’t even buy him toys. Maybe a Matchbox car here and there, but all of his toys were gifted lovingly by friends and family or hand-me-downs, which makes the task of letting go all the more difficult.
But, in the back of our minds we knew that many of these items were rarely, if ever, played with and if you’ve ever seen Toy Story, you know how devastating that can be for a toy. So, we set out to sort out the toy situation and donate the unused toys so they might make their way to another kid who would enjoy them more.
IDENTIFY FAVORITES
The first thing we did to take control over my toddler’s toys was to identify his favorite types of toys and activities. For my son these main categories were Cars, Trains, Puzzles, Books, Blocks, Shape Sorters, and Art (coloring books and playdough, of course!). Your child will probably have their own stand-out favorites. Perhaps dolls or action figures, musical instruments and stuffed animals are the most played with in your home. Either way, just identify a few categories (six to eight should be plenty!).
PICK A HOME
The next step is to find a home for your keepers. Pick a basket, box, or shelf where you will store the toys for each category. We used this Tomnas Shelving Unit from Ikea outfitted with four Knipsa Sea Grass Baskets for the bulk of his toy storage. We also have a few baskets from Target stationed strategically in his room for a bit more storage.
SORT
Y’all must’ve seen this coming. The next step is to sort. Put all of the cars in the car basket and the puzzles in the puzzles basket. Anything that doesn’t fit in those “favorites” categories, probably doesn’t get much play. Put anything that doesn’t have a home (designated basket) in bag or box to donate or sell.
If you find that a certain category is overflowing from its box, you will have to make a difficult decision to either trim down that collection, or get rid of another category. After all, you now have a limited amount of space for toys in your home.
ASSESS
Were there any toys that you just couldn’t bear to part with, that didn’t fit into one of the categories? This happened to us with some play food and musical instruments. My solution was to find the category that was most forgiving and lump them in there.
In this case, I saw that the basket for “Art” just had crayons and playdough, so I renamed it the “Imaginative Play Basket”. The names make all the difference. You will see why in a minute. Now, that basket made sense as a home for music instruments, playdough, coloring supplies, and fake food. Makes sense to me….
TAKE IT AWAY
Immediately box up and remove the give-away items from your house, lest your child start to show interest in these toys for the very first time.
KEEP IT NEAT
Now that everything has a proper home, it should be much easier to clean up and put things back where they belong for both you and your toddler. I have also found that by giving specific category names and baskets for each category to live in, it makes it much easier to stop the flow of toys into your home.
For example, for his next birthday, when relatives ask what to get Thomas, we can say with confidence “His favorites are Matchbox cars, puzzles, books, and Lego Duplex blocks.”
This whole thing might sound controlling….and it is. But as the adults, we must make decisions that will lead to a better and more peaceful existence on the home front. And if it makes you feel better, I believe having less toys forces kids to use their imaginations more. I swear Thomas could find dozens of ways to play with a pile of Matchbox cars, turning them in certain ways, lining them up, flipping them over, acting out little car dramas (Help! I’m loosing oil fast!).
Overall, Thomas hasn’t noticed that anything is missing from his life and we are super happy with the new system too. If you had to pick, what are your child’s favorites? Identifying those categories might just put an end to the battle against toys once and for all.
