Here’s an excerpt about organizing kids playrooms and bedrooms from one of our Saving with Kids e-books.
Organizing Kids’ Rooms and Toys
I was just organizing kids toys for the boys yesterday. It’s funny– Kids really do love a clean room!
BJ (13) asked David (7) “Would you please ask mom to help you clean up your stuff!” Not even two seconds later, David came out and said, “Mom can you please help me clean up my room”. After it was cleaned up, they both said “Thank you so much mom!”
Kids love neat and clean areas just as much we do. I know kids need to keep their own stuff picked up but there are times when the cavalry does need to come in and save the day.
Enjoy! Tawra
De-cluttering Toys
Make piles and label boxes according to these categories:
Trash (I bring in the kitchen trash can and just throw it straight in there.)
Sort and put away in room
Yard sale/Give away
Put in another room
Pack and store
Decide
BE RUTHLESS!
I can’t stress enough how important it is when organizing kids’ rooms to be ruthless in getting rid of your children’s excess toys. As parents, we know we are supposed to protect our children physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Often we worry so much about others harming our children in these areas but, more often than not, we are the ones who do the greatest harm to them. One of the ways that we forget to protect our children emotionally is by allowing them to have so many toys and things that they become overwhelmed and frustrated.
I know this may seem like something trivial compared to what is going on in the world, but you have to realize your child’s room and toys are his world. Children really aren’t interested in anything else but their own spheres, and if that little world of theirs is piled with mounds of toys and other things, it can be overwhelming for them to deal with on a daily basis.
I can’t handle it if I have too many things to choose from, and I’m an adult. What did you feel like the last time you went to buy something new like shampoo or make-up? Were you overwhelmed with so many different kinds to choose from? There’s nothing wrong with any of them. It’s just that there are so many kinds. Put yourself in your child’s place. A child isn’t as emotionally mature as you are. Imagine how he feels.
I just watched an organizing show where the parents (at the advice of the organizer) spent several hundred dollars on shelving and storage containers to store the children’s toys. One container alone held 75 small cars. No child needs 75 or more of any type of toy at all. Do you know how much money could have been saved on shelving and containers if they had just gotten rid of more of those toys? Think of the headaches you have just trying to keep all those toys under control.
Don’t feel guilty or think you are depriving your children when you reduce excess toys. You are doing them a favor, and besides they probably won’t miss them. Have you noticed how children usually play with the same handful of toys over and over? In the same way, we keep 25 different colors of eye shadow, but only use 3-4 favorites over and over. If the rest of them were dumped, we wouldn’t even miss them, and our kids won’t miss the extra toys, either
Of course, this doesn’t mean to be cruel and get rid of their favorite bears or dolls, but I’m talking about all those things buried at the bottom of their toy boxes and closets that haven’t seen the light of day for years.
Here are some other tips to help you get started organizing kids toys:
- Use drawers as toy boxes. Put 4 casters on the bottom and slide them in and out from under the bed.
- Use a wicker laundry basket to store toys. Then you can slide it under the bed if needed.
- Use a small kid’s swimming pool to store things under the child’s bed. They slide in and out easily.
- Zippered bags that blankets come in will work great for collections of toys such as small stuffed animals, army men and cooking supplies. They also stack nicely and can slide under the bed.
For lots more tips to organize, teach, inspire and motivate your kids, check out Living On A Dime’s Saving With Kids e-book series here.
-Jill
PS Since I wrote this I saw a show where these 2 boys had mounds and mounds of toys. For fun they would throw their toys out their bedroom window to watch them break and shatter. The parents didn’t have a clue so they had someone come in to help and the first thing they did was take away all the toys but 10. The interesting thing was the boys took care of the toys better, put them up without a fuss and actually played with the toys. These facts might help some of you parents be more ruthless.
Some moms out there may not agree with this method but I wait until the kiddo is at school and weed out anything he hasn’t played with in the last few months. If it is something he really enjoyed playing with in the past, it gets stored away for when he asks about it but he has to “pay” me by choosing another toy or set to replace it in storage. I allow him to keep one small container that we call “junk toys” for those cruddy little odds and ends, fast food meal toys etc. I sift through that and just toss the broken and or cheapy stuff that he has forgotten about. He’s never missed anything this way. We know he’ll get more toys and things for Christmas and his birthday (right after Christmas) every year so around Thanksgiving, we do go through everything together and set a goal of getting rid of 25% of the things he doesn’t use anymore. We include movies, books and computer games as well as toys in this activity. This is a great time to stress the importance of donating things for people who are less fortunate.
What a great post! I’ve been needing to de-clutter my 5 year olds room for months now. He really doesn’t need all the toys he has in there now. Like you said he plays with the same ones over and over.
My friend also had another idea to rotate toy boxes. Put some toys away at the top of the closet. Every month or so take down that box and put some of the toys in his/her room now. That way you are rotating the toys and its like Christmas every month!
Rotating toys is a great way to go! As a young mother, I did that with my two young boys. Even now, in their 30′s they remember how excited they would be on toy changing night. They say it was like Christmas Eve. Of course, played with favorites would be exempt as well as blankies. Also, passing along the duds as soon as you notice is a good idea.
This is probably obvious, but I think another important thing to remember is to BUY less toys! We try to make a gift of a toy very special and very seldom. When family members ask for gift ideas for Christmas and birthdays I don’t hesitate to say what clothes they need, books, games to play as a family, etc. It seems like toys grow at night though because my children still have more than they can play with.
I remember my great aunt coming over when I was a little girl. She looked at all our toys and was shocked (which weren’t many by today’s standards). She told my mom she remembers having three toys growing up in the Depression Era. She wasn’t being mean or anything. It was more like she was just being nostalgic. Anyway, my mom thought about it and decided we had way too many toys. She ruthlessly purged our home of the extras. We just had our favorites left. The funny thing is that- though I remember sorting through our toys- I don’t remember ever missing any. It didn’t make any difference in our day to day play.
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I can attest to the idea of “rotating” toys. As a former Kindergarten teacher I rotated library books every week only putting out enough to keep them all interested and able to share. Not only did it instill an active interest in books it kept the books I had in much better condition.
Rotating toys would also keep them in better shape and if you have yearly yardsales the toys would fetch a better price as well. I don’t see any problem with the concept of if you get a new toy something in your toybox has to go. That might diminish the constant desire for something new (maybe!). It is worth a try….and of course too many toys are just overwhelming and make a child confused and frustrated. I found in my years of teaching that the kids who had less toys/video games etc at home were much more creative and their ability to concentrate was far superior.
When my kids were younger, I went into their rooms to clean when they were at school. One of them noticed there were many fewer toys in his room, and accused me of taking his toys away. I answered that yes I had, and that I would return anything he could identify as missing. He couldn’t, and I think that was a real eye opener for him. He is now the neatnik of the family and out on his own, with his own purposely minimally furnished apartment.
Sandi, that is brilliant!! I will have to use that one on my kids!
I am definitely borrowing that idea!
This is awesome! I will definitely use this one!
As an Auntie, every year I say that I am going to deposit funds in the kids’ savings accout but I don’t. This is great motivation to do so.
I think this strategy would work well for adult “toys”, too. My toys are books and board games. Now is a good time, as we enter a new year, to sort through these things for me, too. I like the idea of making a decision now instead of just holding on to them to decide another time. With the books I have already donated, I cannot even remember their titles so know that another batch of donations will give pleasure (I hope) to someone else and I can concentrate on reading the ones I really am interested in. Love these tips on sorting.
You are so right Maggie. I should have put on the title “Toys for all Ages”.
I would like to know how to get rid of junk that a hoarder in our home collects. Namely my husband! It is terrible. He keeps chairs cluttered and the table toop cannot be set for dinner for his junk. I am often embarrassed when people come in and see his CLUTTER!!!!!
Linda I too lived with a hoarder. We compromised in that he kept his stuff out of the house and in the garage, basement etc. It was still hard. The thing is if you have a true hoarder it is one of those problems that you need to often get professional help with and/or do more then just come up with rules, setting down the law or even trying to insist they just get it cleaned up. It is an emotional problem, an addiction and goes way beyond saying you need to do 1,2,3 and this will fix it. It is a never ending battle and problem if not taken care of. Tawra’s dad’s whole family has major problems in this area so we know exactly what you are going through and is a complicated situation.
Hello. My name is Grizzly Bear Mom and I am a bookaholic. I try to overcome this by dotting favorite books on the bottom of the spine and donating others. But they are so cheap at the dollar store and church bazaar I have to do this frequently. I have about 8 boxes of books to purge right now.
My girls and me go to Thrift stores. In order to get “new” toys they must be willing to “give their old not played with toys to the thrift stores. They actually ask to do so… lol
When my now 34,32 and 30 yr olds where preschoolers, (boy, am I old) I would get very frustrated with all of the toys everywhere. So I bagged up all but three apiece for each of them and put the rest in the top of their closet. I noticed that they did not even miss all the excess…imagine that!! We switched out toys from the bag for years. My 34 yr old still has his original Mickey Mouse and a Speak and Spell that I bought in the mid-eighties. Kids don’t miss all that stuff, and we don’t have to get everything that is advertised to little ones.