How To Keep Toys Organized Easily

Do you struggle to keep toys organized in your house? If you always have 5 million toys spread all over the floor that your children don’t even play with they have trouble keeping them neat and tidy, just know you are not alone. Today I’m going to share with you how we help toys get played with and stay neat and tidy in our house.

Image by freepik

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.

I have had several people tell me at different times that their toddler has so many toys but hardly ever plays with them. They always spread them all over the floor and that’s about all that they do with them. They don’t use their imagination and make up stories or play like they remember playing.

In most cases this isn’t too hard to fix, so if this is you, don’t worry, just keep reading.

“My Kids Won’t Play With Their Toys.”

Normally there are two problems people want solutions to when they say this; the toys are always all over the floor, and their child don’t play with them. Thankfully there is a pretty easy solution to both of these problems, and it is actually the same one. Have fewer toys!

I know, now you are thinking “But if I have fewer toys, then they really won’t play, they already won’t play with all the toys they have now”. But trust me, the toys are a large part of the problem.

Why Are Toys The Problem?

Let me explain….. Has your house ever gotten messy and everything needed to be done? The dishes needed washing, the floors swept and vacuumed, the laundry started, the bathroom cleaned, etc? When it gets that way, do you have trouble focusing on one task and instead get easily distracted and jump from thing to thing because you are overwhelmed?

It’s the same way with kids when they have too many toys, they get overwhelmed and overstimulated. When they get overwhelmed and overstimulated they can’t focus on anything and instead of playing with their toys they just make a big mess and might pick up a toy or two for a minute before moving on to the next one.

The less toys that they have in front of them the better they can focus and the more they will play.

Now having fewer toys doesn’t mean you have to throw them all away (although it is likely you should do that with some of them), but put them away, in a basement, closet, garage, or anywhere out of sight.

How To Start To Keep Toys Organized?

So now you know what you have to do, but you don’t know where to start. This is what I like to do:

1. Put all the toys in a pile.
2. Sort all the toys into piles of things that go together. All the baby dolls and doll stuff in one pile, all the blocks in another, kitchen stuff in another, etc.
3. Throw away anything broken, missing pieces, or that is trash anyway.
4. Make a pile of things to donate. Toys no one ever plays with, or the children have grown out of, or things you have multiple of (do they really need 10 stuffed bears?).
5. Put each pile of toys in a basket or bucket so it is contained.
6. Pick 2 or 3 sets of toys to keep out and put the rest away. I like to take out sets of toys that might go together. For example, currently, on our toy shelves, we have color-sorting food, kitchen toys, blocks, a couple of balls, and around 10 books. The color-sorting food can be used with its buckets, or with the kitchen toys and sometimes the blocks get used as food too.
7. Switch out what is on the shelf for something else every couple of weeks or months.

I don’t like to switch the toys out as soon as they get bored of them because we don’t want to teach them that anytime they get bored they will get something new to play with. They also need to learn to be content with what they have, so I will normally leave the toys for a couple of weeks after they seem to be playing with them less and then I’ll switch them out.

Why Keep Only A Few Toys Out At Once?

I already mentioned that keeping less toys out helps them play better because they can focus on one thing instead of being overwhelmed with things to play with.

It also helps there be less of a mess, even if they do take every toy off the toy shelves. If they pull everything off to play with and everything is only 2 or 3 sets of toys, then it won’t make much of a mess and it will still be manageable for them to clean up by themselves.

With less toys on the floor you will find they have an easier time cleaning them up by themselves because that process isn’t overwhelming either.

A Few Other Tips To Help Keep Toys Organized And Played With

• Teach your children to pick up their toys. This is easiest if you start when they are young and model it. Teach them that when they are done playing to pick up the floor, it really makes a big difference.
• If you notice that certain toys never get played with when they are out and they are age-appropriate toys, sell them, gift them to someone, or donate them somewhere. There is no reason for them to sit in your house taking up space if they never get played with, someone else can use them. I know that is easier said than done, especially if it is something you have gotten for them, but it is unnecessary to keep things around if they don’t get played with. Doing this helps keep down the amount of toys overall.
• Make sure the toys you have are quality toys. By this, I don’t mean expensive toys or anything like that, I mean toys that can actually be played with. If you have a bunch of plastic toys with lights and buttons you will find that they don’t play with them all that much. This is because there really isn’t anything to do with them, you can press the same buttons over and over and get the same result. Open-ended toys, such as blocks, people and animal figures, tinker toys, etc, leave room for creativity and you will find that they get played with more and for longer than battery-powered toys. We only have a couple of battery-powered toys in our house and they rarely get played with, because they really aren’t any fun.
• Don’t keep your toys in a toy box. Keeping toys in a toy box makes them hard to see and makes it so they have to pull out more toys to get what they are looking for. Keeping them in baskets or buckets in an easy-to-reach place makes it easier for them to get out what they need without making a mess.

Conclusion:

Go slim down your toy shelves and make sure you have toys that your children can play with, then watch as they start to actually play with their toys!