Do you feel like you’re organizing your children’s toys all day/every day? I DO. Please say I’m not the only one. They are never-ending, always a mess, and keeping them tidy is a task best left to those with indispensable energy (ahem, not me). But recently, I learned three AMAZING simple rules that have changed our playroom lives. And they keep our children INDEPENDENTLY ENGAGED with their toys way more than they ever did. Is it magic? Maybe. But I’ve learned that we, as parents, tend to overthink it. Less is more.
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One of those magical tips includes only setting out 6-10 toys in your child’s playroom at a time and rotating them every week or so. Welp, I don’t know about you, but we have WAY MORE than 6-10 toys. So I had to get creative. And fast… or else toys would consume our home.
Organizing Your Children’s Toys
As part of my How to Build a Home That Creates Independent Play E-Course, I break down our entire process (in simple steps for you). But if you’re ready to go now, I recommend ordering some plastic tubs, I love THESE and THESE (because they’re affordable and come in good sizes), then editing and printing out my FREE printable toy labels, and getting to work!
First, decide where you want to store your child’s toys, and then clear some space in front of that area. We store our toys in my son’s bedroom closet, so I gathered all of our toys and placed them in a huge messy pile on the floor in front of the closet. One by one, I picked up each toy and sorted them into similar items, creating piles around the room. As piles got bigger, I’d find a plastic storage tub to put that pile in and loosely label it. I also break down this process in more detail in my How to Create a Home That Promotes Independent Play eCourse, as well!
While this system is far from perfect, IT WORKS, and our toys are nice and organized. I know where everything is and how to get to it quickly, which makes rotating toys a breeze. This means my children are engaged and happy, without screen time, and I don’t have to stress while trying to unload the dishwasher, fold laundry, drink some coffee in peace, or answer some emails. PRAISE.
Adding Free Printable Toy Labels
Before getting started, I created some simple printable toy labels for myself with toy groupings I knew we already had and needed a home for, like animals, music & movement, etc. Then I also printed out some blank toy labels and grabbed a marker. As I went through our toys and organized them into groups, I used the labels to keep similar groups organized. To grab your own printable toy labels, click the link below to take you to Canva. You will be shown a template for editing your own labels. Here you can change the text and the design in the background. If you’re unsure how to edit the text in Canva, check out this helpful article!
