Simple Ideas for Organizing Your Children’s Toys – Start Today

Are you ready to organize your child’s toys? We’ve all been there, it seems like the toys are taking over the house, and you’re at your wit’s end. It happens so quickly.

I’ve shared how we organize and rotate our children’s toys in this blog post and break it down more in my How to Encourage Independent Play eBook. Still, today I want to share some fun and simple ways to get more toy organization in your life with items you already have lying around.

The trick to organizing your child’s toys is ensuring every toy has a specific home that is easy to find and put away.

First, select a strategy for organizing your toys.

I like to separate and label toys by type. This varies in each home, but some possible “types” of toys could be: building materials (blocks, legos, magnatiles), arts and crafts (painting supplies, paper, pipe cleaners), transportation (matchbox cars, train pieces, dump trucks), traditional puzzles (puzzle boards with a multitude of parts), non-traditional puzzles (puzzles that stand up like this tree puzzle), and music + movement (tambourines, scarves, maracas).

You could also separate toys by age appropriateness, materials they’re made of, colors, or children’s favorite toys. Whatever you choose, make sure it makes sense for YOUR brain and family! You can use my free labels from THIS BLOG POST to create your categories and steal the ones we use.

DIY Montessori Toy Organizer / Clear Bins without Lids / Colorful Bins with Handles / Large Plastic Toy Bins / Rope Baskets / Plastic Bins with Lids

Second, secure storage for your toys.

There are so many fun and creative ways to organize toys! Here are a few ideas that may work for you:

• Use labeled baskets or containers to store similar items together. You can even get creative by marking the containers with fun images or phrases.
• Utilize wall space by adding shelves or bins. Your children will love having their favorite toys within easy reach. While expensive, this is our favorite toy shelf!
• Use different kinds of trays and low bins to display various types of toys. Then label the containers with images or phrases to help your kids know where everything goes.
• Hang up a clothesline with clothespins to hang up stuffed animals.
• Create a Lego table or art station with drawers and bins to store the pieces.
• Organize books by color, size, or genre. You can even designate a special shelf or corner for your child’s favorite books.
• You can use the top of your dressers and cabinets to store small items like action figures and dolls.

Follow me on Pinterest to see which storage options are my favorite! Organizing toys doesn’t have to be boring; have fun with them and make it a family activity.

Originally our children had the typical wire hanging shelf that comes standard in most new builds. But before our twins were born, my husband and I took some time to take down the wire shelving and add some Ikea shelves and drawers to their closets, using this blog post as inspiration. It was the BEST decision we could have made because this new setup gave us shelves to store boxes of toys and drawers for our children’s clothes while providing plenty of room in their bedroom for play! 

Let’s start organizing toys!

Once you’ve decided how to organize your children’s toys, you’re ready to start the hard part; organizing them and cleaning them up. There are two ways to go about this.

Option 1: Carve out a few hours to organize your child’s toys

Carve out a few hours (it gets worse before it gets better) and start separating your toys into those categories you chose above. I start in a big empty room and dump everything on the floor. Then I go through each toy and separate it into the appropriate categories. 

I start with the categories written on scrap paper and adjust them as I go. Sometimes we have a lot of items in one category. When that happens, I split the category up even more. For example, we have a LOT of transportation items. So instead of putting ALL the matchbox cars, trains, and train pieces into one box, I separate them into three boxes. One box for matchbox cars, one for toy trains, and a third (much larger) box for train pieces. 

Option 2: Sort and organize toys over a month as you gather them or clean them out

Need more time to complete this process? That’s okay! Grab your boxes and loosely label them with the categories you’ve chosen. Then place them somewhere you can easily access them but your children cannot. I would use our garage or a wall in our bedroom.

As you clean up your house, place toys that don’t have a home or have been left lying around in the appropriate box. As time goes on, you’ll start noticing the patterns and have toys sorted into individual categories. Add a final label to each box, then put the boxes away so each toy has its designated spot to stay organized.

Keep your children’s toys organized.

Now that your children’s toys are organized and have a designated space, you’ll want to keep them organized and tidy. You can do this by rotating toys in play areas and staying on top of cleaning up. Easier said than done, I know! Give yourself grace – knowing where each toy goes makes it much easier (and quicker) to clean up at the end of each day!

I hope these ideas for organizing toys have been helpful to you! Be sure to share your organized toys on social media and tag me, so I can see them, too!