Toy Rotation

My kids own every toy ever made. OK maybe not, but it really does feel that way sometimes. In our old house, we did a toy rotation because the toy room was actually my dining room.   I hated that it looked like Toys R us had literally thrown up all over our house, and that was before last christmas, or as I call it, the christmas my parents lost their fool minds and bought the kids everything they could possibly buy and then three other things.


This is last christmas at my moms house, please remember I only have two children

When we moved though, the girls got a dedicated toy room, I was so excited! Not only did I get to have a dining room table, but the girls would actually be able to play with their toys! I figured since the room was pretty big, i wouldn't need to do a toy rotation. I couldn't have been more wrong. Did I mention they have every toy ever made? You couldn't do anything in that room, and it was impossible to keep clean and organised.
So out came the bins.  We are almost done, and it couldn't have made a bigger difference.  The girls can now play with their toys, even help to clean them up! There's space on the floor to walk and everything is just much calmer and neater. 
It may seem like a big task to start, and it is, but it shouldn't take more than an afternoon and will make a huge difference in quality of playtime and cutting down on clean up time.

What you Need

A babysitter, you do not want your kids watching you put their toys away

Bins, enough to hold 3/4 of your kids stuff

labels and markers

a basement/attic/extra closet/some form of storage space

1. Assemble all the toys from the entire house ( excluding stuffies and books from bed) into one room

2. Identify the toys your kids cant live without, for us that was the easel and art supplies, Princess Barbies and Dress Up Stuff

3. Separate the remaining toys into 4 groups of roughly the same amount each.  Make sure that all sets are together ( eg, Barbies and Barbie clothes, Mickey with Minnie etc. ) Try to make sure there's a variety of different toys in each group

4. Pack away three of the four groups of toys and label the boxes 1-3, Put in storage somewhere where they are relatively easily accessible

5. That's it, you're done. Kick back and enjoy a coffee break, you've earned it

I try to bring out new toys every 3-4 weeks, but you can go longer or shorter depending on your kids. I find 3-4 weeks is just long enough that by the time the new toys come out, its like Christmas day for them.

What tricks do you use to keep things organised?

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