If you’re a parent then one of the most nightmarish jobs can be Name Your Link
The first step is to allocate places in your home where you want there to be toys and clearly places where you don’t want any toys stored. This way, you can plan how to organize your space. These spaces for toys could be in a family room, your child’s room, or even in a separate play room.
It is important, however, to designate places where toys simply aren’t allowed because of safety reasons (like the kitchen), to keep clutter in your house down to a minimum, and to establish boundaries. Your bedroom, for example, should be a toy-free zone. Your children will quickly learn that you have your own space and that they have their own.
Apart from toy zones, you can also allot reading zones and craft zones for your children so specific items get left in specific places instead of ending up all over the house.
When trying to identify a place for arts and crafts to take place, you need to make sure it is a place without carpet, has a large table, and can accomodate storage space for drawers in order to store craft supplies.
A helpful tip to use: if you are strapped for storage space or have an apartment or small house, try boxing up toys in two or three alotments. Store them in your basement or closet and rotate the toys every couple of months. Your child is sure to never get bored with his or her toys again.
Let The Organizing Begin!
So, how do you begin sorting toys? Begin by dividing toys according to what “zone” they go into. For instance, craft stuff goes into the craft zone, books and other “quiet toys” like puzzles might go into the reading zone, pretend play things go into another zone, games are stored in one area as well – possibly in the family room, and fine motor toys might go into another zone to be sorted further into smaller bins.
When storing your child’s toys, you have a wide variety of storage options. For instance, if you want toys to be hidden because appearances are important, then you might consider a wooden toybox for the family room. Another option when you want easy acces to toys, and also want to be able to see which toys are in containers are plastic storage bins. Less expensive, readily available options like shoeboxes and coffee containers can also be used as well.
However, you will want to create shelves so that toys can be placed into bins onto the shelves, so that each type of toy has its own place on a shelf. If you use shelves, then make the shelves safe by reinforcing them to a wall. After you have organized the toys and placed them where you want them, then teach your child how to put away their toys after playing with them so they can learn where everything goes. If you don’t want your child to get overwhelmed, then make it a group effort.
The next step is to label storage bins so everyone, including your kids, know where toys go. Buy a labeler or purchase a stack of index cards. If you opt for index cards, you can write in black marker on one side and tape it to the bins. If your child doesn’t read, have your child help you draw pictures of the kinds of items in the bins, which will help them to retrieve items later on. Another good piece of advice when receiving a new toy is to cut out a small picture from the toy’s packaging to tape to a bin so your child can know what is in the bins.
Organizing your child’s toys is important because it helps teach your child important skills they can carry with them throughout their lives. It makes life easier, less cluttered, helps your child learn boundaries, and teaches them personal responsibility. Designate a time each night when your children clean up their toys. If you implement this system, eventually, your children should know where each of their toys go – this will make your life easier because then they can clean up all on their own!
As far as clutter is concerned, to reduce the amount of things you have, it is important to get rid of your child’s toys when they outgrow them. The perfect time to do this could be before Christmas or Birthdays. Also, keep only age appropriate toys around, this way, your child can get the most out of their toys, and you get to save space in your house. You can get your kids enthused about getting rid of “old” toys by helping them select toys they won’t play with anymore. If they know they will be getting new stuff, they will be much more likely to want to help out as well.
If you are the type of person who wants to hold onto things for future generations, then consider how quickly toys change. The chances are very unlikely that children twenty years from now will want to play with the toys of today. Donating toys can be a great option instead of throwing toys away. Maybe those toys will make some other child as happy as they made your child. Let your child have part of the control of what to give up and donate to other children. They will miss the toys a lot less and will feel good about helping out another kid.
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