How do you mamas handle this?
My children are 4 and 21 months...Up until now I've always had their books and toys on very accessible levels for them. We use wicker laundry baskets and shelves to keep their toys available. There are a couple of wicker baskets in the living room and our bedroom that are relatively easy to 'pick up' when we clean.

Their bedroom and the converted garage playroom have baskets, shelves and all the toys with 'pieces'. It's juts too much...I love watching them play with their tree blocks tree house but an hour later all of the animals, gnomes, treasures, etc are spread everywhere. Not just spread, but mixed with the pieces from every other toy and game we own.

I'm really thinking of putting a good number of toys 'up' and just bringing them down in rotation but I feel like I'd be limiting thier access and creativity. Does anyone have a system?

Do you put things away out of site and just rotate them a couple of times a year? Or, should I find ways to put them up but in site like more shelves at the top of the closet so that while they aren't all always down, they can see them and ask for something specific when they'd like to play with it?

TIA
Jenn:juggle:

We have decluttered the toys twice now and we are really down to the things they love

but

it seems those things (like a treehouse, train set, barn/animals) each have a million pieces.


OH, and books. We have hundreds of children'sbooks. I'm thinking of rotating these somehow but not sure how.

I know the kids won't miss 1/2 of these going somewhere where they don't get spread on the floor but the problem is me....we read tons of books a day and I really like being able to pull out Blueberries for Sal after we pick blackberries at Grandma's house or The bug book after we garden and find 2 different types of spiders. I don't want to go looking for a book that ties into something we're learning right then and have it packed away in a box under the bed. At the same time I need to find a way to organize / simplify. Any ideas?

:)Jenn

I don't think less toys = less mess. If you really have decluttered down to just what they play with on a regular basis, I don't think "putting things up" is really a solution. It just means your going to have to be bringing things down for them frequently.

It sounds to me like your complaint isn't the quantity of toys so much as the mess being made with them. Do you do a "ten second tidy" when they are finished playing with certain things & at certian times of day? Are the baskets child friendly labeled (with pictures) so they can clean up easily? Do your boxes have lids so they have to ask you for help before dumping all the pieces on the floor?

I find myself asking DD to "put all the dolls back in the basket before taking out your train set" or "put all the silks in the basket before watching a movie" all the time. We also do "10 second tidy" before we leave to go anywhere & before bed. I try to only stop and have her clean up when I see the natural break in her play. Most of the toys with small pieces in our house (and all the craft stuff) is either higher up or in baskets with tricky lids. This has really slowed DD's destruction of the house because she has to move a chair or ask for help before dumping glitter on the floor.

anyway, jsut some of my thoughts. HTH

Chole

Jenn,

Anything with small pieces is up in the closet and comes down upon request. You know Marcellus ;) and how mischevious he can be!! Usually Avery and Gavin ask for those things during naptime, or we get them out and they shut the bedroom door. The games are only allowed down one at a time, and all of the pieces need to be back in the box before another can come down.

As far as the other toys, we have an under the bed drawer/storage area where the toys are organized in boxes. This works well because it is easy for the kids to see where to put them back (action figures in one box, plastic animals in one box, dolls in another, etc.) and Marcellus can't open the big drawer, yet the other two can. This keeps most of the toys out of sight but still easily accessible.

I am hatching a plan lol

I think we are going to put the games (at the very least) up out of reach. We only play them in the evening and it's generally my idea that initiates it anway. I don't need to *see* them to have the idea lol. That will help a lot beause my toddler likes to just spread all of the cards and die from all the games on the floor and then get up and walk away:confused: not enough play value there to warrant the 20 minutes it takes me to sort everything back into it's boxes lol.

I've also been watching how they play. My toddler likes to 'hold' something all the time. Generally something little, but it makes clean up harder because pieces end up in all different rooms instead of somewhere near the toy they go with.

He'll stand at the train table and then walk away with a tree. The tree goes over to the magnets where he plays for 2 minutes, leaving the tree and taking 2 magnets into his bedroom where he puts the magnets into the barn and takes out a cow and heads to the backyard.....you get the idea. I'm going to try to work with him on this a little. If he wants to *play* with the thing somewhere else, GREAT, if he's just going to *move* it maybe we can work on keeping things in their homes so they are there next time we want them lol. We'll see:rolleyes:

My 4 year old plays by taking all the pieces of toys and piling them all into one box or basket (autistic spectrum tendencies). This is hard to clean up from because every 20 minutes a different room of the house has baskets full of all sorts of misc pieces. He enjoys when I play and 'model' for him so I'm going to make an effort to really sit next to him at least once a day and show him some *other* options on playing with things instead of just gathering. We spend so much time outdoors and at libraries and museum that on home days I just let him do his thing but I think I'll try expanding his interactions a bit more directly and maybe help with the constant piles of toys a bit as well.

Thanks for the ideas and tips,
Jenn