With two cute growing kiddos, our toys collection just seems to keep growing along with them. Every six months or so, I like to do a purge of the extra ones and then figure out a system to keep their favourite ones in order and easy to find. I’m finding that as our family grows and changes, so do our needs.
Currently, we keep most of the toys in the living room and the kids bedroom which works out well. But the past couple of months as Brendan is nearing two years old, I’ve noticed that the baskets of miscellaneous toys in the living room don’t work to keep his attention as they used to. When he was younger he used to love sitting in front of a basket of toys and digging through it to find something new. But recently they were just getting dumped and then passed over for something else.
Now that Brendan’s old enough that he and Emma play together for more extended periods of time, they’re both engaged much longer in an activity if it’s something they can do and use their imaginations with (like building a castle or racing cars around). Certain toys I’ve always kept separate because it made sense, like the wooden blocks and mega blocks, but now I decided to take the two miscellaneous baskets full of toys and do the same.
So one became for their toy animals and farm and the other for their cars and fire station. The others hold their wooden blocks, train set and play tools. While I was at it I tidied up and sorted through the rest of the shelves and gave away some things we weren’t using or loving anymore.
And you know what? It worked! The kids are so much more ready to go and play on their own now that they can really see and find what they have to play with. Instead of just a jumble of toys there are more actual activities together for them to use their imagination with to create something fun. It’s also so much easier for me to redirect them to something to do, when there’s a variety of ideas together for them to play with. We might need to change things up again in the future to suit them better but right now, at the ages of four and almost two, this suits them perfectly.
Now I’m on the hunt to find the perfect dresser to makeover for their bedroom to corral all the play food and dishes beside their kitchen, and make the doll clothes and dress up more accessible.
What about you? How do you organize your kid’s toys? Do you find yourself having to change things up as they get older?
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