Posted in Organization

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

Keep It Together, Girl!

Toy Rotation

Take me too any home with 1 or more children and I will show you a home with too many toys. Every mom feels that way. Too many pieces to too many different toys. Games that can no longer can be played, for missing pieces. Activities that have pieces strewn all across the house and under your sofa cushions. Not to mention that clean-up time is a laborsome chore that seems to take forever. Here is a solution that may help your children and WILL be less stressful for you.

When I first learned of toy rotation, I was over joyed. Who would have thunk that I could just store toys in those big inexpensive tubs and "hide" them away? Then when it was time to bring out new toys, the ones currently in their room would go in the tubs, to be stored away while the "new" toys were the ones to play with. This DID work great, except for one thing. Those tubs were awful hard to manage and store in our garage. Stuff would get piled on top of them, thus creating a real struggle for me to get motivated to switch the toys out. Also, living in Florida, there isn't a lot of storage here. Actually, the ONLY storage is your garage. We have no attics. We have no basements. We have laundry rooms (in name only) that often times are located in the garage. So storage space is limited and precious! (So much so that it is not uncommon to see a home that no longer has a garage, because it has been converted into a room.) So no matter where the boxes were located, it inhibited some type of function, like getting to the switchbox, emptying the central vac, opening a car door, etc. It was time to rethink this idea.

First let me say, if you have the space for larger plastic tubs, by all means use them for your toy rotation. If you have storage issues (such as no large storage space, but little spaces here and there) you CAN still use this wonderful concept. Start by making a list of toys that would be good to rotate. For our family, anything that is not a large toy is up for rotation.

Checkout local discount stores (Dollar Tree, WalMart, Big Lots) for plastic tubs. You are looking for tubs that are approximately 17 x 15 x 11. Lids are important! If the tub has a generic flat lid, over time that lid will bow, bend, and eventually not secure into place. Those lids that are contoured and made for stacking, may also have the added security of handles that come up around the lid. The main concept you need to look for, is lids that are contoured for stacking. For those who are spacially challenged and have a haze over your eyes trying to determine what 17 x 15 x 11 is, think about a mid sized all in one printer or a case of printer paper. Ultimately I chose this size due to its ease to be placed in a corner, stacked compactly, placed on a higher shelf, etc. In addition, would not be so cumbersome or heavy to move. Now, before you purchase, pull out your list and try to determine how many boxes you will need to store 1/4 to 3/4 of the items on your list. This will depend on how much you want to scale back your children's daily coices. Our family uses amount of clean up time to determine how many toys we want out and about. Make your purchase and head home!

Now comes the fun part. If you follow any of the organization ideas I offer, you likely have small boxes and bags grouped with toys...although some pieces may be around the house. Place a few bags and/or boxes of toys in one of your boxes, note if any pieces are missing. At this point I make a circuit around the house in search of noted missing pieces after asking the littletons if they know where the pieces are. OH, you may be SURPRISED to find that they know even a most remote location of a toy! Once a box is filled, secure the lid and push off to the side. Repeat this process until you have the appropriate number of boxes packed to meet your needs.

Ok, before you start looking for nooks and crannies to store these boxes, I want you to take a moment to THINK OUTSIDE of the BOX. Is there a place in plain site that the boxes can be stored? For example, 3 boxes are stacked under our long school table. They are back against the wall so they do not interfere with our use of the table in any way. In my sewing/guest room, I made curtains from an old sheet. The other part of the sheet made a pretty little nightstand tablecloth. Guess what the night stand is? 2 Stacked Boxes! Since the room is for guests and only serves to hold a small lamp, there was no need for worry over sturdiness or full functionality of a nightstand. Another 2 stacked boxes serve as a side table for sewing. These boxes have another sheet turned into tablecloth over them. This table serves to hold my pin cushions, scissors, and other small items I am using for a project and need quick and easy access to.

Once you have determined whether or not you can store the boxes inconspicuously and also have them serve a different function, how many boxes are left? Now, where to store them. Remeber to think vertical. Oftentimes, bedroom closets have a rather high shelf that isn't much good for storing items you need on a regular basis. The top of a file cabinet can house 2 boxes and still look neat and tidy. An odd corner in a closet is an ideal location to store a box! Actually, I have an obscure corner that stores 2 boxes stacked. You could open my closet and NEVER see the boxes. Will the boxes fit under your bed?

Once the boxes are stored, it is important for you to mark the date. Determine a period of time that offers the children time to have "played out" with the current toys. When you reach the "change it up" date, pick a time when the hubby has the littletons out for about a half hour. Grab however many boxes from around the house you need to replace the toys they currently have available. Carefully, unload a box of "new" toys and reload with some of the "old" toys. Continue to do this until all toys are rotated. When the littltons come home, they will be SO SURPRISED! Our littletons always have a celebration of sorts when they realize that Mom reloaded their toys.

Depending on the number of toys your children have and the space they have for storing in their closet and shelves, you may be able to have more than one rotation of toys. We have 2 rotations. However, 1 rotation is ideal! We are working towards that. Here are a few things to think about. Toys that are not taken for granted by being available 24/7 have a greater longevity. Why? Kids don't have access to them constantly. When they get bored, it is removed and replaced with another toy that was boring 3 months ago. By the time that toy is returned into circulation, it is no longer boring. Some of our toys have been here for years! We know kids that have "outgrown" certain toys. Although the toys for that child and mine were acquired in roughly the same time frame, ours are still going strong! By doing rotations, you are more likely to keep track of many pieces. One of the items that really used to bug me, was Mr Potato Head. Not only did we have the oodles of pieces he came with, but over the years the kids have scored a collection of pieces when we visit a store that has bins of random pieces to choose from. He no longer bothers me, because there isn't enough time or chaos for them to get lost, now!

All this said, if children keep their toys longer, you will spend less! Your sanity will be saved (ok maybe this is only momentarily for some of us, but we will take it where we can get it). Your children will be able to better learn to care for their items, because they won't have so much out at any given time to be overwhelmed. This is a win, win, win, situation!

These are my thoughts.