Organizing the Toy Explosion

What kinds of toys do your toddlers love? Stuff that makes NOISE, that has BUTTONS, that HURTS when Mommy steps on it accidentally.Where do you keep them? H tries to keep them everywhere, Mommy tries to keep them contained. In his room, he has a toybox, a bookshelf, and 2 rubbermaid bins for the Thomas the Train stuff in the closet. We also have a big leather bin in the living room (under the piano) for some more toys there, and a covered wicker basket under the kitchen desk. In the basement playroom, Mom has kind of given up. There's a storage cube w/ wicker baskets for most of it, but the shopping cart, the Elmo chair (not Mom's idea!) and all the too big for container toys are just out in the room. Ride on vehicles, tricycles, wagons, and other life size wheeled devices and outdoor balls have displaced Daddy's car in the garage. We are seriously thinking about moving, which I hate because I love our house. Do you keep stuffed animals out? How do you "display"/store them? (there are soooo many) There are just a few special ones out, on top of the armoire. The others are piled into a big seagrass hamper. He has a lot of jungle stuffed animals, so they are on top of the pile, which fits w/his jungle themed (think British Raj) room. We've just started getting in the Little People and all sorts of puzzles, and the pieces are making me crazy! Rubbermaid bins in the closet or under the bed. I refuse to look at any more plastic than I have to. I have the same problem w/ the Thomas stuff. Actually, I saw some cool bins at Target. They are wooden, wheeled, look about the size that they'd roll under a child sized table, w/ chalkboard sides. PB KIDS has some similar ones which are not surprisingly more expensive. What kind of kid furniture do you have? H has a small entertainment armoire w/ a shelf and 3 drawers. I think it's really supposed to be a bedroom piece, so you could put a clothes bar in it, but we have a small TV/CD/DVD player combo in it for him now. It functions as a holding pen for all his CDs and DVDS, plus the diaper changing/grooming supplies. Hopefully, when the diaper phase ends, I can use those lower drawers in it for toy storage. He also has a toybox under one window (there are screens, storms and old fashioned, 12 paned windows in our house, with locks, so not a safety concern) and a cubby bench under the other w/his books in it and a cushion on top. A rocker and ottoman, his crib (some storage under that) and a dresser for his clothes. We left the middle of the floor open for playspace. Do you keep any toys in your child's room? Oh yeah. H LOVES his room. He prefers to play up there. Is your child in a regular bed? Not yet, but I have the same worry you do about the midnight play---although in our case it is more likely to be a midnight "CHOO CHOO CRASH!" than a tea party.

Right before a bday I always go through and get rid of toys. Now that my kids are older, they get to help with this. They get so many that I do this at bday and at christmas. We either pick a family that needs them or take them to goodwill.

My 2.5 year old daughter is really into books, coloring, playing dress up, and make believe. She loves to spread out a towell on her bed, and pretend to make a picnic. Plusr she loves playing with her toy kitchen. We also have a ton of stuffed animals. However, she hardly touches them. So I have started a collection for charity. I would say the biggest thing with toddlers is NOT giving them too much to choose from. In other words, I will take out certain toys for awhile, and she will play with them. Then I pack them up and bring out some others. In this way, she doesn't get too frazzled or bored.

I'm glad I'm not the only one getting a MBA in toy management at this point in time! I've moved all the baby blankets and infant type toys and put them away for the moment, stuffed the stuffed animals out of the way and feel like we can breathe a little better for the moment! I think I will try to put a few things in her room and see how it goes! It's made a difference in her little corner of the living room b/c hubby actually noticed and said, "did you get rid of some toys??" (So you know there had to be a noticeable difference) Thanks for the assorted suggestions and tales!

One thing that I did when we came home with our second son we seperated the toys. So when our youngest could crawl/walk to toys he knew that his were here and my oldest had his placed in plastic storage drawers. I do go thru and take out what may be old, broken, or from a kids meal. We either pack them up to donate, some we save, others we throw away if broken. We do use plastic storage bins with the drawers....but I caution they do fall over if not secured to the wall....a great way to store small toys. As for stuffed animals we purchased a hammock and hung it up high....out of reach....and placed all stuffed animals up high. We would let them have what they wanted to play with and when they were done they would go back up out of the way. Of course we have 11 foot ceilings....lol You are getting some great ideas. I am sure there is no wrong or right. It is based on your space and how you like to organize. Good luck! Have fun!

I know - the toys are out of control. I was already trying to think of what to get rid of before the next bday. It's crazy! You know our house so here goes:we still keep the bulk in the family room (some under an antique church pew, some in a toy box, and just picked up a $5 white wood organizer w/ colored canvas bins). There's a music and book corner behind the piano, a few more books under the piano and then maybe 2 more wicker baskets around. He also has a chair/desk that he rarely uses (but loves to climb under) and a low coffee table out in our sunroom/playroom/my office. A wicker trunk houses the "big kid" toys so they're not out unless a big kid is over. It's great for storage, but the lid slams shut, so not safe for the under 4 set. In his room, I have a few stuffed animals on display. a couple of books, but he's rarely up there during waking hours, unless I'm putting away laundry, so I haven't tackled the toy storage up there yet.... Will have to do some serious rearranging when he moves to a bed. I can't wait to get rid of several things!

I have invested in plastic containers and baskets. I am in the process of scanning the toys and making card labels. I have a few bookshelves that the containers are able to be stored. The girls can get out a container and play with the things inside. I am noticing they are beginning to put things back in the right container (mommies help of course). We have toys on every floor of our house with two rooms primarily designated for toys. Bedroom basically has stuff animals and books. Main floor playroom/my office has their kitchen (they can cook while I cook), a magnet board with letters and shapes, a few push around toys (strollers, shopping cart) and stuffed animals and dolls. I like that I can toss toys into this room and shut the door. Our large playroom... the basement has EVERYTHING else... small slide, blocks, Train set, tents, little people, etc.... Things wander from floor to floor and I gather and collect and put back. I try once a month to do a toy re-organization and put the containers in a row and put the right toys back into the right container. I also put things away and bring new things out. It seems new when it's been away for awhile. I change the books as well by the season.

I have built in book shelves in the great room w/ storage cabinets below to house DD's toys DD has part of my computer room as a play room and I have a white storage unit with 6 baskets and the plastic kitchen set up in there. We are garage sale / thrift store and consignment sale junkies!!!! So even though DD is 2.5y.o. her toy allotment as reached is max limit for storage. She has to review her toys prior to Saturday AM excursion into treasure hunting and decide if there is something we can take to the consignment sale or good will. If she can part with something then she can buy something new ( or used but different ). So far this has not been a problem. DD is encouraged to play with a toy and put it back b4 getting out another one. This does not always happen. But she is very well trained in "clean up" prior to leaving that room or us leaving the house. I do this as well with my own things. It normally only takes 5-10 min to do that swift "clean up" prior to changing locations or leaving.

I work hard to NOT BUY all that I think they would enjoy. Chances are they would play with it for 2.5 minutes, then pfffft! it would be chucked aside, never to be looked at or touched again. (Until I trip over it, step or sit on it, of course.)I keep all puzzles up and the kids get to ask for them, even the toddlers. The pieces are just everywhere if I don't. They know where they are and that they need to ask. Same with those multi pieced toy stackers and shape sorters. They ask, they play, we put away. At least that's how it is SUPPOSED to work. :rolleyes: We'll do great for awhile, then something will happen (babysitter, whatever) and oops! the pieces are everywhere and it takes a bit to get it all back together again. But it's the goal we strive for.We have a box of books that the toddlers have access to, but the majority of books are in the library. Stuffed animals migrate regularly throughout the house, but we attempt to keep them in the bedrooms and they aren't allowed to take them outside. (HA! As if this ever stopped anyone from doing it.) I do also attempt to keep the Duplos and building blocks in one box, the other toys (balls, cars, pull toys, etc.) in another box. I only have two boxes (approx 18x12x15 inches) for toys where the kids play. We rotate toys in and out of storage, and I get rid of broken toys (trash), or those that they've outgrown/don't play with (charity thrift store).The kids are to be included in putting away all toys, so I keep the storage simple. Large toy boxes end up with stuff in the bottom half that never sees the light of day, so I keep the bins small and the number of toys limited. If the kids have TOO many toys, they can't keep them picked up. (They are toddlers, after all.) So we try to keep the number of toys limited to what the kids can realistically maintain. Roughly, whatever they can put away in the number of minutes they are old. So, say 2-3 minutes is what they can maintain. At this age I also help pick up, but we still keep to the 2-3 minute rule, even with mom helping.(Older kids can do their age in minutes, too, and it is a good rule of thumb to help the parents not be frustrated. So, say you have a 10 year old who won't spend 30 minutes picking up toys you can figure that if they need 30 minutes to pick up toys, they have too much for their age.)

Drawers and treasure boxes are always a fun way of storing your kid's toys. Here's a great example from the Stanley Young America collection: Visit: Baby Toy Town.com feature page on the Stanley Young America collection here: [url=http://www.babytoytown.com/cat-146.html]Baby Toy Town - Crib Bedding & Nursery Furniture - Cat-146[/url] and discover great finds for your baby's needs.

I learned a while back a trick for storing puzzles. As soon as you get them, put some kind of color code on each one. For example: You get a blues clues puzzle and a winnie the pooh puzzle. Each puzzle gets its own big baggie which is labeled in the proper color for the puzzle, and number of pieces is noted. Then on the back of each cardboard puzzle piece you mark a dot in the proper color, and on the back of the puzzle tray you do the same. That way if puzzles get mixed up you can easily sort the pieces and stick thme in the baggie.