Sorting and storing toys

[Calliope]

Need to cull the toy flock here.

How do you decide which toys to keep, which to take out of circulation, which to donate and which to pitch? If you take some toys out of circulation, how to you decide when and what to rotate in and out?

How do you store and organize the toys you have in circulation for your children to play with? Bins? Shelves? Do you have them out for the kids to get into themselves or do they need to ask for their toys?

[Niphredil]

I keep probably 2/3 of my toys up. Right now, babies and littlest pet shops are out. Play food, stuffed animals, little people and princesses/ponies are put up. Dress up clothes, slide and bounce house are always out in the basement. And Asher has his own toys. We store the toys we have out in bins on shelves. It's easy for them to pick up that way.

I switch out toys when I notice bin dumping rather than playing with toys. Sometimes that's one week sometimes it's three. I always get out a certain bin if they ask *after* they've made sure all their other toys are picked up. My circulation toys are in a locked closet, so they cannot get them out. (Or else they just get them down and dump them all out. :shiver)

[gardenfreshmama]

:popcorn I'm about to go all mama-crazy on the toyroom here myself...

[blondie]

:popcorn

[Calliope]

Do you find that taking toys out of circulation discourages bin dumping?

Also, I have snooty wooden toys that I *wish* were played with (like simple blocks). Should I put them up because they are not played with or try to make it more appealing by having fewer toys out?

[Niphredil]

I find that boredom increases bin dumping, and "new" toys are less boring. So in that way, yes, circulating does decrease bin dumping.

As for snooty wooden toys :giggle... I ditched mine. :sigh I have them in a box. But no one EVER played with them. They are gaga for my little pony, but won't play with wooden blocks even if I sit and build with them.

[lovepoh]

I tried rotating toys back when my oldest 2 dd were little (they are 13 and 11 now) and honestly, we (*I*) forgot they were up in the attic and the kids never missed them. lol :lol (they might still be up there...haha) :doh

So what I did with my youngest ds and the older 2, was just have them pick or pay attention to just what they really liked playing with and taking out the rest. Dh's Mom would have them have every kind of toy known to man probably, but we pick certain things like Legos, Hotwheels, action figures, homemade wooden farm set, etc... The rest either was given away or taken to dh's Mom's house (usually we gave it to her if it was something the kids kind of liked and didn't really want to get rid of, but we didn't have room for...or was something she purchased and so I let her have it back for when they are at her house...which they are a lot)

We have tried different ways to keep up with toys (big toy box, shelves, etc...) and the easiest I have found is baskets of different sizes on shelves. The kids can pick out the type of toy(s) they want to play with and then put it back in the basket(s) when done. This might be a bit of the "Montessori" coming out in me too. lol ;) And I love baskets. :)

[Calliope]

We have tried different ways to keep up with toys (big toy box, shelves, etc...) and the easiest I have found is baskets of different sizes on shelves. The kids can pick out the type of toy(s) they want to play with and then put it back in the basket(s) when done. This might be a bit of the "Montessori" coming out in me too. lol ;) And I love baskets. :)

We had a bin system like that, but it seemed to encourage excessive bin dumping.

[MamaPepper]

subbing so I can come back to this later!

[Emerald Orchid]

Which toys to keep: anything that is not broken and gets played with at least a few times a week. It also has to fit in the two bookshelves they have in their room or in the toy chest in the living room. Stuffed animals and playsilks go in the mesh Ikea ceiling storage thingy.

I have a basket system and they go up on shelves. Around Christmas, the boys really got into toy dumping and I wanted to rip my hair out when their tiny bedroom floor was perpetually covered in small toy cars and random little toys. So I left the car basket at their level because they do play with most vehicles everyday, but I put the train tracks up, and the baskets with more random toys up, so they have to ask. A lot less mess. :phew

I always thought the rotating toy system was a great idea, but like lovepoh said, *I* forget about the toys and it's a waste of good toys.

[greenleafknitter]

:popcorn