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“A cluttered home is a cluttered mind.”

Well damn, that hits.

When toys and books are EVERYWHERE, I want to lose my mind. So, I we can imagine that littles also feel overwhelmed when they see all their toys at once. But, where are you going to store toys that they aren’t using but you want to keep? And how often do you change them out?

Step One: Sort

If you feel like your little one has “too much stuff,” you might be right. We know that research supports the notion that LESS is MORE. Many research studies have found that when kids are given LESS toy options, they play with MORE items and for LONGER. No, that doesn’t mean you have to go throw out all your little one’s toys and books, and you shouldn’t feel bad if your child is blessed with lots of toys and books. BUT, it’s good motivation to organize them and help limit the amount of choices at one time.

So, first, take some time to go through all of your toys little by little. Find the toys that are broken, or not really played with, or are doubles of toys you already have (like do you need 3 sets of blocks? Probably not!) Take time to donate these, or post them in your local Buy Nothing Facebook Group. Get rid of what you don’t want to keep.

Step 2: Group

Group items by category and see what you have! Put items that your little one really likes to play with on the daily in a pile of “must keep out” and start to make other piles of toys that may be seasonal, for outside, or ones that you want to take a break on and bring out later. This step might take a little bit, but it’s worth it!

Step 3: Bag and Box

Find out how you are going to store your toys when they aren’t “out.” Are you going to keep toys that are out of rotation in bins with some on shelves that are easily reachable? Are you going to keep small toys in resealable bags? Think about the space you have to work with and how it will be best to keep track of everything. Do you have any corners of your home that you can pop some baskets or a small organizer? Get creative with your space!

Here are some inspiration pictures of how we organize toys in our house. Swipe through!

This is a good time to head to our Free Organization Guide with so many ideas of how to get organized in every room of your house!

Be sure to check out the slides that tell you how to store toys with small pieces!

Step 4: Keep a Schedule

Once you have figured out how you’re going to store the toys and items, its a good idea to think of how often you want to rotate toys. Weekly? Biweekly? Monthly? Try to pick a day of the week or month where you go through and quickly sort, organize, and bag and box again. If you do this frequently, you won’t be doing it for very long each time you rotate!

You can pick a theme for rotating toys if you’d like! I like to do that with books each month and then the toys follow suit!

Our Free Ultimate Toy Guide teaches you how to group toys and books together to create play themes. With over 40 categories of toys and thousands of groupings, you’ll never run out of ideas!

My Favorite Ways to Organize Toys

Baskets

Get all kinds of baskets and use your furniture to organize the mess. Why do I love baskets? You can organize by category! Put cars in one, instrument play in another, etc. Then when your child picks a basket, they have all of their favorites in that category in one place. Plus, it’s super easy clean up! Put everything “in” and put it “back” and BAM. Organized, and really pretty! You have no idea that toys are hanging out in here!

Bookshelves

Invest in a cool bookshelf. This rotating one holds 160 board books and fits nicely in a corner! It is really heavy, so I am not concerned about it toppling over, but I have it in an area where my little one is supervised. You can rotate books from top to bottom every week, to help keep options limited and new books coming in!

Book Wall

Create a book wall like we did in my son’s room! It’s a great use of space, especially in small rooms! And you can easily rotate books, keeping the bottom shelves less cluttered (here they are packed for the picture, but typically I put about 5-8 books on the bottom two shelves and rotate weekly). It also prompts your little one to ASK for books out of reach, so it’s a great communication temptation! You can take this idea and make a small version on a wall too, doesn’t need to be the entire wall!

Pick a Storage System

Invest in a storage system! This one from IKEA was very practical and inexpensive (I have a whole blog on it here). Again, use of baskets allows your little one to pull out ONE basket at a time and play with the toys inside. You can organize by category and it makes clean up a BREEZE! Rotate the bins and toys frequently, and keeping preferred items slightly out of reach makes for a great communication exchange and motivates littles to ask!

Include Littles in Cleaning Up

Get in the habit of having your little one help you clean up EARLY ON! Once they can sit up (around 6 months), you can start practicing routine directions like “put in". When they move from one toy to another, you can model putting their old toy “in” the basket and clean up a little as they go. Then as they get older you can have them clean up before they transition to the kitchen for a meal, go up for bath, or leave the house. A less cluttered play area will help keep you happy AND help keep your little one more focused!

Toy Rotation Takes Time

Don’t beat yourself up if your house looks like a tornado hit it. That means your little one had a day full of FUN and LEARNING! If you notice your child is overwhelmed, overstimulated, or just a little unfocused, keep these tips in mind! And remember that playing WITH your child is the most important thing!

For all things organizing, all in one place, check out the Free Organization Faves Guide!