Inside: Simple tips to declutter toys.

If you have kids you know all too well the constant battle of keeping your house tidy and picked up.

For the first year of parenthood I thought we did pretty good at keeping the toy chaos under control. Then came the first Christmas.  And then the first birthday.  And it was like the number of toys grew exponentially over night.

To add to the chaos as my son grows older his toys seem to have smaller pieces and just more pieces in general. Hello legos, matchbox cars and trains!! They are everywhere!

I know it’s important for kids to be able to play and I want my kids to be comfortable in our home. But I also don’t want to constantly step on legos and toy cars all day.  I knew I had to do something to keep the chaos to a minimum and the below tips seemed to help the most. I hope these ideas help you in your home as well!

5 Tips to Combat Toy Clutter

Declutter the toys first

Fewer toys means fewer to pick up in the first place.  And I always have to remind myself that you can’t organize clutter!

Related post: 5 toys to declutter today
Related post: 8 steps to clear the clutter + FREE checklist

>> Download your FREE decluttering checklist here.

If you are not convinced that fewer toys is a good thing, read this post from Becoming Minimalist.  Joshua Becker outlines several reasons why fewer toys are actually beneficial for our children.

Have a designated area for toys

Have one area or container for the toys.  For example, have one small toy box or plastic container for the toys.  If the toys don’t fit in the area or container comfortably, then you probably have too many.  Let kids choose which ones to keep if that makes sense for their ages.   I keep one small container upstairs and 2 plastic containers with extra toys downstairs.  This way we can rotate out toys as my kiddos lose interest in certain things (see below for more on toy rotation).

The next two tips I learned from Simple Families’ The Toy Detox course.  If you need some serious help with your toy situation I highly highly recommend this short course.

Choose open ended toys

Open ended toys are toys that can be used for a variety of purposes usually across a variety of ages.  Examples are blocks, art supplies and dress up clothes.

Closed toys, on the other hand, are toys that are usually completed or mastered.  Examples are puzzles or shape sorters.

Denaye from Simple Families recommends:

“keeping a ratio of 75% open toys to 25% closed toys in your home. This will help your child to play independently for longer periods of time. Having more open toys will also allow for more creativity and innovation in play.”

Follow the 90/10 rule

Toys should do 10% of the work while the kids do 90% of the work. Examples where this is the case are cars, blocks, and art supplies, similar to the open ended toys mentioned above.

Setup a toy rotation

Basically you have one group of toys out at a time and the rest of the toys are out of sight, out of mind.  You can choose the number of toys to keep out, but 8-10 usually work well for us.  I also try to not have more than one toy with many pieces out at one time.  For example, if the Legos are out, then the cars and trains are NOT out too.  Trying to keep all those pieces separate drove me bananas!

After a week or two, rotate the toys that you have out and it’s magical.  Kids think the toys are brand new since they haven’t seen them in a while. This worked really well when my son was aged 1.5-3.  Now he knows what he wants to play with so I found myself digging for certain toys in the packed away boxes.  So instead of picking for him, I let him pick 10 toys to keep upstairs at a time.

A toy rotation keeps the clutter to a minimum, allows my son to have some decision making ability and there is the added benefit of the toys seeming like they are new.  For more on setting up toy rotation see these great posts:

Child’s Play: The Art of Toy Rotation

Is Toy Rotation Worth the Effort?

Bonus tip: Keep a bag or box for donation in a convenient place

My husband says he will just pick things up around the house and throw them away. I say if you can donate the toys that’s a better option, but it’s the same idea. 🙂

If I notice that my kids are not into a toy, even after they have been stored away for a while, I will add it to the donation box.  I can only think of one or two toys that I donated where my son asked for it afterwards.  And he was not upset when I told him we donated the toy, so that told me he didn’t really want to play with it!

As your kids get older you can include them in deciding what gets donated.  This will encourage them to embrace a more simple lifestyle and give them a chance to make these kinds of decisions on their own.

The Toy Detox

Like I mentioned above, some of these tips I learned in The Toy Detox course.  This is a great course that I highly recommend.  It’s very short and to the point but has relevant information to get your toys in order quickly.  I really liked the lessons on educational theory and how it applies to your own home.

From the course page:

“In this simple, self-paced course you will be guided step-by-step to create a play space for your children to thrive. Not all toys are created equal–so I will help you to decide which toys are great, and which are not so great. We will also talk about how to start buying differently–that includes getting the grandparents and other gift-givers on board.”

For more information you can check out the course or sign up here.

How do you combat the toy clutter in your home?

I would love for you to share in the comments below!

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