(This is a great guest post from my friend, Rosemarie of The Busy Budgeter! If you have kids at home, you know all too well how quickly toys can take over….)
Is your house drowning in toys? If it is, you aren’t alone, most of us have too many toys. Too many toys for us moms to sort, store, play with, and take care of and if we can’t manage the toy clutter, we can’t expect our kids to take care of it.
In fact, when your toy clutter gets really out of control, it prevents the kids from enjoying even the best toys in the house. Sets of toys like Lego, Kinect, Doll Houses, and Train tracks are worthless if you can’t find the pieces to go in the set.
I’m in a unique position to help you out. I have 5 years of commercial child care experience, 2 of which I spent running my own home day care. When I began the home day care we had way too many toys.
When kids have too many options, it can overwhelm them. A cluttered or messy space can kill creativity in the kids. They need a clean area that they can play in.
The solution, is to have a limited number of toys. It’s called the Toy Rotation System. I use it both with our own kids and for the kids I cared for when I ran a day care.
The Toy Rotation System:
30 toys in the house per child. If you have 2 kids, you have no more than 60 toys in your house. That includes everything from the little play Frisbee he got at the fair last weekend to the baby “Baby Grand” Piano that Grandma got him last Christmas.
2 of those toys per child may be sets. Sets are things that have multiple pieces and need to have the pieces kept together to be played with. Depending on the age of the child, sets should be stored in a box that can adequately fit the set. The number of items in the set should be limited to what the child can clean up on his own. (i.e. Don’t give a 2 year old a 400 piece block set.)
Rotate the toys in baskets so that only 10 toys are out and available at a time for one child, or no more than 20 toys are available for all of the children if you have more than one child. To start with, rotate the baskets every week. As you get to know your child, you may rotate more or less frequently depending on the child’s needs.
Seek out high quality toys with many uses that have longevity.
Make sure that when you choose the 20 toys, you consider the situations that the toys are used in. Make sure to have outdoor toys, independent toys (to give you a break!), and toys meant to be played with an adult.
Also consider the different types of play to try to have other options available. Toys for physical development (like blocks and bikes), creative development (like art sets), make believe or role playing (hats, capes, costumes), and sensory (things that appeal to sight, sound, and touch like musical instruments) are all great options.
These are the toys that stood the test of time in our house, both with our kids and in day care:
- Sandbox
- Kitchen play set (Notice that this can be set on the counter next to mom and doesn’t require a ton of extra pieces.)
- Kinetic sand
- Aquadoodles (This is the smartest thing you will ever buy… They could triple the price and I would still recommend it!)
- Picture Bingo game
- Art set with washable markers, washable crayons, and washable paints. (These wash right off walls or anything else he gets ahold of!)
- Brio wooden train set
- Wooden building blocks
- High quality, durable dump truck (We bought this one at a thrift store; it is 2 years old and still looks new).
- Tricycle
- Tee ball set
- Kick ball
- Super hero cape
Teaching them to only have what they can personally take care of is an amazing quality to pass along to a kid. By limiting the number of toys, he’ll have better quality toys than he would have before because you’re saving money by not purchasing junk that won’t last.
What toy has lasted the longest in your house?
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Rosemarie Groner is a formerly stressed, overworked and exhausted mom who loves blogging almost as much as she loves brownies. She writes at The Busy Budgeter about how she used the free Ultimate Money Saving Workbook to reduce their spending enough to be able to quit her job, stay home with her kids and then found way to make up her salary at home. She’s still working on the cure for exhaustion.
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Reelika @Financially Wise On Heels says
Great ideas! My son loves legos and these have been definitely around all the time. In some point I wanted to declutter his room and I took almost half of his toys away. I gave those back few months later and took the other half away. For him, these were now new toys again and the system has worked well for us 🙂
Amy @ DebtGal says
Related to this- which is a great idea – I’ve thinned out my daughter’s toys and put the items I’ve removed into a closet. If a few weeks or a month pass without her mentioning them, I decide it’s safe to consign/donate/toss them.
Legos have been a hot item with my daughter for several years. I’m always glad to see her using these more creative toys, so I love that she enjoys using them so much.
Sarah says
I tried this last year but it just didn’t work for us. My son kept asking for things that were put away at the time and even if I said “it’s not in rotation right now” he’d have a huge meltdown (he just turned 3). Every family is different, but for us it didn’t work. My kids have a lot of toys and all of them get played with, shockingly.
Nichole @Budget Loving Military Wife says
Thank you for the great tips! We are expecting our first child in February and I can’t wait to put some of these tips to use once our little one starts playing with toys!
Brittany says
I have always wanted to try something like this! I love how this idea keeps the kids interests in the toys you already have and you don’t feel the need to go out and buy new toys. Okay! I am motivated to get this project started! Thanks!!
Rosemarie Groner says
It makes such a huge difference Brittany!
Sarah@TheOrthodoxMama says
We do a toy rotation and love it. We have three different groups of toys and rotate them through–two months per rotation. Our kids have never complained about it. I hadn’t thought about doing a toy limit, though. Great idea! I’ll see if I can get my husband (and our parents 🙂 ) on board.
Janeen says
This is a great idea. I tried something similar once. The toys I “rotated” are still sitting down in the crawlspace 😉 Knowing myself, I think I’m better off convince the kids that a purge is a good idea. If only I could get the whole house (and grandparents) on board…
Becca says
Last year I got rid of probably 2/3rds of our toys, and the kids didn’t even notice. I think that speaks for itself!
I’d also add balls (for hand-eye coordination) and a baby doll (to allow children to develop nurturing) to your list. And play doh. It’s great for encouraging creativity, and so cheap to make.
Heather says
We kind of do a rotation. We do not have a ton of toys because I cannot deal with the clutter and we have a small space. 2 kids (girls 2 and 4), and baby boy on the way in a decent sized 2 bedroom home. That being said we have gotten creative with toy storage and have crates of maybe 15-20 toys per crate. The girls cannot reach the crates, but they are accessible and can be played with whenever, but they must put everything back in and i put the crate away if they want someting from a different crate. It has tremendously helped with play(they actually want to), clean up(both girls are super organized), and they can run around/roll larger toys because the floor is clear. The toys they have accessible all the time are books, little people, a kitchen and shopping cart, a doll for each girl, and coloring and outside we have a small sandbox and a chalk easel. Rotation toys include play doh, potato heads, dress up, doctor kits, mega blocks, puzzles, games, and more. I definitely feel like the system has helped tremendously with play and cleanup. I know immediately if too many things are available when cleanup becomes difficult or they would rather watch tv all day.
Lauren says
This is fabulous!! Our first is due in February, but I am definitely pinning this for later!