Toy Organization (Day 13): 30 Day Organization Challenge

Today’s project, toy organization, has been one of my biggest challenges over the years. I have tried so many different methods of organizing toys and some I even really liked! Organizing my kid’s toys is what got me obsessed with labels and systems. I will share a few of my favorite tricks with you but first, let’s get rid of the excess clutter.

This process took me about two hours. Every time I organize something in my kid’s bedrooms, I also end up doing a deep clean. Today I decided to rearrange things as well. Just be patient with the process, and maybe don’t pull everything out at once. When they had more toys, I would try to declutter one or two bins at a time. With that in mind, let’s get started!

Steps to Declutter Toys

• First, pull everything out of whatever bin, drawers, or closet you are going to be working on. One section at a time will be less stressful.
• Next, go through every single item. If you have random pieces and you don’t know where they belong, set them aside. The goal is to make sure every toy that you keep, has all of its pieces.
• Throw away every broken toy.
• Donate or pitch every toy your children no longer play with.
• Once you have gone through every item and decided what to keep and what to donate, it’s time to look through the random pieces and decide what stays. I like to wait till the end to make sure I don’t accidentally throw something important away.

Deciding what to keep and what to donate can be difficult. When my children were younger, I would just make the decision about what to keep whenever they were sleeping. As they got older, I would let them be more involved. My son has a very difficult time letting things go. He only recently got involved in the process. You know your children, so this is a decision you’ll have to make.

One trick I’ve used in the past is to pull out what they don’t play with and store it for a few weeks to see if they miss it. I started doing this as they got older, but before they were ready to be fully involved. My kiddos have incredible memories and more than once they have asked “Where is my toy?” When they asked and I had already donated it, I always felt horrible. About this time is when I started setting things aside for a month, just in case.

Toy Organization Ideas

Now that you have decided what to keep, you get to put it all back. This can be the fun part! With toys, I really think the key is to keep things in sections. When they were little and had a variety of toys, I had fun taking pictures and labeling everything with a picture and the word spelled out. This helped them to know where to put their toys when it was time to clean up, and I always hoped it would help with their reading. Not sure that it worked but it looked neat. And it made cleanup a fun game!

As they got older, I was always changing out their bins to fit their space and personality. Below are some of my favorite types I have used over the years. My suggestion is that you find something that works well with your kiddos and their personality. I know what has worked for my daughter, has not always worked for my son.

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That’s it for today’s challenge. I’ll try to take it easier on you tomorrow 🙂 But if you can’t get it all done today, that is okay! Take your time and break it up into a couple days.