The AnswerLine staff has been thinking and talking about getting more organized in 2016. Recently, I was visiting with my daughter as she was organizing her sons’ toys. As she was adding Christmas toys to the boys’ rooms; she was removing some toys they don’t play with much anymore and making sure the remaining toys are age appropriate.
Here are some tips to help you organize toys at your house:
- Choose a time when children are away, sleeping, or otherwise occupied.
- Make 3 boxes for toys labeled: dispose, donate, store.
- Dispose of broken toys and those that can’t be safely repaired.
- Remove toys that you seldom see the children using.
- If an older child has outgrown a toy, recycle it to a younger sibling, relative, or a box to be used when younger children visit.
- Rotate toys you don’t want to be without. Plan to remove some toys for a season or 3 months. Exchange these toys with other seasonal toys at that time.
- Consider investing in some clear, plastic storage boxes. You can group toys according to theme; farm toys, train toys, play dough. This makes storage and room cleaning so much easier.
- Older children may want to help choose which toys to remove, donate, or dispose. This can be a great learning experience.
- Remember, some toys are favorites and it may be better to organize than remove them.
Hopefully, reorganizing your children’s toys will bring a less cluttered and more enjoyable 2016. I plan to reorganize the grand children toys at my home this weekend. I will buy some more boxes for the train toys to help the grandkids find what they need more easily. I won’t dispose of any trains or accessories as they are a favorite with all my grandchildren.
