Tired of Cleaning Up Toys?
Make organizing toys for toddlers simple with these 3 steps
Welcome to the Home Organizing for Beginners podcast.
In this podcast you’ll get tangible and simple instructions about home organizing. Instructions that keep you, your family, and your current season of life at the core; all while glorifying God in the process so that you and your family can finally feel true peace and joy in your home.
I’m your host Tammy.
In today’s episode I share 3 steps to get all your toddlers' toys organized in a way that they can help clean up too. You are a busy mom with a lot on her plate and you can use all the help you can get. And why not get them started early!
We’re getting straight to the point so grab your pen and paper and let's get started.
The 3 steps are:
Decide
Contain
Label
Before we get into the details of each step I want you to let go of the image you may have in your mind about Ikea toy storage. Setting things in place so that they look good is a really difficult goal to set for yourself. So, though you may not even be aware that you have this image in the back of your mind and beat yourself up about it because your home doesn’t look like a friend's home or your moms home. There’s nobody that is living your life in your shoes. Not a single person, so you cannot compare what you are doing or how you are managing things to how they are or did. OK?
Perfectionism and comparison are easy things to pursue as a mom in our society. It’s what we are hit with constantly, even by well meaning people.
I’m not sure if you know this, but I send out an email each week with quick tips to help you organize your home in the normal flow of daily life. These are meant to help you not only organize your home, but also help you push back against what society says about us as moms and how we manage our homes and families.
There are 2 terms that I use frequently to help you remember that organizing your home in your own way is not only possible, but it’s what's best.
Simple = Sustainable
Focus on the function over the fashion
I’ll elaborate on each of these as we get into the details of each step.
Step 1: Decide
In this step you are deciding what room the toys will be stored in. I recommend that you go with the flow and decide to keep them in the room where they are now. If it’s 2 different rooms, that’s ok because we’re setting up a process that functions for you and your toddler. Keep in mind that at this time of their life, your toddler wants to be with you or near you. That could be a reason that the toys don’t stay in the toy room if you have one. If toys naturally migrate to an open living space where you are making dinner and your toddler is playing close by, that’s what you want to lean into otherwise you may very well be fighting an uphill battle. OK, do you have a room in mind?
Step 2: Contain
You’re going to utilize a container, box, bin, basket that you already have. No need to buy something new at this point. That can come later once you have the process working for you. At that point you’ll know exactly what it is that you need to purchase versus throwing spaghetti at the wall and guessing.
If possible use one container, but no more than two in each room. This keeps it simple. You could do what we did when our 3 were toddlers and allocate the right size bin to fit each different type of toy and then put a picture on the outside of the bin. We wound up with a different issue, getting the kids to put the toys in the right container. It really just became a different point of frustration. Instead of toys laying all over the floor, we could get the kids to help pick up the toys, but they would just shove them on the shelf. They’d even take the bins out of the shelf to put the toys on a shelf.
I get it now, but I didn’t then. They are willing to help, but we need to make it as easy as possible for them. Asking them to go to the shelf, look for the bin that has a picture of that type of toy on it, take the cover off the bin, put the toy in and and put the cover back on. I’m not sure what we were thinking!
Instead keep it simple and focus on the function. Your toddler will help pick up if he or she can put the toy into a box, bin, basket. Think toy chest.
Step3: Label
This is my favorite part of the process. Write on or put a big label on the container you are using. The label will read TOYS or TOY CHEST or really whatever you want. It could be their name or names too. It’s never too early for them to start identifying words and letters and colors. Bonus if each letter is a different color.
That’s what I have for you today.
I hope this episode helps you work towards the peaceful home that you desire and I pray that you feel seen, heard, cared for and loved. I’ll see you back here next week!
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”