J.P. asks from Glendale Heights, IL on February 12, 2011
Toy Storage/Organization/Picking Up
I am constantly going crazy with picking up toys! I have 2 girls, ages 3 & 6, who LOVE to play with lots of toys at once. They mix their Little People with their princesses and ponies and their Pet Shop animals, building houses and stacking dishes and food, cutting out papers for them... it's a mess. I like that they are playing creatively, but I don't know how to keep the mess under control. What happens is that by the end of the day there is such a huge mess that it is overwhelming for them to want to pick up. (Plus I'm often not home in the evening and Dad doesn't worry about the mess). The older one is getting better and I break it down into smaller jobs, like put the Little People in the purple basket, etc. But the 3 year old rarely helps. I'd love to have a rule like take out only one toy at a time and clean it up before you take out something else, but like I said, they play with it all at once. I'd also like to do a "rotation" of toys and not keep so many out at once, but I don't have anywhere to store them. Right now our toys are all in bins in their playroom downstairs and some in their bedrooms. At any given point during the day, I walk into one of those rooms and the entire floor in covered with a mish-mosh of little pieces. It drives me crazy! Any suggestions? Do you rotate toys? If I had the space I would do it. I periodically get rid of the stuff they no longer play with, but we still have too much! Where do you keep it all and what rules do you have about picking up??
Featured Answers
J.V. answers from Chicago on February 12, 2011
We use to clean up where we put certain toys in this bin, etc. We've stopped. We put certain things in their containers, but most of the toys just go in bins. End of story. It takes less than 5 minutes for the two of us (my three year old and me) to get the playroom picked up. We pick up her room three times a day, after getting dressed in the morning, after she and her 1 year old brother trash it, and then before bed. Again, I just have bins we throw everything in.
It's working. It needs organizational help, but at least my floors are clean!
3 moms found this helpful
More Answers
J.V. answers from Chicago on February 12, 2011
We use to clean up where we put certain toys in this bin, etc. We've stopped. We put certain things in their containers, but most of the toys just go in bins. End of story. It takes less than 5 minutes for the two of us (my three year old and me) to get the playroom picked up. We pick up her room three times a day, after getting dressed in the morning, after she and her 1 year old brother trash it, and then before bed. Again, I just have bins we throw everything in.
It's working. It needs organizational help, but at least my floors are clean!
3 moms found this helpful
L.S. answers from Jacksonville on February 12, 2011
Oh, I so feel for you!! We bought two cube storage units for our playroom. Most of the cubbies have the canvas type bins in them (sort of creates an out of site out of mind effect :) My two don't pull out nearly as much at a time since we bought the bins. I got a bunch of the bins at Kmart a couple of weeks ago for $3 each--paid $7 for them at Lowes, anyway) I had my daughter, 4, help with the organization. She decided what to sort in each bin.
About a month ago, I'd had enough with the toys getting out of hand and having to clean up the mess, so I (it's going to sound mean) asked her to clean up and she didn't I brought a trash can over and calmly threw away a couple of junk kid meal toys. She was shocked! After the tears, I told her that if she didn't care enough about her toys to put them away, I'd get rid of them. It was very effective. I only had to do it twice. Now when I ask her to pick up, she actually does it! Amazing!!
1 mom found this helpful
K.D. answers from New York on February 12, 2011
I love the way they play creatively, finding new and different uses for the toys and putting them together in different ways, that's awesome I wouldn't limit that. Try making the clean-up fun, I sometimes make a game out of it. Say Let's play the color game! pick up everything red, blue, etc.. or make it a contest, see how many little people you can pick up in one minute, ready..GO!
1 mom found this helpful
S.G. answers from Chicago on February 13, 2011
I highly recommend the Tidy Bug. The Tidy Bug is a scoop that makes it FUN for kids to pick up toys and pour them back into their containers. They scoop up the toys into the TidyBug's open "mouth". My kids fight over it. What kid doesn't like to scoop and pour. I just say "go get Tidy Bug" and they do. It's great for picking up small items like legos, polly pockets, blocks, cars, etc.... It teaches them responsibility for picking up their toys, but does it in a fun way. Makes the job doable, and not so overwhelming when it comes to the small toy pieces. You can call toll free 1-888-988-8683 to order. Good luck!
1 mom found this helpful
J.O. answers from Chicago on February 13, 2011
I have a rack with bins and two separate plastic huge bins (one has only Toy Story stuff which we have a lot of). There are always toys out so at least once a day, we have a race to see how many things we can pick up. Needless to say, I let my 4 year old win and give him a high five for being the winner of the clean-up. That's all it takes for him. Sometimes when it is too messy, I have to tell him we have to clear stuff away so we have places to play. I have a closet with two shelves of games and things that pile well. I think your 3 year old will get better at it soon but your 6 year old should be part of the regular clean-up, just make it a game or kind of fun so she's motivated. Good luck--I think every mom struggles with sanity about toys strewn everywhere!
1 mom found this helpful
J.G. answers from Springfield on February 12, 2011
My kids are still younger than yours, so I think sanity for me might be a few years away. We do have toy bins, but one thing I did was give up on the idea of keeping the bins too organized. I used to keep cars in one, farm animals in one, figures in another ... now I'm just happy when the toys are not on the floor.
1 mom found this helpful
G.B. answers from Oklahoma City on February 12, 2011
In my case dad picks up at the end of the evening. I don't even go in there until he's finished. I do not clean up after him. It's his responsibility to watch the kids and he let them make a mess. But then I am just that way.
Go buy some storage bins that will fit under the beds. Our 7 yr. old has a day bed and several of the taller tubs fit perfectly, we can fit to about 8-10 of them. The 4 yr. old has a twin bed so he gets the ones that have rollers on them and are rather flat. We have to put his bed up on blocks to raise it up a bit but we can fit 2 of those under there. They are heavy so he can't really pull them out. If the 7 yr. old pulls any tubs out she loses many privileges. We also have her off season clothes in tubs under her beds too.
1 mom found this helpful
R.M. answers from Los Angeles on February 12, 2011
I finally gave up and made a bedroom in our home a "toy room" that can be closed and out of sight out of mind lol! I don't have any great advice because my house is the same way except my younger one is 2 so she isn't much help. Polly pocket and tiny legos are the worst, of course these are my 5 and 6 year old's favorite things. We do make them clean up both bedrooms before they can do certain things, like play the wii, play the DS etc. We have a shelf with small rubbermaid bins that are labeled with pictures, so when the 2 year old is productive during clean up time on those rare occasions, she knows where stuff goes. I do always feel like it is never-ending though...
1 mom found this helpful
Email
facebook
twitter
StumbleUpon
digg it
kirtsy
Technorati
reddit
del.icio.us
blinklist
simpy
