If there was one thing I wasn’t prepared for as a mother it was the amount of toys we would be inundated with! Even with our first child the number of toys we were given was incredible and the truth was, our son pretty much played with the same toys most of the time.
When our second child was a girl you can imagine that we were then inundated with more ‘girly’ toys. Our house was soon overrun and I ran out of places to store the toys.
To be honest, in the beginning I was also pretty laid back about how they were stored. I would pack them in toy crates or tubs and the kids would have free access to them. This often meant that in order to get one toy out we had to empty the contents of at least one tub of toys.
This began to drive me crazy. Even more so when I noticed that, once again, my children had a clear preference for particular toys.
At this point I decided to test out the toy situation in our house. I grabbed a toy crate and filled it with toys that my children did not seem to play with. I put this up high on a shelf in their room and left it there for three months. The idea was that if they asked for a toy in that crate I would get it out for them, but if in that three month period they didn’t even notice its absence I would donate it to Vinnies.
Well, that crate was donated to charity a little over four months later. I then filled the crate again and the same thing happened.
Gradually we worked out that when it comes to toys there are some that have universal appeal. We still have many of our eldest child’s baby toys because not only did he, but both of his sisters also, played with these toys regularly. For this small crate of toys we have kept, we have donated bags of other to charity.
Now our children have moved on to other toys, and the same pattern emerges, they definitely prefer some toys and we generally steer any purchases from family towards things we know they will use.
Now the toys in our house mostly fit into a large blanket box and a smaller wooden storage seat. There are a few exceptions like a doll’s high chair and cradle, and a train set we glued onto an MDF base, but for the most part this is it (this excludes outdoor toys and bikes).
Our toys are also organised into smaller plastic containers and crates inside the blanket box. This keeps everything very tidy but it also means that our children can just get out the toys they want to play with without getting everything out at once.
We also abide by a policy where if they have finished playing with one set of toys they must pack it up and return it to the toy box before they get anything else out. This means there is generally less mess, the children appear to take more care with their toys, and at the end of the day all of the toys are packed away neatly before dinner time as we encourage quieter activities after dinner and bath time.
It also means that in the morning the kids are not playing with toys instead of doing their morning tasks and once they’ve completed their personal hygiene routine and morning prayers are offered, they can get straight into playing with toys then and it’s almost a reward.
How do you cope with toys in your house?
Originally posted 2014-01-03 01:35:06.