Organizing All Those Christmas Toys - How Do We Do It?

 

 (Not An Actual Picture of My Home)

   Christmas is over and now we parents have to figure out how in the world we are going to organize all these toys!!!  The picture above is not my actual home, but I can say it does look very similar and I needed help trying to make this room look like a bedroom again instead of the remains from a hurricane.  The hardest problem is where to put all the small sets of toys that this OCD mom can't stand to have missing pieces.

   Legos, Dino sets, Hot Wheels, art supplies and Barbie accessories are some of the hardest toys to keep separated, but all together as sets.  I went out and bought about 20 mini plastic baskets at the dollar store and I was able to put the art supplies Dino Sets and Legos in these.  When buying a basket for your Lego's, I suggest buying ones with no holes or if they have holes make sure they are very small so the Lego's won't come through the basket.

  For things like the Barbies and Hot Wheels I found the small and medium sized clear containers with lids are the best because you need the lids to keep things like pairs of Barbie shoes and clothes all together as a set.  For the Hot Wheels these hold so many more cars than the cases they originally sale for them and the containers are so much cheaper.

  Now where to put all these containers and baskets?  I actually looked around at yard sales until I found a 4 shelved bookcase for a couple of dollars. Considering both of my children share a room - one boy and one girl - ages 3 and 4 I needed to paint the shelf to fit both of them soooo I painted the top 2 shelves pink and purple. My daughter is the oldest so I gave her the taller shelves.  The bottom 2 shelves are brown and blue for my son's toys.

  When I finished the shelf  I set the kids down and asked them how they liked it and they both were so happy.  I showed my daughter her top shelves and my son his bottom shelves.  I told them to take care to only get down one box of toys at a time and when they were through playing to pick everything up and place it back in the container and back on the shelf.  Did I think this would be done perfectly every time, absolutely not?!  But, with me checking in on playtime and helping during pickup,  things are going pretty smooth.  The main thing is teaching them responsibility for their possessions.  As they grow - we will get there.

  I recently worked with a company called Pley.  With Pley none of the problems above would of ever happened.  Pley lets you rent toys monthly for a small price.  Each month your child gets to choose a toy, or set of toys, of their choice and play with it. When you are ready to get another toy just send the toy back and choose another one to replace the last one.  All toys are completely sanitized for your child's safety.  Pley is a great way to keep your child's room organized because there are less toys to keep up with and to organize, but at the same time they can enjoy the surprise of a new toy each month.

  So, hopefully I have helped some other moms with this toy organization problem with the way I handled it.  But truly check out Pley, it is an amazing site for renting kids toys.

*The opinions of Pley are strictly my own.