As I’ve mentioned, we try to keep our Christmas gift lists pared down to just three or four per kid. Still, multiply 3-4 gifts times five kids, plus the stuff they get from relatives, and you’re looking at quite a toy increase. Here’s how I work against getting buried in “stuff”:
The Pre-Christmas Purge: I’m getting ready to engage in my yearly ritual of Getting Rid Of Stuff To Make Room For New Stuff. Anything with parts we can’t locate is outta here. Anything nobody ever plays with either gets given to Goodwill or boxed up to be taken out for a younger sibling later.
Buy Selectively. Toys with lots of small parts or those that take up a lot of space? Sure, they make it into the house sometimes, but I look at each one with a critical eye first: is the amount of clean-up the toy will cause, or the space it will take up, worth the fun or creativity the toy will inspire?
Keep It Out In The Open. We have a low table covered in Lego in the upstairs movie-slash-rec room, and Clara’s dollies and dress-up clothes are in her room, but besides that, almost all of our toys are right out in the living room. I feel like this keeps me honest with myself about how much stuff the kids have, and also makes it a lot easier to stay on top of keeping them organized and pared-down.
That brings me to the giveaway part of this post!! A few months ago Scout by Bungalow got in touch and asked if I’d like to try out a few of their products. I already knew I loved their bags, but hadn’t seen the collection of bins and other storage containers – however, one look at them and I said “yes, please!” Originally I had planned to use the Junque Trunk (pictured above) as an upgrade for our indoor recycling, but when it got to my house I knew it had to have a better chance to shine. So now it’s right out in the living room as extra toy storage (it’s a nice size, so it holds larger stuffed animals and foam swords easily.)
Scout by Bungalow is going to send one of you a sturdy canvas Junque Trunk, too. Use it in your child’s room, in your pantry, or to hold holiday decorations. It folds down for easy moving/storing and can be wiped clean. Actually, I’m thinking of adding another one to my Christmas list.
Here are the giveaway details:
One winner, chosen at random, will win a Junque Trunk in your choice of color/pattern (may be limited due to availability)- Contest open to residents of the United States only
- To enter, simply leave a comment with a valid email address (in the email field, not in the body of the comment.) I’d love to hear YOUR toy-management strategy!
For up to 3 extra entries:
- Tweet about the contest, then leave an additional comment letting me know you did
- Share the contest on Facebook, then leave an additional comment letting me know you did
- Subscribe to my RSS feed, then leave an additional comment letting me know you did (or that you’re already a subscriber.)
Contest will close at 1:05 PM EST on Saturday, December 3. Winner will be selected randomly using the “And The Winner Is” WordPress plugin and published on The Happiest Mom by Sunday, December 4.
All entries will automatically be included in this weekend’s drawing for a Motorola Droid Razr!
Good luck!
To welcome the holiday season, I’m giving gifts away for six days with a great grand prize drawn from all entries – a Droid Razr! Check out the intro post for more details, Day 1 for a chance to win a $25 iTunes gift card, Day 2 for a chance to win $25 to help your kids save money, Day 3 for a chance to win a super-cute wooden play kitchen and Day 4 for a chance to win a keepsake Hallmark ornament. And tomorrow, I’ll give you all one more shot to enter to win the grand, cumulative prize – the Motorola Droid Razr.
I have cube bins and and an ottoman that opens up.
We have 2 identical smallish toyboxes, and we rotate which one is out. One has cars/blocks/puzzles, and one is mostly Little People and all their stuff/vehicles. We’re to the point where we can’t completely close the latter, though, so I think we’re going to have to do some purging.
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These are the best things to store toys! Love them!
Storage Bins are great! I love that my son can help clean up his toys!
We keep most of our toys out in the open too, so it’s easy to see what we have and forces us to limit that. I also have two bins in the closet of toys that I shuffle in and out of the rotation, depending on current interests. Lets me bring out “new” toys with some regularity without spending anything.
Toy chests are an excellent way to store/hide kids’ stuff!
Toy management was a total frustration. The only solution I’ve found is my kids getting older. Now that they are 12 & 14 their big and plentiful toy supply has been replaced by books, art supplies and a very small stash of FAVORITE toys. 🙂
Space is limited in our house; someday we hope to finish our basement. Until then, we rotate toys every so often so they don’t overtake our living room!
I’m obsessed with finding the right storage (pereferably matching) for my son. We have a bookshelf with tiny bins in it, I am also using a small Ikea I guess you could call filing cabinet w/regular drawers (though I need that back for the home office). We also have a big bin for his music-related toys, a square bin for trucks, and a larger toy box/ottoman for another assortment. I’m always looking for improvement. Bring it on!
I try to be pretty on top of weeding out toys when I see that the kids are just not interested anymore. We use baskets…lots and lots of baskets to keep similar toys together. We could definitely use another receptacle after Christmas!!
Toy management, that’s a good one.=) heatha100@gmail.com
Toy management? Well, one rule makes a big difference — no broken toys. If it can’t be fixed (and my husband can fix nearly anything) it gets tossed. It’s also a great reinforcement for my boys to see what happens when they mistreat a toy — it breaks and they lose it.
We use plastic bins and rotate them to keep things fresh. The problem is that many of our lids are cracked from being stepped on 🙁 I’m always looking for new ideas.
I only have 1 left that still has toys. However I do remember the big pre-Christmas purge. Storage containers with similar items were the way to go.
we use a bunch of different boxes as we rotate toys from bedroom to living room to playroom. The living room ones are espresso wood so they blend in well.
Oh I do the purge too although sometimes I feel that is is an all the time process. However my girls have their birthday in October and then a short couple months later is Christmas so I always feel like I am playing catchup on this at the beginning of the year. Thankfully we have done the purge process with the girls since they were old enough to walk I always let them help me decide what goes and what stays and they get to go and take the toys they are getting rid of to our local Goodwill so other kids can play with them. They love this.
I could use a toy management strategy!
I’m still figuring out our toy management system…
I purge our daughter’s toys on a regular basis. She has a large toybox, which I realized too late (as in, after her grandpa handmade it for her…can’t get rid of it now!) just turns into a big mess of toys inside. So, we use that for toy storage and rotate her toys into baskets or bins throughout the rest of the house.
I do the Pre-Christmas Purge, also. It’s what keeps me sane! I also have baskets and such in the living room for toy collection. While I understand some folks’ rules on “no toys in the living room”, I’ve always been of the mind that our kids are part of the family, too. Our house is also their home, so they should get to use the living room with us adults. 🙂
great idea to store toys!
We always purge toys before Christmas to make room for the new ones. These bins look great!
I would love to have some toy storage that is accessible to my son, and cute too!
I’m trying to purge the toys, but my 3-year old is having a hard time letting go of baby and toddler toys…
Most of our toys are stored in a variety of clear plastic bins. Since they were all acquired over time they don’t all match ir look very nice. We store them on shelves in various closets throughout our home.
I subscribe, too!
I have a shelf of smaller bins for smaller toys and a couple of Junque Trunks (really!) for the bigger stuff. I love them!
Bags with velcro. When my son was younger, 2-3, I made up a number of big bags with velcro closures, many where the fabric matched the contents. So there’s a train bag, car bag, Mr. Potatohead bag, etc. We also try to keep things in their original boxes where possible–boring I know.
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We have a 3yo son and a 4yo daughter…and I also do daycare, so I try to keep up on the toy rotation. Our “Little People” collection gets stored on shelves in my son’s closet (his clothes go in his dresser) and then I keep a couple things in my daughter’s closet for rotation. Otherwise I have a couple different sized cabinets in the livingroom with locks on the handles, so we can decide when it’s time to open a cabinet and use those learning toys. One of the cabinets has different activities in plastic ‘shoe’ boxes so they can select individual play items as well. We still keep some out and about, but it seems organized overall and everyone seems happy, so it works 🙂 Oh, and my kids rooms aren’t used for daycare (except a crib in one) so they keep their own toys that they don’t want used for daycare in their rooms.
We actually won an awesome toy organizer unit from Delta toys on Twitter so that’s what we mainly use (it has like 10 bins on 3 shelves) plus a toy box my mom bought us that unzips flat and has streets on it (we store toy cars in it!)
We use label clear storage boxes to organize our toys.
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I am ruthless about locking up (not literally!) the kids’ toys. There are some toys in constant circulation– Little People, blocks, Matchbox cars. But before my floor is covered in Polly Pocket vomit, I can make them pick up everything else before I get the new toy out. The more I restrict what is out on a daily basis, the more excited they are about playing with their toys.
Totally lacking a strategy. There are toys everywhere!
I use storage bins in IKEA Expedit shelves. I like that I can clean up quick by just tossing toys into bins and it looks neat and tidy.
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A cute way to organize – I’m in! We have lots of bins, but as she gets older a bigger bin may be needed, right?
I also subscribe through Google Reader.
These look great! Thank you.
I’d love to win. We definitely need to get our son’s toys under control in our house!
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Purging is a sanity saver! Love this storage option – thanks for the opportunity to win one!
My house has been taken over by Legos that are really fun to step on in bare feet!
I am always looking for new storage ideas. We have two baskets if toys in the livingroom, one for the kids and one for the dogs.
Maybe this is super silly, but when I was growing up my family had WAY too many toys. They still do, even though the youngest is 11. Major clutter problems. In any case, I am a bit of a neat freak, even as a kid. So I devised the “one toy box” rule. Every child could have one toy box with them throughout their playing years. If they asked for a new toy for Christmas/Birthday/etc., room had to be made either by packing away for future youngsters or giving away to Goodwill/family in need. Other rule–no big toys that couldn’t easily be put away. I actually haven’t been very good about this one. My baby has one of those stand up toys that sings that a friend gave to us. I was a little skeptical about accepting it from a friend but my little guy absolutely LOVES the thing. So, maybe that rule needs some adjustment. Overall, I just want to avoid the massive toy take-over of my home that I experienced as a kid.
I also shared this on Facebook!
We rotate favorites and pass on toys often.
Great way to store toys. Such a cute look that it doesn’t hurt to have it in living room or in other rooms.
We use storage bins for big toys (little people, blocks, etc) and ziplock bags for small toys
Right now we use bins but it is time to reevaluate or get rid of some toys!
Toy bins! But would love something bigger.
We recently put storage shelves in our basement and it holds all of our plastic bins nicely. I keep all the toys my daughter doesnt play with anymore down there, and donate a bunch each year too. Upstairs, we have a large wicker basket full of toys she plays with often but I am always looking for new ideas on how to keep things organized.
omg. i love boxes. and totes. and places to hide things. its a disorder.
and i subscribed on my google reader