Having a toddler often means having a ton of toys in your house, it may even look like Toys’R’Us exploded in your living room. This may be a cool thing for her when she has fun new toys but looking and trying to decide what to play with can be a daunting task for a young one. Just like us when we have a long to do list we don’t know where to start or what to tackle first.
I have found some these things to help not only keep her from getting overwhelmed but also keep things a little more organized.
Small Rubbermaid buckets or cubbies
With these you can group like toys like all blocks, dolly and clothes, and legos. This helps keep them from getting lost plus it helps save time when she wants to play with them. Then back in the box and put back so they are ready to play with next time.
Larger Rubbermaid buckets
Having a few only put enough toys in there to close the top that way you can rotate the boxes of toys. Rotate them out once every few weeks it’s like getting new toys she won’t get board and you don’t have a ton of toys laying around the house.
Schedules
OK this may be having you wondering why schedule something like playing with toys. It does work; if you say make different days for different toys then only pull those out. Another idea is to make it a certain type of play before lunch or nap time then something else that afternoon. This works best for stay at home moms, it can help them keep their days a little more organized.
Removing toys
As time goes on toys get broken or outgrown getting rid of them helps keep things under control. Include your child in the process help toss out the bad ones and then sort the ones that she isn’t in to playing with anymore. Often this will also reintroduce toys that were at the bottom of the bucket and forgot about.
Play groups
These are a great way to trade, exchange or give away old toys. This helps get different toys if you have a toy swap. If you don’t have one in your area there are places like Matching Moms or Cafemom where you can find other moms in your area and start one. Also know that the toys you did buy go to someone who will enjoy them.
No matter what we do yes they may still be overwhelmed but it is possible to help reduce it. Using ways to keep the toys in order will help stay organized as well as keeping things fresh and new.
