Have toys taken over your home? Are you always tidying up Lego, books, blocks, and stuffies? Are your children always asking where their favourite toy has gone?
If you have children, you know how quickly toys, games, books, and craft supplies can overwhelm a bedroom, playroom, or take over the rest of your home. Even for the most minimalist families, toys and games can still quickly accumulate, especially if you have multiple children.
If this sounds like you, check out our tips for creating a beautiful, functional, and organized play space. Creating an organized playroom will reduce stress and help lay the foundation of life-long organizational skills for your children.
Sort and Declutter
The first step in organizing your children’s play area is to declutter. Involve your children in the process of sorting and organizing. Sort and remove broken toys, those with missing pieces, or any that are well below your child’s age (baby toys, picture books, etc.)
Group toys together with similar items, then go through each pile with your children. Ask them to decide which toys they love playing with and which no longer get played with as much. The older your children are, the easier this will be, but that doesn’t mean younger ones can’t help as well—they may just need a little extra help and guidance.
One of the best ways to get your kids engaged is to make sorting toys into a game. Do a timed competition by setting a timer and see who can sort through a pile before the timer goes off, or play a game of sorting basketball. Prepare two boxes and label them with Donate or Keep. Have the children sort through the toys by tossing each item into the respective boxes (this works well for soft toys, such as stuffies).
Discard or recycle broken toys and discuss donating any that are still in good condition to a local charity, women’s shelter, or thrift store with your child. You can also sell toys on Facebook Marketplace or through a local consignment shop.
Swap out toys
Children can feel overwhelmed when there are too many toys to chose from, so it is a great idea to swap out toys every so often. While decluttering, ask your children which toys are their most favourite. Box up the extra toys and store them in a convenient location. When you notice your children no longer play with certain toys, swap them out with the stored toys. Doing this provides variety and keeps them interested.
Organize
Now that sorting is complete, organizing and storing will be much easier. We recently worked on a playroom where we used the Ikea Trofast system for playroom storage. This system not only
saves space but is incredibly versatile. Various sizes and colours offered will match almost everyone’s style and needs. The bins are child-friendly and will help make clean-up time a breeze, even for younger children.
Label
Once all items are in their respective bins, the fun part begins! Depending on the types of toys, and ages of your children, there are different options for labelling. To make it easier for younger children, you may want to label the bins with pictures. For older children who are starting to, or can, read, use worded labels, and for items such as Lego, coloured labels are perfect.
In short, spending a little time decluttering, organizing, storing, and labelling your children’s play area will pay off in more ways than one. Not only will toys be easier to find, but your children will be more engaged, have a calmer environment to play in, and will learn skills to stay organized.
Unsure where to start? Why not hire a professional organizer? We will provide you with playroom organization ideas. Contact us today to get started!
