An Easy Way to Organize Toys!

The #1 question I’m asked is about toys and how to organize them. It seems like a lot of parents are struggling with the mountain of toys our kids have these days and how to deal with them, and, better yet, how to organize them!  Taking a look at my living room, you can see that I’ve struggled with this issue too.

After trying to figure out how to manage the toy craziness, I came to (what I think!) is the key to finally kicking the toy overflow problem. I broke them down into 4 (easy!) steps:

1. PURGE

You expected this one, didn’t you?! 😉 But when I say “purge”, I’m talking about evaluating every teeny tiny toy piece you find. In my purge, I found all sorts of little bits that I call the “just in case” pieces. I got rid of them all and so far, my little one hasn’t missed them!

2. CATEGORIZE

Pare everything down to the basics of what your little ones play with. Then put a set amount of categories into a rotation. In my case, the current toys we have out are puzzles, pretend play, arts & crafts and books. The rest of the categories are in our basement, ready for when she’s looking for something new to play with!

3. BINS

This seems obvious but before going out to buy your bins, do your research! This may seem dumb but hear me out 🙂 When you know what you need to put inside your bins, you want to make sure there is enough room for the bin to grow. Because more stuff will go into that bin than when you originally started! (It’s inevitable!) The last thing you want is your bins to overflow. They look messy and you won’t be able to find anything!

The bin’s material is also really important. If the bin is made of wood, it may splinter and damage some toys (or whoever accesses that bin!) If it’s made of flimsy material, you’ll have to deal with the eventual sagging that will happen when your kiddo goes to pick out a toy. The ones I picked up are from my favourite place in the world, Target!  They are big, made of woven plastic and so far, they haven’t sagged!

Photo courtesy of Target

4. LABEL

This last step is by far my favourite part: LABELLING! While my little one can read a few words, I went with picture labels to indicate which bin was which. I went with my go-to frames from IKEA , leftover ribbon and some chalkboard self-adhesive sheets I picked up at the dollar store!

Take apart the frame and set aside everything else except the frame itself and the backing:

Cut out the blackboard sheet to the size of the backing and apply it directly to the picture backing:

Put your frame back together and start drawing your pictures!

To attach the frames to each bin, I took some pliers and gently pried the picture framing hardware that was provided:

I then strung some thin ribbon through the newly pried hardware and tied them onto each basket handle. And bam! You’re done!

The key to keeping this system working is by constantly checking and purging each bin. I plan on doing this every week to save me the pain of having to deal with overflowing bins!

So far so good and it’s been kiddo approved!

While I know toy clutter is a PAIN, getting it under control feels amazing! And your kids will thank you for it as they’ll easily be able to find their toys! Try it out and let me know what you think!