Organizing Toys and Optimizing Play time

[expat-mama]

I'm trying to do a big reorganization of our whole house. Along with toddler-proofing what was baby-proofed, I'm also sorting through DS's toys and getting rid of stuff he's too old for or doesn't use.

I'd like to organize his toys better- right now they are all jumbled together in a toy box and on Expedit shelves that he can reach in his room and in the living room. We have way more toys than I ever thought we would- our friends and family went nuts at Christmas and for his birthday.

How are your toys organized?

How does your LO play?

My DS (14 months) kind of takes things out, carries them around, sticks things in other things, bangs things together, throws some things, rolls a truck away then forgets about it... you get the idea. He will stack blocks and cups and put his rings on the stick-thing if you do it with him. He has a few musical instruments that he likes to play with for a few moments at a time.

It all seems so frenetic to me- I'm glad he's having fun but I wonder if he would have more fun and if his toys would be better utilised if I organized them or directed his play more at times? 

(Yes, I'm aware that there are many who think play should be undirected. I think there is a balance- I like to let DS explore his toys and do what he wants but I also think it's important to model how he can use certain toys etc.)

Do you hide all the toys away, then take different ones out each day? How does this work? Any examples of which toys and how many you would take out for a day?

How does your toddler play? Should I be doing something different?
 

[colsxjack]

we got a toy organizer shelf like this http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=3640272 (except not as gaudy) and it really helped my DD play more with her toys. The bins are easy enough for her to take down herself, and you can see what is in each bin, etc. We devided the bins so that each one holds a different type of toy. For instance, one for blocks, one for people/figures, one for animals, one for play food, one for musical instrument things, etc.

It also has the extra bonus of being able to keep things cleaner.

Now she can see all her toys and actually plays more with them.

We do allow her to direct play. But we too do actually direct play with her too. At your sons age, our DD did play a lot like he does, by throwing toys, banging them togetger, going from one to the next etc. I think that is normal.

We did roll balls together, she would hand me blocks and I would stack them and then let her knock it over, etc.

Now we race cars, throw balls, do puzzles, read, "draw", she "cooks" us food (always lentil soup lol).

But yeah, a toy shelf where everything has a place and is easily found was the best things we did for keeping the clutter sown and for having her play more with her toys. We got it when she was about 16 months old.

[newmamalizzy]

Oh - I just posted about this on a different thread.  I've arranged DD's toys so that there are one or two things on each of her 5 shelves.  Some of her other toys are in bins on her shelving unit, but they're hidden from her view.  She definitely seems to play with her toys more this way than when all of her toys were in bins.  Then the bin full of stuff WAS the toy.  Now the toy is the toy, you know?  I keep an eye out, and if there are toys she doesn't play with for several days running, I either change their position, or switch them out for something different.  Sometimes I'll set up the toys in a special way at night.  She comes out in the morning and runs right over to play with those toys, even if they're not ones she usually chooses.  I guess I feel like focus is not really the strong point of young toddlers, so if you want them to focus, you need to minimize distractions. 

[lovepickles]

DD is 20-21 months. We keep out some key stuffed animals, her large basket of balls, a rocker, a push wagon and 3-4 basic activities (like a basket of blocks, an imbucare box, a stacker or a puzzle) set up around the living room. Overflow goes in a cabinet in the bedroom that she can get to but doesn't always see. The small things go in this: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80153800 Books are kept on the lower level of the coffee table but they are getting out of hand lately.

I prefer a simple environment that she can focus on one thing at a time. She seems to get really overstimulated when too many options are available. I rotate her toys every few days and add small new ones biweekly. We order 5-10 new books a month. I should rotate them too but I just forget about them in a drawer somewhere and she outgrows them.

I'd like to get an open low book-like shelf to neatly display her activities. Some of them would be in small open baskets.

But most of the time she travels around the room spending 5-10 minutes on something and longer if she can find multiple things to do with it.

[wishin'&hopin']

We rotate the toys that are out and keep the overflow in a couple of small rubbermaid containers in the coat closet.  I tend to rotate about once a week.  This week, since our 17 month old was showing an interest in focusing on fine motor stuff, we have out blocks, stackers, a puzzle (okay, he only owns one) and a couple of pull toys.  We keep art supplies in a cupboard (he doesn't use those much yet and those are parent directed activities) and get out one at a time.  We don't have a ton, largely because family lives far away :)  

I find that directed play in our house means getting him excited about doing something by starting to play myself and then getting out of his way so that he can do his own thing!  It's funny, if I start stacking blocks he is clear about how it should happen and will usually "correct" how I am doing it and then start working on his own creation.  For some reason the rectangular blue blocks MUST be stacked on top of the cubes ;) and the wooden guy blocks must not be stacked on top of towers any higher than 3 tall...ahhhh, he is our child!

[Xavismom]

I rotate toys about every two weeks, so they are 'fresh' to him. I do however, leave out his very favorite ones, that he plays with the most.

I did have a wooden toy box, that we used to keep ALL the toys in, and it was a huge cluttered mess, and I think it was so overwhelming to him, he didnt play with most of them. I turned the toy box on its side, lengthwise, so now it is being used more as a one-cubby/shelf type thing, and its MUCH better. There is room for 6-8 toys to be set in and on it in a neat, uncluttered way. He also has a wagon, that I keep next to the toybox 'shelf' that I keep all his blocks in.

During the day, he ends up pulling ALL the toys out, and they get strewn about the room. At bedtime, we put away the toys, and try to involve him as much as he is willing to do. He is SO much better at helping to pick up his own toys now they they are neat and organized, and there are not too many out at once.

[foreverinbluejeans]

Shelves and bins are a great idea. You can get inexpensive metal shelves at the hardware store and screw them to the wall with at least 2 screws. Do this even if you live in an apartment and repair the screw holes when you move. Toddlers climb, need I say more. You can find bins from peoples expensive toy organizers that broke at yard sales or get dish pans or something similar from the dollar store. I also used laundry baskets.

Put the big toys or the toys you don't want getting dumped on the higher shelves. I had 2 sets of shelves with a train table between them. They could do lots of things on the train table. I did day care when the kids were young and then we home schooled so we needed that much room for the variety of things we had. Some experts think kids have too many toys and something like 10 toys are enough. I think it depends on the age of the child and how much time you spend at home.

Every day pick up the toys together and put them where they go. Don't expect kids to do this on their own. Many men can't. For some reason they can't even stack measuring cups or pots and pans. Anyway, don't make putting away toys a chore that kids are rewarded for or punished for. You might say, "first we will pick up the toys, and then we will go to the park." "Lets see how fast we can pick up the toys." We always picked up the toys before my husband came home from work because I knew that was something important to him that was easy for me to make sure was done. When you have a system it looks impressive.

[SpeechieK]

I would also vote in favour of not having too many toys out at once. My toddler plays in a very different way if there are too many toys out (e.g. after his cousins leave before we clean up when he has access to EVERYTHING!) He will just 'butterfly' from one thing to another without playing or exploring anything. So we also keep a small amount of toys out. Favourites are always there (a teddy, a tractor, his toy phone and his stacking cups) - others rotate depending on his interest and my time to dedicate to playing with him.

If I have a hectic day I might allow some of the Vtech toys for some mindless enjoyment of the lights and sounds. On days when I have more time to sit and play I might bring out puzzles or other fine motor activities or pretend play with a tea set, plates and spoons etc. he is 16 months and pretending is just starting to make sense to him on a very basic level. We also went through the "bash everything" stage!

I suppose I try and have a balance of "do whatever the heck you want with this" time combined with a little of me or Daddy showing him certain activities to develop his play. I don't like to tell him how a toy must be played but I do think he needed help to move from bashing the table with his car to realising that it had wheels and could "brum"!

[expat-mama]

Thanks! Lots of great replies and tips.

What I've done so far is organized the toys into groups- cars, trucks, & things with wheels; stuffed toys; stacking cups and rings, and blocks; balls; everything else. I tried putting out one thing from each group but DS seemed to be looking for OTHER toys. So then I tried a few toys from the same category with a couple of favourites. This is working really well. I don't keep the same group out all day though- I've been switching them once or twice so for example DS will play with balls in the morning, dolls in the afternoon, and later cars and trucks. He has his favourite doll out all day, as well as his favourite truck and he has a sand shovel and a kitchen wisk that he loves to carry around all the time...so those stay out most of the time. I leave him access to his music stuff because we listen to a lot of music during the day and he likes to go and bang his drum or shake his maracas occasionally.

Books are insane because we have so many. But I want to keep them out- they are by far DS's favourite activity. And he often will sit nicely and quietly and flip through them or go and get one and bring it to us to read to him, so I like to have him able to access all of them. It's interesting to see the ones he chooses!

I don't really "lock" the toys away or keep them out of sight though. And once or twice since I started the new system, DS has taken it upon himself to explore the toy compartments and take every single thing out and look at it. I actually got a really funny video of him with crazy morning bed head doing this- taking things out and tossing them over his shoulder into a big pile! But he doesn't do that often. Now we have to work on putting things away and cleaning up...

[somegirl99]

Subbing, we need to do this too.

[SpeechieK]

We are working on cleaning up too - I think we will be "working on it" for a long time yet! I find the clean up song helps - can't remember where I first heard it but I think it is a Barney song. When he hears me sing it he at least gets the idea he should lift something, even if it is a half hearted effort and I do the rest.

It goes "clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere

"clean up, clean up, everybody do your share"

great that he loves the books, my wee fella does too - I can't wait to read a story though rather than look at pictures or speed read the text as he flicks pages!

[newmamalizzy]

Originally Posted by expat-mama 

Thanks! Lots of great replies and tips.

What I've done so far is organized the toys into groups- cars, trucks, & things with wheels; stuffed toys; stacking cups and rings, and blocks; balls; everything else. I tried putting out one thing from each group but DS seemed to be looking for OTHER toys. So then I tried a few toys from the same category with a couple of favourites. This is working really well. I don't keep the same group out all day though- I've been switching them once or twice so for example DS will play with balls in the morning, dolls in the afternoon, and later cars and trucks. He has his favourite doll out all day, as well as his favourite truck and he has a sand shovel and a kitchen wisk that he loves to carry around all the time...so those stay out most of the time. I leave him access to his music stuff because we listen to a lot of music during the day and he likes to go and bang his drum or shake his maracas occasionally.

Books are insane because we have so many. But I want to keep them out- they are by far DS's favourite activity. And he often will sit nicely and quietly and flip through them or go and get one and bring it to us to read to him, so I like to have him able to access all of them. It's interesting to see the ones he chooses!

I don't really "lock" the toys away or keep them out of sight though. And once or twice since I started the new system, DS has taken it upon himself to explore the toy compartments and take every single thing out and look at it. I actually got a really funny video of him with crazy morning bed head doing this- taking things out and tossing them over his shoulder into a big pile! But he doesn't do that often. Now we have to work on putting things away and cleaning up...

DD always chooses "Baby Mickey's Nap."  :(