Feel so disheartened looking at the state of the dc bedrooms needs drastic sorting out!

[springchik]

They seem so overrun with toys and books and jigsaws and activity/colouring things! Thats on top of the toys they already have. Where do I start with sorting out the toys? What storage systems would you recommend? I'm going to start this week when dc go back to school and preschool. Feel so disheartened tbh as it just seems so all over the place. :( Where on earth do I start?

First off, how old are your children?

3 and 5. The 3 year old bedrooms the worst as I've passed down my 5 year olds old thomas toys etc

If you don't yet have enough cupboards/boxes, how about you first sort things into cardboard boxes and then you can assess what you've got.

My 'storage systems' include a popup tent half-full of soft toys, a large chest of drawers (one drawer for barbies, one for ponies etc). Large plastic tubs for megablox, smaller tubs and drawers for lego.

Books, fairly obviously need bookshelves - allow room for loads more if your DC are young, of course!

Ok (I LOVE a good sort)

First of all, go through everything and chuck out broken toys, stuff that can go to charity (BE BRUTAL), stuff out of its box etc etc

Put that stuff somewhere else(boot of car is good) (dont get distracted in the other rooms as you walk through, you are on a mission!)

Now that you've got left what they actually play with, you can see what can be stored in the storage you already have

clear lidded storage boxes are good (wilko, Class Olsen, Ikea)

I have tubs and containers and my 5 year old as a "frog" toy container. Also my 5 year old has a book shelf which still looks untidy! It just looks so chaotic and all over the place! I can hardly get to ds2s chest of drawers for toys or to ds1s window to open or close curtains. I felt embarassed when mil saw ds1s room the other night when he wanted her to put him to bed. It needs drasticly sorting I know but where do I start?

THanks cybil (slow typer tonight) I'll start on wednesday when dc at school although will only have the morning without ds2!

We have limited storage in our house but manage to control the toys to a degree using:

a) lidded boxes which we can stack for toys we either have a lot of or which have large pieces.

b) plastic drawer units for things which we have less of or which have very small pieces so you can get a lot in a drawer.

c) inexpensive bookshelves, for books obviously and also for big toys to sit on top of eg Playmobil Castle and Pirate ship.

d) hammock for soft toys.

Using this method we can take a box or drawer out to play with the stuff and there is an obvious container for them to learn to tidy back up into.
We try to operate a one box out one box back system so that once it is sorted we don't have to do it again for a while.

When I am tidying I sort into piles and then box/drawer/shelf them. I tend to keep a box or similar container for miscellaneous items so I can narrow down the sorting quickly. This way it is less overwhelming.

Remember you don't have to do it all at once. You can decide you are just going to pick up all the books today. Then pick up all the soft toys the next day and so on.

A cheap version of storage boxes with lids are bankers boxes. They are not transparent so you do have to label them but they do as you gather plastic boxes.

Let us know how you are getting on. I need to do my ds room after the Christmas influx and it is a bit scary.

Start by getting everything off the floor - in the first instance just into 3 containers - keep, charity and bin.

Good luck tomorrow springchik

How are you getting on springchik?

I have been tackling ds room today too. I have got every toy into a relevant box and all but one box into the wardrobe. It took me an hour and a half. I just have a pile of clothes to sort, his sheets to wash and to drag the hoover up there and it will be nice again. How long do you think it will last?

I agree you need to be really ruthless. I went through my DCs stuff when they werent there.

I have the ikea 'trofast' storage units, it's great because we can just take a bucket out when we need it.

For jigsaws, games etc (stuff in boxes) we have an open bookcase.

I love the 'really useful storage boxes' - they're really durable. I use them for craft stuff and games where the box got crushed :o

First of all you need to remove everything from their rooms and sort it roughly by category into cardboard boxes. Go through each box and chuck the no-hopers and recycle things they have outgrown (or store in loft for younger DCs).

Then spring clean their bedrooms and return each category to the room on a category-by-category basis, starting with the most important:

• clothes
• books
• toys

etc.

You might want to remove all arts & crafts supplies from their bedrooms to another location - I have loads of transparent stacking Ikea boxes in a cupboard in the hall for art supplies as I find it is the only way to prevent chaos.

I agree Bonsoir - arts and crafts are not stored in our dcs rooms either. We have a small plastic drawer unit for pens and pencils on the desk in the kitchen. Messier stuff is kept in our study, where they can't get to it without my help. Otherwise I would get up every morning to a serious tidy up job!

The method I used to sort their stuff out was really slow but it allowed me to do it in stages.

All the toys were mixed up and stuffed into bags and boxes. I basically went through several times (over a few weeks) and siphoned off particular types of toys, when I had a place for them.

So, the first time I took bricks out and separated them into plastic and wood, the next time I did train set stuff, then cars/trains, people/animals etc.

It got quicker each time and the pile of "WTF do I do with this" got smaller.