How do you organise your kids toys?? mine are in heaps all over the house - what is the better way ?? is there a better system??

[Wary]

right have 3 kids and too many toys everything everywhere and nothing complete but they are 2, 2 and 4 so dobt tidy up and i am too exhausted to myself - how do i organise things to make my life easier??

one toybox upstairs

one toybox downstairs

ruthless pruning of toys and books every so often (broken toys chucked/other stuff put in loft/charity shop) so it doesn't all get unmanagable

keep jigsaws on shelves/in drawers

MASSIVE toy boxes, we got ours from Wilkos and tesco. All toys get thrown in them and it looks as if oyu are organised! Also love the pop up bin things meant for laundry!!

Storage boxes in bedroom and play room. Outdorr toys in storage boxes in garage or under stairs. Everywhere has a place, and have drilled it into DD! Books go on shelves under her bed, or on the downstairs bookcase.

DD is now 6y and she always helps tidy up. TBH she always has done. She would help tidy up at nursery from being ntot muh more than a year old, so figured she could help at home too

One toy, or set of toys, allowed out each at a time; goes back in box before another is got out. Agree with ruthless culling. Jigsaws in box in drawer or on book case, with plastic sandwich bag inside each box for the pieces. Labelled boxes under beds for Playmobil, lego etc.

We have a drawer thing in the boys' room with coloured drawers £22 in sale at Argos and so themed toys are put in them and we sort them out every month or so

ie Ben 10 toys
Dinosaurs
train track
Asterix toys
little people
little animals

big cupboard built in in their room with games and boxed toys and a big under the bed box with more dinosaurs in it.

Books on bookshelf.

No toys downstairs in the evening. They are told that if they dont tidy them up they end up in the bin!! [nasty mummy]

should add that the reason we have so many dinosaurs is because ds1 (6y) is going to be a paleontologist!

I have 2 DCs (3 1/2 and 21 months) - and one on the way - so my system may go out of the window then!!

DC1 has a bigish room so they play a lot in there - has nice big shelves and a big toy box. Jigsaws, books, nice toys etc are on the shelves. Bits go in the box. Separate bags/large boxes for things like lego, brio and 'sets' of things. Have got a couple of these storage things from IKEA or similar.

DC2 has a small room so plays in DC1s room but has 'own' toys on some shelves/in a box in their own room.

I have a big wooden toy box downstairs and downstairs things get flung in there at the end of the day. Don't really like having toys underfoot after DCs are in bed.

Every week or so I take all toys upstairs and put them away properly. Try and get the DCs to 'help' with this in the hope that they will learn to do this themselves. God knows if that theory will work out! Then the toys they have downstairs (where they play a lot) varies as they bring different things down from week to week.

Every couple of months I have a real sort out of the boxes that hold all the random bits. If anything is broken or has loads of bits missing then I get rid of it, though this hardly happens.

After DC3 (my last!) is born I will just get rid of things as he/she grows out of them - will pass onto other friends/charity shops/hospital or something. Otherwise we will be snowed under!

I think that I am anal though

Best thing we did was get those plastic 3 draw trolleys (£10 fromAsda). 1 each for DCs. they can get little things (like figures, dolly stuff) out and put away themselves. Big toy box each always accessible, plus seperate boxs with lids for farm set, train set, lego etc which I get out / put away so the stuff stays together. Agree, reg toy culls (put stuff away in loft if they can't bear to give it away).

of these plasterers buckets in bright yellow, very sturdy and easy to chuck toys in, ours are huge we put the 'big' toys in these

plus 3 plastic slidey boxes slipped under bed for all the small things

sorry crap link, 3 of these

storage box for dd2's toys on a table in the corner, dd1's are are inder her bed, in a bedding box in the corner of the living room with some toys heaped piled neatly on top of it as they wont all fit in.

big toys are in the cuboard under the stairs.

Were all over house, now mostly in each of their bedrooms (3 DSs) but 3 yo has IKEA bench thingy with padded lid in living room, and baby has basket of toys in there. 9yo has no excuses and we expect him to move his stuff to his bedroom every day. Try to rotate the 3yos toys.

Have just put up a shelving unit in dining room which is also to be a play room and that has some slide out plastic boxes so 3yos toys will go in there and what doesn't fit will go in the bin or back upstairs!

Every toy is placed in a group, eg, dolls, bricks, small world stuff, trains.
So everything has a home and when toys are tidied up it is quick to put them away and it makes it easier for the children to tidy too.

Every now and then I have to go through the boxes and check they are all sorted properly, but i reckon it's the only way to go.

We've just had a clear out and everything was chucked if:

a) it was a dolly with missing body parts (even if said parts turned up later)

b) it was never played with

c) it was some old tat given as a present long ago

d) anything wrong with it or broken, eg jigsaws with missing pieces

Then we have in dd's room, boxes for dollies, animals, craft plus a bookshelf

In ds's room a box for Star Wars stuff, games, misc and a bookshelf.

Some big stuff like a dolls house is downstairs. Ikea have great soft under bed containers, v useful.

I was intersted to find this thread - I feel like the house is slowly sinking under a mass of toys and my Dcs are only 3 (just!) and nearly 14m. I guess I'm still having to find homes for all the birthday gifts. I have large plastic boxes with lids for "sets" of stuff but still it isn't enough! I'm not very good at toys ustairs yet (DS2 too young to play unsupervised in his room) and DS1's room is in the converted loft - feels a long way from the kitchen. I'll keep looking for your helpful tips!

DDs have shelves in their room where all the toys live. Small ones in baskets by theme with a label stuck on the front with a picture by DD1 so there's no excuse for not putting things away in the right place.

Books are in the living room along with another small basket for chucking stuff that ends up in there. Now and then I take it back through to their bedroom and put it away.

Boxed games are in a cupboard in the living room with a little table shoved in front to stop DD2 getting them out...except I fell asleep on the sofa today and when I woke up 5 minutes later they were sitting in a heap of 6 games all muddled up!!!

I have a seperate container/box/drawer for each different type of toy, and they are all (rather anally)labelled

Everything has to be kept in the right box, so stickle bricks together, lego together, playmobil, cars, train set (you get the picture) all have their own place and each box has a place on a shelf or under DS's bed.

Makes for very easy quick tidying up, and easier to find toys when DS wants them as he knows exactly where they are likely to be.

Only one toybox, in the sitting room downstairs, an that is for all his outside toys like footballs and skittles etc.

You need a trip to IKEA. Storage is key!

and like www I'm ruthless about getting rid of broken or unplayed with toys.

I hate toys all over the place, unless they are being played with, and like my sitting room toy free once ds is in bed.

We have some of these along one side of the downstairs play/dining room. There are square wicker baskets that fit into the spaces, and they have cars in one, animals in another, dress ups, tea set, etc etc...great becaise the kids can take the basket away to the garden, another room etc, and because they look quite nice as well.