How do you organise your children's toys?

[Springtimeflowers]

I have a small baby and 2 1/2 year old toddler, and feel like our living room keeps ending up in such a mess recently!

I don't expect no mess from toys and books of course, but have noticed that when things get too messy it makes me feel a bit stressed. We have taught our toddler to tidy up, but she seems to make a big mess whenever I am busy (nursing her baby sister, cooking dinner etc).

We used to do Montessori shelves of activities, but she seemed to lose interest in those once she turned about two.

In our living room, we have some shelves that store lots of her board books and some toys that look nice to display. We then have a basket of her larger books (that are too big for the shelves), a basket of instruments, a little desk with her craft supplies on top, a kitchen, and a basket of general toys. We also have a bay window where we store her paperback books, and a couple of larger toys. We then have a fairly large ottoman where we store anything else. She just has cuddly toys in her bedroom, as she only really sleeps in there as we play in the living room.

But I feel like my living room looks more like a play room, and that she has access to too many toys. I am wondering if a toy rotation would work better? What do you do?

I just read that back and of course my living room looks like a play room as it is where she plays, but hopefully you know what I mean!

When our living room was a playroom we used Ikea Kallax behind a sofa to store all the 'stuff', along with a bookshelf and a kitchen. I got rid of the Kallax and got Trofast instead thinking the smaller baskets would make for easier access for my SEND daughter. Re-bought Kallax as soon as I got over the waste of money though; Trofast is really inefficient storage IMO and doesn't look tidy. You can get so many inserts for Kallax now that it can (a) store a wide range of stuff really nicely and (b) look nice

I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old. In the lounge they have one toy there permenantly. A garage for their cars that dfil made.

I live in a bungalow. Dd's room is next to the lounge and has ceiling to floor fitted cupboards along one wall. Most other stuff lives in there and we only get out one thing at a time.

Ds only has one box in his room and their kitchen and workbench live in the garden.

Sometimes I forget myself and things accumulate during the day but they collect their things in washing baskets and they get sorted out at the end of the day. And if I don't stay on top of it dd's cupboard can get in a terrible state!

I organise toys by type and depending on how many there are either store n large plastic boxes with lids stacked one on top of the other, or in the Kallax unit (very useful).

So one box has all the plastic noisy toys, one has wooden toys, another has food based toys, mega blocks go in another box etc then each play time we just bring out one or two boxes and rotate.

When it comes to clearing up it's easy as we just chuck everything in the relevant box and put it away.

There's always the random stuff that doesn't fit in anywhere so all that goes in one of those big fabric buckets.

Books are mainly kept in the bedroom but they have a couple on our shelf in the living room but generally try and keep it looking like a grown ups room once they're in bed!

Thanks for your replies :).

I think one of my problems is (especially once our toddler is in bed and we want to relax) it still just looks like her playroom. It didn't used to bother me before we had our new baby as we were about and about all the time, but as we are home a bit more now I feel like I can't escape the toys!

I just googled the IKEA kallax and like it, as it would organise everything while being hidden. I have been trying to convince dh to get a new piece of furniture that will hide the toys more for a while now, but unfortunately he hasn't seemed as keen.

I think putting some more books up in dd's bedroom would help, as she often just strews them everywhere without actually reading them.

I think I'll re-evaluate what to do after Christmas - whether I will rotate toys or perhaps get some new furniture.

I also think I'm not staying on top of putting everything away when she gets extra stuff out, so need to make sure I'm doing that!

It's really difficult staying on top of it all especially when you know it's all going to come out again anyway.

I remember when my sisters kids were little she wouldnt bother putting away toys at all as she didn't see the point, but it meant she would be sat watching tv in the evening surrounded by toys scattered all over the floor. It didn't bother her at all and I kind of wish I was like that but, like you, I find having toys on display everywhere a bit stressful.

I assume you don't have another room they can be stored in so you don't have to rush into buying new furniture if your dh isn't keen? If not then the kallax unit or similar at least hides things, hopefully you can convince him!

Do you have a dining room? We've used that as a playroom in the past.

Yeah unfortunately we don't have another room (we have a kitchen/diner), but there is storage in dd's bedroom if I move a few bits around. I just try to keep her room unstimulating so don't like having too much in there, but if it's stored away that's not an issue. I would just need to keep on top of going upstairs to switch things out.

I often think with little ones too much choice is no choice - so I want to have a way where she doesn't have too much stuff out at once, as I find she plays better that way.