Part 4 Summer Series: Professional Organizer's Tips on Keeping Kids' Toys Organized!

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In the fourth installment of this blog series, I’m offering tips on keeping toys and kid’s rooms in check.

I’ll use my house as an example on how I recommend handling toys.  Since I consistently follow the guidelines I’ve set for my home, it stays organized.  I don’t have to ‘get organized’ only to have everything gradually start to fall apart again.  Consistently following guidelines you set for yourself means you will be able to maintain order for the long haul with minimum effort.

Toys are located in 3 areas of my house: In my kids’ rooms, a playroom on the main floor and in the basement.  Dealing with stuff in the basement is easy:  once toys make it down there, 9 times out of 10 its next stop after that is out the door to trash or donation.  I still keep like with like down there.  All Nerf Guns are together in a nice vertical bin from Home Goods. One piece toys like stuffed animals go into a toy chest and toys with more than one piece get separated into stacking drawers.

I use a lot of white Sterilite stacking drawers and they each contain separate items like American Girl Doll Stuff, Baby Doll Stuff, Girlie Legos and Food Stuff, just as a few examples.  Each drawer gets labeled by my label maker. Because they are stackable I can set up any number of them on the other levels of my house, already sorted and organized, depending on where my daughter wants to play with them.  Different companies make the stacking drawers just a little different from each other, so it would be best to buy a whole bunch at once from the same company that can work with each other. 

The “Limiting Container” concept works twice here.  The drawers themselves act as limiting containers, and so do the number of drawers that you own.  Once they are all full, you have to eliminate the type of item that is in one if you need a new one.  Buy a generous amount of drawers the first time and make that number your limit.

On the main floor of my house there is a designated playroom.  My kids are a bit older now (my youngest is 10) but I remember the days of toys being played with all over the main level of the house.  When they are younger they want to be near you!  That’s the way it is and it’s a wonderful thing. So by playroom, in my case it really meant a room to store toys at the end of the day. The toys were/are sorted like with like and kept in appropriate, No fuss containers.  The most used type of toy might have two containers, 1 upstairs in their room and one downstairs in the playroom. If they are looking for that type of toy it would then be in one of two places.

If you don’t have a playroom on the main floor of a multi level house, there are systems that can match your décor so you can have a designated, reasonable toy zone but still have it look nice and blend in with the rest of the grown up space.  I have used the Abbeville System by Ballard Designs in traditional homes (See picture.)  It offers great storage, is versatile, kid friendly, No Fuss but still looks dressed up. 

Contemporary homes can use a number of systems from the oh-so-lovely Ikea. 

Now that my kids are older, I can drop some of the ‘No Fuss’ philosophy. The games are behind doors in 2 wood cabinets I had made.  (See pictures.)

The benefit of allowing a reasonable amount of toys on the main level of your house is that it makes cleaning up so much easier.  Hauling a bunch of things upstairs or downstairs daily is not efficient or fun for anyone!

For kids rooms and all the stuff inside, I believe that when they are younger, they can’t be expected to make a gazillion decisions about keeping or giving away the large number of items they have. In my experience, asking them if they want to keep or throw away a never-ending stream of items will overwhelm them and make them resistant.  They will become suspicious of your purging efforts and want to keep everything.  Your efforts will stall.  Allow them a reasonable amount of decisions, adhere to their choices, and make the other ones yourself when they are not around.  You will be doing them a favor by doing it this way, in my opinion. Sort like with like for the items that will stay, and name homes to create boundaries.   Their things will now be easy for them, and you, to put away.

For older kids, their rooms should be respected as much as possible.  At a certain point they should have (almost) full say in what stays or goes, as long as they are respecting the home and keeping all their stuff within the confines of their room. 

My 10 year old daughter has grown up with me being a Professional Organizer since she was 6.  Up until she was about 8 ½-9, I decluttered her stuff.  Usable items she was too old for went into the temporary holding place that is my Donation Station.  One day, about a year ago, she told me she didn’t want me to do that anymore.  But it wasn’t in a combative, resistant way; it was in a tone that I knew she was ready to handle these decisions on her own stuff in a mature enough fashion.  Now, she cleans her room once a week, puts like with like so everything is easy to find again, and is willing to part with unwanteds.  It’s a beautiful thing, really!

All that being said, the # 1 way to keep surfaces clear, and toys and other items in check?  Do not accumulate so much stuff.  Shop based on need.  Live resourcefully, knowing you are able to get what you need when you need it, and don’t overprepare.

The final installment of this blog will cover everyone’s favorite:  laundry!  ;)  I’ll give tips on how to keep the mountains of laundry in check.  Stay tuned!

Jean Linder is a Professional Organizer living in East Quogue and working in homes and offices throughout Suffolk County Long Island.  If you’d like to receive the other posts (past and upcoming) from this blog series, please visit www.jeanlinderorganizing.com, go to Contact Me, and indicate you would like copies of the blog series sent to your email address.  Happy Organizing!