The solution? I decided it was time to get the toys out of sight and go through them on rotation.
We went through all of the toys and find toys that the children have out grown or do not play with to donate. Next, we bought quite a few clear plastic tubs. We use clear tubs so it would be easy for the kids and I to see the contents.
I chose separate tubs to store groups of toys such as:
Cars
Little Legos
Duplos
Playmobil
Lincoln Logs
Magic Tricks
We rotate through the toys by picking a group of toys to play with every week. When the kids pick a tub to bring up, it's like Christmas again! They suddenly have something to play with that they haven't seen for weeks and are instantly entertained!
It seems that kids don't get bored when they have too few toys, but rather when they have too many. Cleaning out the toys and putting the ones the kids love into rotation has been a big help for the toy burnout in our house.
This is SO true! We have so many toys that the kids literally run around senseless without a clue what to do. I do believe it's so overwhelming for them. We've been wanting to switch Cole and Bella's twin beds into a bunkbed and then we're going to move all the toys into their room but before doing that we're gonna sort through everything....donate most of it and then organize the rest (I think putting some in clear tubs for storage to rotate is a great idea)!
ReplyDeleteWe do this too! And it works!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Its true that kids do get bored w/ too many toys. I try to limit the number we leave out for Moose to play with.
ReplyDeleteWe did something similar to this as kids and have already talked about this being the system that we want to use when we have our own! It just makes so much sense and helps those kids not be so overwhelmed!
ReplyDeleteWay to go guys - I love it!
I saw that in the duggars' book. I thought that was a NEAT idea! As a kid I coudlnot get bored of playmobil. I loved them so much!!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a garage for this very reason! I like the clear tub idea, too. Right now I have a bag waiting for the thrift store full of toys because I'm already in Christmas-shopping mode.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a great idea. I used to do a similar thing when mine were smaller, but not quite so structured!
ReplyDeleteYou are WAY more organized than I am. And I only have one child to clean up after!
ReplyDelete