{Getting Organised - Toys!}

One of the major issues at my new house is lack of space / storage; with that in mind, here are my tips for getting organised with your children's toys.

I like everything to have a place, and this is especially important in my new house as space is at a premium. This goes for everything, not just the toys!

Declutter

Ditch broken toys, duplicate toys and toys that haven't been played with for a long time. I managed to clear a few boxes of baby toys before our house move and I also sold a few larger items on Gumtree.

Set the Rules

We have a defined play area. I'm lucky to have a 'grown-up' room and a 'play' room. From the moment we arrived at the new house, I've been very clear that the front room is for grown-ups and the back, more informal room, is the playroom. So far, so good and all the toys have stayed in the play room. These boundaries are so important.

The kids have soft toys and books in their bedrooms, but that is all. I don't want to encourage playing with noisy toys during or after the bedtime routine. I've learnt from mistakes made at the old house!

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Get Organised

I've categorised the toys into boxes/baskets...

In our coffee table drawers we have -
1. People - e.g. Happyland people, Fisher Price Little People & Playmobil characters
2. Animals - e.g. Schleich animals, My Little Pony
3. Musical instruments
4. Lego
5. Small cars

I've used plastic shoe boxes in the coffee table drawer to separate the categories, similar to this under bed storage drawer

In the glass display cabinet drawer we have -
6. Puzzles

And on top of the cabinet we have a basket with -
7. Barbie stuff

In the pantry/cupboard we have -
6. Big cars
7. Bigger toys - e.g. Octonauts / Happyland house
8. Games
9. Arts & Crafts - paper, crayons, pens, stickers, paints, Play Doh etc.

The big toys that we have out on show in the play room are -
10. Kitchen - wooden kitchen plus wooden shopping trolley of play food (the kitchen has a few baskets with a shopping till and tea party stuff) 

In the shed -
8. Outdoor toys (in an Ikea storage bag) - football, skittles, tennis rackets

In their bedrooms -

14. Books

15. Soft toys

I need to get clever with storage, and something similar to these fabric carriers on the bag of their bedroom doors would work quite well I think. I think I could knock this up on the sewing machine.

Involve the kids in tidy up time

I'm trying to get into good habits with regard tidying up... if we move activity from dolls to crafting, then we tidy up the dolls first. At nursery they play the Mission Impossible theme tune and the kids know it's time to tidy up. I'm thinking I might download it onto my phone!

Rotation

I used to rotate toys at the old house and would put a bag of toys into the basement out of sight for a few months. If I get enough space in the shed, then I might start this again as it did work really well.

What are your tips on getting organised with toys?

PS I have a {Get Organised} board on Pinterest other ideas :-)