Toys driving you mad? Here are some practical tips on controlling the mess! Big deep toy boxes often don‘t work well. Toys get jumbled into one big mess, small pieces get lost in the tangle and toddlers have no choice but to empty the whole thing on the floor to find what they want.
It is better to collect lots of small, easy to handle, easy to carry, un -lidded containers, so children can sort their toys into groups – all the building things in one, wheeled toys in another, and so on.
Have fun with lots of big, coloured hooks labelled for coats, hats, bags, skipping ropes, dress-ups. It may not look elegant, but you and your children will be able to find what you need.
Use symbols or colours, even allocate one colour to each child if that works for you. Eg Maggie has a pink towel, pink toothbrush, pink hook for clothes and a pink box, or pink star on her box of toys.
Organise things into activity areas – puzzles, reading, art – so everything to do with that activity is there, eg keep paper, aprons, wipe-up cloths and hanging pegs in one bin along with the pens, pencils, crayons, brushes and paints to make set up and cleaning up easy. During the day, convert a space from one activity to another by putting art stuff away and bringing out the puzzles bin.
Make finding stuff and putting it away fun and interesting to build good habits for a lifetime. Preschool teachers have made an art of labelling boxes and crates. Follow kindergarten‘s set-up/clean-up routines too. Before starting a new toy or game, help your child put away the first one. Then there‘s not a huge mess to sort out at the end of the day.
Cull your child‘s toys every three to six months, keeping an eye out for toys they don‘t play with. It‘s easy for toddlers‘ rooms to become cluttered with stuff they never use. Mess doesn‘t matter, but you don‘t want your baby to choke on a marble or tiny piece of Lego. Get older children to make sure small, precious and dangerous bits are stored in higher places and that only chewable books and toys are at baby level.
Toys driving you mad? Here are some practical tips on controlling the mess! 