How To Organize Too Many Toys?

Last Updated on July 9, 2020 by Early retired mom

If seeing too many toys in your kid’s room are giving you a headache imagine what it does to your kid?

If you were to look at kids’ rooms today, most of the time you’ll find them too messy and cluttered. It sometimes reaches the point that it is hard to look at.

If feels like every small space in the room is filled with some kind of toy.

Minimizing children’s toys, is not only a decorating issue. It actually has real benefits on your child development.

Having too many toys can overwhelm your child, they become restless and continue skipping from one toy to another.

It is hard for them to focus on just one toy, which can help boost their creativity, seeing the abundance of toys in from of them.

Learning how to organize too many toys starts by getting rid of stuff, growing up a minimalist toddler and setting up a minimal playroom may the solution.

The process is very simple:

1. Knowing what toys are appropriate for your kids age and stage
2. Knowing what toys to keep
3. Learning how to organize those too many toys
4. Setting up a minimalist toy list – so you’ll know what to ask for your kids’ gifts for their first birthday ?

You do not have to be an extreme minimalist to get rid of stuff and minimizing children’s toys. Minimizing children’s toys is easy to do.

How Many Toys Should A Child Have?

Today, there is just so many toys to buy. It is available everywhere we go. On the internet, at the mall, in local stores.

It seems like parents today are stuffing their kids with toys just because they can. Or maybe to compensate for not having enough time with them.

Whatever may be the reason, we just buy them too much stuff.

Kids should not be having so many toys

There is the 20 toys rule which, I find a bit strict. However, I don’t think I am that far from 20.

Here is a great list of toys by age that will help you learn which toys are suitable for kids – this is the first step to minimize children’s toys.

If it’s up to me, whenever I see a toy that is broken or missing a piece, I trash it immediately. Also, cheap plastic toys are 90% out of my kids playroom. I keep the quality ones only.

A recent study in Infant Behavior and Development concluded that an environment with less toys is better for kids. Kids engage in longer periods of play with a single toy, which “help them to focus more and play more creatively”.  

They compared two groups of toddlers:

One group had 16 toys to choose from.

The second had only 4toys.

They discovered that “With fewer toys, participants had fewer incidences of toy play, longer duration of toy play, and played with toys in a greater variety of ways“

In general, experts around the world agree that the “too-many-toys” syndrome can have negative effects on kids.

For kids below the age of 6, an overload of toys can be overwhelming and distracting. “They pick up one toy, drop it, and move on. They can’t focus on using any of their things to the fullest,” says Margaret Sheridan, Ph.D., chair of the human development department at Connecticut College, in New London. I see it all the time with my kids.

For kids above the age of 6, an overload of toys can lead them to think everything is replaceable. and nothing is valuable. They are lacking appreciation for the belongings, and the responsibility to care for them, adds Shelley Lindauer, Ph.D., director of the Adele & Dale Young Child Development Laboratory at Utah State University, in Logan.

Knowing What Toys To Keep

So, The first step to setup a minimal playroom is to reduce the number of toys, books and arts and crafts material and the general mess that accumulates in our homes.

I personally think that before we start organizing the too many toys in our kids space, we need to organize our own space and setup a minimalist family home.

Place into a box the activities and toys our kid is not using very often or thins they find too difficult. This box can be stored for now.

We can rotate and reintroduce these activities when our child needs a new challenge.

Then, place into a second box items that are for younger children, activities that they do not use anymore or are too easy. Find a new home for them or keep them aside for a younger sibling.

Also throw out:

• Broken toys
• Toys that are missing pieces
• Books that are missing a page or a few

Then, keep all the toys that that:

• Enrich their imagination
• Make them creative. Think outside of the box
• Make them move
• Make them use their different senses

Keep out just the few things the child is using a lot.

Minimizing Children’s Toys Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect From The Start

Don’t worry if you’r not sure from the get-go how to approach this and knowing what toys to keep. It’s all about continually finding the right number of activities to keep the toddler engaged without holding on to ones that no longer capture their interest.

Setting up a minimal playroom is an ongoing process that will eventually include our child, developing ideas about reusing, recycling, charity, and taking care of our toys with the idea that they can be passed along when we are ready for something new.

I know, this may not be an easy thing for toddlers. However, getting them used to the idea that items are going into a charity box will help them build a stronger character in the future.

Now, that you can see all the toys available, decide which ones to be available for him and which should be stored in a closet.

How To Setup A Minimal Playroom In 6 Steps?

Whether you decided to throw away or donate a few or a lot of toys, what you have lest after you have stored the other toys in the two boxes, still need to be organized.

So, how do you organize too many toys in 6 easy steps?

1. Clear out the space first – make sure that when you start the organization process, the playroom or play area is clean from any toy. You want to start with a blank canvas.
2. Get some shelving units, boxes, or similar items. I personally like the ones from Ikea. I also use baskets.
3. See the space through their eyes. Setup the room or play area to make things easier for our kids and consequently for us. Arrange things so children can manage more independently and successfully. Have things at their height so that they are easily accessible.
4. Get each toy a place of its own and store the rest of the toys that do not go on the display in a closet. It will help keep the space from feeling cluttered.
5. Replace the display every week to create variety and challenge them
6. Keep adjusting and improving, particularly as the child grows.

If you have more than one kid, here’s some extra things to consider:

1. Setup a space for each age group. Use higher shelves for older kids.
2. If some toys contain small pieces which may be dangerous to a toddler, keep it in a box that will be difficult for the younger kid to open.
3. Try to make them share as much as possible. Not simple, this is a post by itself.

Before we end

Hopefully, these ideas should help inspire us to reduce the chaos and create more engaging spaces for our child.

Setting up kids’ room or play area can help create some calm in our life with our child. I hope those ideas serve as inspiration to make a few changes today.

We can always continue to work on their spaces, gradually making things even more accessible, more attractive, and more engaging for our child.

Have additional tips for minimizing children’s toys. We’ll be happy to hear.

Enjoy,

Early retired mom