Organizing Toys For More Fun
A constant mess resides in our living room. The things that make up the mess change but there are always piles on the coffee table and floor. Every few hours, I do a clean sweep but by bedtime, I’ve run out of energy and am rarely able to make the living room neat for the morning.
Rachel Goodchild of The Jamaica Observer found that making an effort to tidy up before bed makes a difference not just in the appearance of her living room.
I spent several hours organising them and grouping them, putting away the toys that were no longer appropriate (rattles and shakers) and placed matching sets into plastic containers.
Then as a finishing touch I placed one set of toys out on the floor and went to sleep. The next morning an interesting thing occurred. My normally TV-mad kids stopped in their tracks when they saw the toys so neatly laid out. No television came on that morning.
All day my children enjoyed playing with their things, opening up boxes, and sorting through their things. And I loved seeing how much more they got out of their toys.
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As a messy and creative person, this tends to go outside of my comfort zone. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I will need to place a little more structure into our play, just as I have with our duties and daily routines. This makes the children more settled and they know what is happening. They also look after things much better.
I’ll be trying this approach this week to see if it makes any difference with my toddler.
Let us know if you try it and what you experience as a result!
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4 opinions for Organizing Toys For More Fun
Donna
Jun 20, 2005 at 9:03 pm
I like to clean the house of toys before I go to bed because it gives me an extra half hour in the morning while they make a mess. If the toys are already out, they are ahead of me, haha.
That’s a great idea about setting out one toy, I think I will try it as well.
Lei
Jun 20, 2005 at 9:42 pm
Donna, S does seem to play better by himself when not overwhelemed by the mess of toys. I’m still working on getting him to put stuff away that he’s finished with. I get the feeling that it’s going to be a continuing struggle. :P
Qadira
Jun 21, 2005 at 10:19 am
Something else that helps keep their interest, is to take about a third of the toys, and store them in a bin somewhere.
You’re "supposed" to put a different batch into storage when you take out the first batch to play with- but I never got around to that. I can say though, that my child was so delighted to find favorite toys (ones he had stopped playing with, which is why they went into the bin to begin with). It was like Christmas, or a birthday. hehe
It’s more pleasant as an adult in the morning to walk half-awake through a house and not step on things all the way to the kitchen. Seems to help with the general mood for the entire day.
It’s tempting to only have out 3 or 4 toys at a time, and just cycle through the toys, to cut down on clutter. But how to decide Which 3 or 4 one leaves out. Especially when there are certain ones that seem to be Must Have Favorites.
Luckily, my toddler is about at the stage where he’ll join in with Picking Up. That’s one of those things that takes repeated practising.
Lei
Jun 21, 2005 at 10:35 am
Qadira, I also find it amusing when S "discovers" a toy in the back of one of his toy cabinets. And he also seems to find it a lot of fun when I go through one of the toy boxes to see if there’s anything that needs to be put away or thrown out.
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