So how are the kids helping? There are lots of ways so today I want to share our first, and most frequent spring cleaning job.
The first job I'm tackling this year is the toy room. Now see, normally I would leave the toy room for last (heaven knows we'll find more toys in every other room of the house) but in our current house the toy room lies in a place where I have to walk through it to get to my office so that means that this is one room that takes priority. Here are our before and after photos along with the top five Kerrific tips on helping your toddlers clean, organize, and maintain their toy room.
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| Before |
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| After |
Five Tips To Maintaining A Clean Toy Room
1. Avoid Traditional Toy Boxes - Yes, these can be perfect for some things, we have one we keep doll clothes in in F's room, but they tend to be a gathering spot. The biggest tip for keeping things clean is to organize and that is very hard to do in these catch alls.
2. Label - I created my own labels simply by finding a photo of the set of toys and then lamenting and sticking them on the buckets with an outdoor strength double sided decorating tape. This has worked awesome! Not only do the kids know exactly where things go but I also know where I should find a toy when someone makes a request. I have also found that this is a great tool during clean up time because it is easy to hand each child a bucket and tell them to find everything that goes in the bucket and put it away. Sometimes the fasted cleaner, or person who fills the most buckets, gets a special treat too.3. Don't be afraid to put things up high - If there are toys that tend to cause a fight, or are just too little to be played with without supervision (craft items are #1 at my house) then put them up high, with a lid, and teach your children to ask when they want to play with them. Not only does this help with the mess but it also gives you something that is "special" for when your kids need something that is out of the normal. More on this when I show you the cleaning of the kids' room.
4. Plan ahead - if there is a toy that your child really likes make sure you reserve room to grow when you choose which side bucket it goes in. Our car bucket, for example, was huge when we first got it 2 years ago but now it's three quarters full. So glad I got the big one to start with.
5. Make them do it again - cleaning a toy room can be hard work, just ask my kids. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it shouldn't be done right. If you want to keep a clean toy room that you don't have to do yourself then don't be afraid to be a mean mom. No, I'm not doing anything drastic but I do require my kids pick up the toy room once a day, generally right before bed, and if they don't do it right (aka put things in the correct buckets) I dump the buckets out and make them start over. It didn't take them long to figure out it was easier to do it correctly the first time. I'm not saying it's perfect but 90% off the time even my two year old can get things where they go and I know it is easier to teach him now than it will be in a few years.
What is your best toy room tip? Give me a shout out and let me know!
I like to use pretty baskets and containers to conceal the toys. It amazes me how quickly it all can add up and cause such a mess.
ReplyDeleteWe love your bins and think your toy room looks super organized. As parents of 6 we are amazed at how quickly things can get out of hand!
ReplyDeleteThe pictures on the bins are a great idea, it fills like we are over flowing with toys so I think that would be a great system for us.
ReplyDeleteI hate cleaning up toys! It seems they are the same toys 20 times per day! I have even packed up many of the boys toys because the play room was overflowing! The best thing for me is though I try to get my 2 yr old involved I do bribe at times to get him to help more....not sure it's the right choice but I work with it.
ReplyDeleteFor a playroom that looks very organized. My kids haven't always had a playroom but when they have it normally consists of toys on the floor. These are great organizational tips. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids yet, so I don't have any tips. But I love the tips you've provided! I'll keep them in mind if I have kids one day.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a while since we had a play room at our house, but the kids' rooms get to be pretty trashed at times, so these tips will work great for in there too. We spent way too much time last weekend cleaning and organizing and putting things in new bins.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to step it up and put pictures on the buckets so the kids will understand that the legos don't go in the same bin as the balls! They end up everywhere when the boys are trying to find the "perfect" ball. It drives me NUTS!
Again, thanks for the ideas. I need to get better at being the "mean" mom so they will get it right the first time instead of me spending ALL day in their rooms "helping" them clean while they pull out toys they haven't seen in ages and want to play with again...right then. (sigh)
Oh man, my brothers' legos used to drive me crazy too! I'm just waiting until my kids get a little older to start that mess. Good luck!
DeleteMy girls have gotten better about cleaning up as they have gotten older but my son is terrible! I have to sort and purge for him about every quarter and just be happy he gets his stuff off the floor with major nagging n a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteOur kids are older now, so the whole toy room mess isn't the same, though they still leave a mess. My goal when they were younger was to have a quick 5 min. sweep through the room to pick up whatever is on the floor. It didn't always do a good job at being consistent but my main goal is to teach them to put things where they belong... not just where they felt like putting it. Now as they are older, they are each assigned a room to keep clean and kept up, or a task to help out. It makes it so much easier on me to not feel overwhelmed and burdened by having to do it all.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is quite the transformation! You have some really great ideas :) I imagine labels have to be so convenient!
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids but these are some great tips!
ReplyDeleteDivachyk @Relaxed Thairapy
It's also important not to see every toy on the floor as a bad thing. We have an area in our playroom that doesn't get picked up regularly. Our boys use it for their long term projects like building cities for their cars, large LEGO creations, or action figure battles. We're in the process of transitioning from parent led cleaning to self cleaning because they're old enough to do it on their own now.
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I like your organization method! My own children are grown now, but I do agree that you've got to teach them when they're young or they're not likely to do it when they're older. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love the containers you used for the toys! We don't have a play room, so my two youngest kids keep their toys all in their bedroom. We buy those clear drawers from Target (the one's with black wheels) and they keep their toys in there. They are labeled with what's in them. I also painted them pink to match the color of their room. Though I want get a shelf like you pictured for the larger items. Thanks for sharing your technique.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for getting a head start on your spring cleaning! I should probably follow suit since here in California we seem to have skipped winter and gone straight from Fall to Spring. I don't have children so I don't have any tips for organizing toys.
ReplyDeleteRachel recently wrote Using the Oreo Cookie to Get Clients
Great post! I do something similar. I have colored fabric bins that fit into a "book case" and so I use that. I've been meaning to put picture labels on them but I haven't got that far yet. I think i'm going to laminate mine.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to start this.... We have a ladies group that meets here once a month and this would help the babysitters put things back in the correct places :)
ReplyDeleteI love your toy bins! My husband built a toy box for our girls (4 & 5 years old) - which is ONLY for barbies. I've found it helpful to only keep toys that can be categorized: cars / duplos / polly pockets / baby toys / lincoln logs / dishes / etc. I appreciated your emphasis on MAKING THEM PICK UP. I don't do that very well. I feel like a mean mom. Gonna start trying to do that once a day. They're definitely old enough and smart enough to learn that discipline. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great tips. We don't have a play room. My girls play a bit in the living room every day from mid morning till afternoon and afterwards we have a tidy up time. It works most times but there are times I just do it myself to get it done quicker which I know isn't the best of all of us.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea. I could use it for general organization of my closets. I am in the process of spring cleaning myself. I am trying to tackle one thing each day. That way I don't overwhelm myself with the entire house and I have time for other things, as well.
ReplyDeleteI love your little system there! Looks much better than what I got going on! I think we may try this! (Maybe it will help them keep their toys off my floor!)
ReplyDeleteI am obsessed with labeling things!! This is a great post. From one organized person to another- thanks for sharing this!!
ReplyDeleteA couple of months ago the downstairs of our home was starting to look like a toy store! It was embarrassing and disorderly so my husband and I made a plan to tackle the clutter! We purchased two black shelving units from IKEA that have eight large square holes each. We put one shelving unit on it's side and the other standing up, bracketing them to the wall for the kid's safety. Of the 16 available squares, we purchased 12 black canvas type bins, also from IKEA, and filled them with groupings of toys, leaving a few open for things like blog ideas, blankets, and scarves and mittens. It's worked wonders for us and in total cost us much less than a lot of other options we looked in to!!
ReplyDeleteI use bins very similar to yours but are clear. I also label with a picture that I either print off of google images and laminate or take a pic with my camera. I have 5 kids so we have more toys than I like and this is an easy way of letting me know it's time to clean out toys when they are spilling out of the totes of where they belong!
ReplyDeleteI'm awed by your organization. I've used bins for some things, but I find things get buried at the bottom. I'm moving to just getting rid of excess. It's just me and it's easier to do that than with little ones.
ReplyDeleteWe recently changed our toy room into a bedroom for our 5 year old. It was always a mess anyway. This would have been a great idea. But if we didn't do that, it would have been my sewing room. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI love that the kids are involved. If they can play with them they can clean them up. I don't think enough parents are strict enough about this because they feel that including the kids will prolong the process but that's what it is - a process. Great tips!
ReplyDeleteI just got rid of our last traditional toy box. I use those cubed book shelves and buy fabric bins(we used to use plastic ones, but they are getting destroyed over time). We have a rule you have to pick up 10 things before bed. I also started a new rule if you leave your light on and mom has to turn it out you owe 5 minutes of clean up time. That has been working so well I have been using it for fighting, back talking and anything else I can think of. This gives everyone a time out and a little progress.
ReplyDeleteWow, you're already Spring cleaning! I usually don't get around to that until April - well, in Michigan, it doesn't get warm enough to open windows and feel like Spring until then:). I don't have kids, but I like your ideas for organization in general!
ReplyDeleteI would never have thought about using totes in the toy room. I may have to keep that in mind for one of these days!
ReplyDeleteOk those bins are the best. I also love the laminated pictures of the toys. That is the best. So simple and so effective. You just got my wheels turning! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI seriously do not have any useful tips to give you about the toy room as I am in the midst of trying to figure ours out as well! Your toy room is AMAZING! I am so inspired now to grab those big bins for myself. I totally agree about the boxes that are actually made for toys. They're great for dress up clothes (great idea to use it for your dolls' clothes) but for actual storage and organization - they're just too big and deep and not great for stacking. Love your take on the photos on the front of the box. Because our toy room is essentially our family room which we see everyday, we don't have much room to mark it as a "toy room", so it gets very messy very quickly. So I decided to separate toys into two halves. One half would be stored in our basement and the others would be in the family room/toyroom. That way - in a couple months, I would do a swap and she would be excited to play with the "new" cycle of toys. The only problem is, now she's at an age where she seems to know every single toy she has and will look high and low for that one particular item until we find it. If I have it in storage I either have to give in and dig it out, or play innocent and hope she forgets. I'm thinking your system makes much more sense! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love how organized your kid's toy room is. I'd love for my son's to look like this one day. We're currently in the process of moving, so nothing looks neat or clean, but in the new place I hope to keep things tidy.
ReplyDeleteLooks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteGREAT job!!! Very motivating. I should probably be cleaning up instead of writing a comment. Thanks for sharing
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