KIDS' TOYS - Tip 2

This is a continuation of the previous post on organizing kids' toys:


Tip 2:

Baskets for the basket-case: I am a fan of the Dollar Store. That is where I first discovered what became an ideal solution for my needs regarding my children's toys. They sold baskets about 8 x 12 in size in a multitude of colours each for $1.

Of course that price is likely higher now, but nevertheless I still have my baskets as they've been moved to serve other purposes.  I will show you in the next post why this size of basket worked better for me versus other bins.

If you want a consistent fresher look, stick to one colour. White is always the freshest, but depending on your room colours you may want a different colour.

If you prefer a colour-coding system of sorting, you may also prefer using different colours.

HERE IS HOW YOU USE THE BASKETS:


1.  Once you have your new baskets, sort the toys into categories, for example:

• soldiers
• Lego
• play dough supplies
• play food
• toy cars
• dinosaurs
• army vehicles and landforms
• Poly Pocket
• Barbie

3.  Label the baskets on the outside end using paper, markers and tape.

4.  Encourage a theme for playtime. For instance, if the theme for that hour is house, take out only the baskets of house items. If it is army, take out army vehicles and soldiers.  This way you don't have all the toys out at once and tidying up will be easier too.

If theme times don't work, encourage your children to limit the number of baskets they do take out.  Of course the term take out does not imply all baskets are open for business. More on that in the next post.

5.  At each tidy-up have the children put them back into the same basket they came from.  You might want to make it fun by making it a game where the children will race to pick up as many toys as they can while you time them. For example:

Call out, "bring me all the dinosaurs you can in 1 minute, GO!"

then

Call out, "bring me 4 army men, GO!"

etc.

Now, mom, I know there will be days-upon-days you'll spend resorting these, and doing might just drive you crazy!  But if you like a sense of order and that feeling of things in their place, and life in control, this is a tip worth trying.