Most of you have the Christmas tree down, the decorations put away, and the Christmas cookies eaten. But, you may still be staring at the piles of Christmas toys Santa and his band of elves have left for your children. You may be saying “Where are we going to put all this stuff?!” It happens to families every year – toy overload. The deluge of gifts our kids get at Christmas surprises me every time. However, I have learned not to be overwhelmed. I go into the holidays with a toy management plan. I’ll share it with you. Hope it helps!
Toy Management 101
Purge. We start this process before Christmas. The day after the Christmas tree goes up, we start going through toys. We get rid of broken toys, toys the kids have outgrown, and toys they just don’t play with anymore. It seems simple, but it can be painful to ask kids to part with their toys, even ones they never play with, if they don’t really see a good reason for it. When the kids help put the tree and the decorations up, they start thinking about and dreaming about what might be under that tree on Christmas morning for them. That is a great time to explain that no more toys are coming into the house unless some toys go out. We, also, explain the concept of giving and donating their toys to help someone who might not otherwise have toys for Christmas. It’s a pretty good motivator. The kids are a lot more cooperative and loose with the giving.
If you didn’t purge the toys before Christmas, don’t worry. Just don’t put any of the new toys away until you make room for the new ones. We aim for a toy out for every toy in. Be firm with the kids. This is a practice you will have to teach them. Someday, they can use this process for more than toys.
Choose your storage method. I steer clear of the old toy box. I remember as a kid rooting through the toy box trying to find toys and parts. Usually, I would have the entire toy box emptied out onto the floor and then there would be great drama when my parents told me to clean the huge pile of toys. Very frustrating when I was only looking for one doll! Personally, I love clear plastic totes and cubbies.
photo from MarthaStewart.com
(I didn’t use my own picture of our totes since I didn’t have one on file and my camera is not happy right now. It didn’t even make it through the holidays!)
Clear plastic totes fit right in the kids’ closets and on toy room shelves and the kids can immediately see what is inside. I like to have a tote for every category of toy or for toys with lots of parts. Totes work great for my daughter. She has a tote for Barbies, a tote for her electronics (mp3, cd player, leapster,etc), a tote for beads and beading tools, a tote for My Little Ponies…. You get the picture. When everything is grouped together, the toys are so easy for the kids to find.
an old picture of our built-in cubbies in our play room
Now, cubbies work better for my son. He has larger toys. Trucks, tractors, boxes of legos, cars, pirate ships…boy stuff. They don’t really fit into totes. We had cubbies built into our playroom when we built our house. They really helps to keep the toys handy and where he can reach them.
Everything in its place. The most important aspect of any storage methods it that every toy has its place. There are no more excuses during clean-up time that the kids don’t know where the toys go. This eliminates a lot of frustration for children and parents. On the other side of things, it can, also, be very frustrating for children and parents when a favorite toy or parts to a favorite toy can’t be found. Why have toys if you can’t find them? If everything has a place, the kids know exactly where to find their toys and exactly where to put them away.
Plan for next Christmas now. Put a couple purge dates on your calendar. We purge in the spring during spring cleaning time and right before Christmas. It may be painful at first, but it does get easier.
Plan to buy less toys next year. At our house, we buy the kids three gifts for Christmas – in keeping with the gifts the wise men gave Jesus. But, that doesn’t stop grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and well-meaning friends from giving gifts to them. What we have tried (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t) asking that they buy the kids clothes that they need or a gift certificate to somewhere fun. For instance, one of my husband’s sisters always gives the kids jammies for Christmas. They look forward to Aunt Angie’s jammies. It’s a tradition and they always need new winter ones. I have a friend who gives the kids McDonald’s or Chuck E. Chesse’s gift cards. The kids love it!! I love it! No toys to clutter up the house!
There it is. My tips for organizing your children’s Christmas loot. It may take a little to set a system like this up, but it will be well worth your effort.
Hopefully, you can take some ideas with you to manage and organize your Christmas toys. Do you have any toy organizing and storage ideas to share? I’d love to hear them!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I do this every year. I ended up not doing it for the first time in many years this year. Great minds think alike though…. this is part of my goals this week so I can make some room for their new toys!
I also do this every year and use the clear plastic bins (from Container Store). I like them because the kids can see what is inside from every angle. I use this in the game room on our huge wall unit. The kids also each have a 9 cube storage shelf in their room with 4 canvas storage bins. They each have certain things they like in their room and this keeps their books and toys nice and tidy!
Great tips! We also purge toys before Christmas (and birthdays). Thankfully I have children who just are not that attached to \’stuff\’ He usually always finds things on his own that he\’s finished with and is always ready to part with toys that are broken or have lost parts. It\’s just who he is, love that about him. He\’s a born organizer! ;)
We also do the 3 gifts at Christmas and it went over so great this year!
How did I not think of Chuck giftcards? What an awesome idea!
Wonderful and much needed article for our family, thank you! We do a similar thing with toys – my super organized nature insists that I keep the boys toys separated. The fake food items in one bin, vehicles in another, doctor kit in a different one… the list goes on. We will definitely start with the one toy out, one toy in idea – though I do secretly purge their broken or useless toys often!
Thanks again Marci!
Clear totes are great. I also love the set of stacked, rolling drawers I bought at Target for about $13 just before Christmas. It’s perfect for her growing collection of dolls and accessories and fits in her closet under her hanging clothes. Although they’re translucent, I added labels so it’s clear where everything goes, just like on the shelves in the playroom. My daughter, who is just learning to read, gets excited when she has to read the labels to find the right shelf or drawer.
This is also a great time of year to purge your pantry too. Get everything all cooked and baked up. Commit to living out of your pantry for a few weeks (maybe even the month), only going to the store for fresh produce and dairy. Its amazing to find what ingredients are hiding in the back. It also keeps you from letting things expire which is a HUGE waste of money!
A great timely article! I love to shop garage sales during the summer. The toys found make for great birthday and Christmas gifts throughout the season, on average for only a quarter! But I do give them quite a few to play with during the meantime. Having a rotation box of toys going at all times is the key to making our house “adult friendly” too!
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