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Organizing Your Kids' Toys

Any parent knows this struggle. Well-meaning and generous grandparents and relatives lavish gifts upon your beloved children. These children, surrounded by plenty, ignore most of the toys. The ones that are played with are left out, making your house look cluttered, or worse, to be stepped on by an unsuspecting foot in the middle of the night.

You could do the normal thing of just shoving them into a toy box following the old adage: "Out of sight, out of mind." The problem with that is that your kids won't be able to find pieces and parts of things and then toys will get neglected, devaluing the generosity of those who gave the toy to them. How do you take control of this chaos? The easy answer? Organization. The tough part? Actually doing it.

So let's get started!

1. (This will be painful😂) Get all of the toys out of whatever containers, boxes, nooks and crannies they are hiding in, and put them in a central location. Have room to spread out.

2. Find the trash that has gotten mixed up in with the toys and throw it away.

3. Find those toys from the fast food places and put them in a garbage bag, if they are in decent shape. You can donate these.

4. Find toys that your children have outgrown. Put these in the bag as well for donation.

Now that you have separated out what will and won't be played with, it is time for the big job. Having plastic totes at the ready for this part will make it easier. Determine if you want to have clear totes so the children can easily see what's inside or opaque totes that are labeled. That part is purely up to your preference!

In the picture below, you can see how totes of different sizes were utilized to organize the toys onto the available shelving. The color of the totes also create a cohesive look and pleasant aesthetic for the room!


Now it's time for 5. Go through the toys, putting like toys together with all their pieces into separate containers. Ex: a box for only LEGO pieces, a box for all of the dolls and doll accessories, a box for imaginary play items (play food, plates, cups, etc.).

6. Now that everything is separated, label each box. You can go simple with a black permanent marker or get fancy!

7. Show your kids their new storage system! Encourage them to play out of one box at a time for ease of clean up (and it actually helps them to not be overwhelmed by choices of things to play with!)

8. Enjoy your organized toys. Maybe even join in on some of the play! You deserve it!

When you are looking for totes like the ones in the picture above, check out Edge Plastics. This woman-owned, made-in-America company offers private labeling on all products and a unique color palette for customers to choose from. Their products can be found at large retailers throughout the United States and Canada.
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Location: Ohio, USA

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