Domestic Engineering: Taming Toy-Tornadoes

Some days my kids get overwhelmed and ask for my help cleaning up but I selfishly don’t.

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Other days I remember it’s not about my own agenda and I help them clean up.

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Every day provides opportunities to model Christ’s selfless service to my kids.

As we head into the new year, this post will conclude the Domestic Engineering Series. Today we are tackling the issue of kids’ toys.

I’ll be sharing four steps to help keep them from overrunning your house. Then we will conclude with a couple of unique exceptions.

Reality Check

I would like to say that I handle toy chaos well. I don't. One of my biggest struggles is being patient when our house is a mess of toys.

After playtime I want my kids to clean up right away with a good attitude. I believe this is what I should train them to do. But when they're overwhelmed, I also have an opportunity to be selfless and help them. Often I fail at doing this.

The following ideas have helped minimize toy-tornadoes. But they don’t address my heart attitude of selfishness. There are days I want to throw out all my kids' toys to end the regular messes. When this is my attitude, I’m valuing my own ease over blessing my kids.

While I hope these ideas will serve you in caring for your family, they won’t bring ultimate peace and joy. That can only come from the Lord.

Four Steps to Taming Toy-Tornadoes

Alright, now let's get practical. The easiest way to eliminate toy-tornadoes is to get rid of toys. I often use our container and drawers limits to help us reduce our toys. After that, I've found that rotating them really helps minimize the clutter.

Step 1: Prepping and Decision Making

To get set up for toy rotations there are only three things you’ll need:

1. A permanent marker. 
2. Storage bins to hold what you aren’t using. We have a couple nine cube organizers in our kid rooms so we use fabric storage bins - three for toys and three for books. 
3. Some initial time upfront to divide and label your items.

The first decision you'll need to make is how frequently you want to rotate your toys.

We switch ours out on the first of each month and have three sets that get rotated quarterly. This keeps us from storing tons of toys. It also provides anticipation and excitement about the "new" toys that my kids get to play with each month.

Step 2: Divide and Conquer

Once you've made this decision, divide your toys equally into your chosen number of sets. You can split them up however you like. 

I first grouped our toys into similar types (teethers, stacking toys, etc.). Once I could see how much I had of each type I split them into the three rotation sets.

Step 3: Label and Store

Now label all your toys with a permanent marker. We use a simple dot system where the first set has one dot, the second set has two dots, etc. 

I've found it helpful to label on the tag or where batteries are stored so my kids know where to look first. We do this same thing with our books but label them next to the ISBN number on the back.

Now comes the fun part - seeing if they all fit. If they don’t, have your kids choose their three favorite items and use that to help you decide what to get rid of. 

I have made the mistake of asking “What don’t you want to keep?" and, "What should we get rid of?” Both questions suddenly remind my kids that every toy we own is irreplaceable. Having them choose their favorites helps eliminate this problem.

Be careful though. My older two recently chose their younger sisters' favorite toys to keep on her behalf. All the toys chosen were conveniently their favorites too.

Step 4: Maintain and Schedule Reminders

The initial three steps really only need to occur once. Now when we get new toys I just add them to whichever bin has the most space. I also use those times to see if anything is worn out and no longer worth keeping.

Thanks to this system, my kids have learned a lot about our calendar since they check theirs regularly to see when we will bring out "new" toys. To help myself remember I have a monthly reminder in my calendar.

Two Rotation Exceptions

There are two types of toys that I don’t rotate and want to address.

Exception 1: Stuffed Animals
For a while, I capped how many stuffed animals we had using our bins. But our kids kept receiving more stuffed animals as gifts (and loving all of them).

I remember how much I enjoyed playing with all my stuffed animals and dolls when I was younger. As a result, I’ve separated them from our toys and now store them in a hammock as our "container".

On occasion, we will pull them all down to be played with for an afternoon. Normally though, my girls choose their two favorites at the beginning of each month. Sometimes their indecision leads to choosing four and we set aside two for the next month.

Exception 2: Toy Sets
The other type of toy I don’t rotate is toy sets. I've found these are harder to store in bins and tend to create bigger messes. For us, this includes toys like our doctor kit and brain flakes. 

Instead of trying to rotate them, I have a designated space in the girls' closet for them. The girls may only get out one at a time. For now, they can't access them without my help to ensure there isn't a sudden avalanche of little toy parts.

What are your favorite tips for managing your children's toys? Let me know in the comments!

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* Photo by Marcus Spiske on Pexels.