Toy Rotation Made Easy
Have y’all noticed that your kiddos are already bored with their toys from the holidays? Like how? They have so many to choose from. Or maybe they seem overstimulated - hopping from thing to thing without ever sitting to enjoy a toy fully? Or maybe you’re super overwhelmed with the post-holiday mess and pure volume of toys (both hands in the air over here!).
If this is you, then you might benefit from implementing toy rotation. As a pro organizer and mama, my main motivation for toy rotation was to decrease the volume of toys and overall clutter (which is great!) but turns out I didn’t understand all there was to know about toy rotation, until I watched this:
To recap from Easy Peasy’s how-to video, there are a lot of benefits to toy rotation in addition to less clutter, clean-up and mess. I love that it simultaneously HELPS Tommy by:
Reducing overstimulation and overwhelm
Encouraging imagination and creativity
Extending the life of his toys (by decreasing boredom)
Here’s what you need to get started:
All the toys you already have
At least one space for the in-rotation toys (You know I love cube storage and clear shoe bins to organize all of this!)
Out of rotation storage area - base of a closet (as seen in video), attic, closet, etc. (see ours here)
At least one bin for out of rotation toys
Here is exactly what you need to do to start a toy rotation in your home:
Common categories you can use to set up your toy rotation:
Thinking: puzzles, shape sorters, brain quest
Building: blocks, stackable toys, nesting cups, legos, duplos
Pretend Play: Dolls, Play Kitchen, Dress Up
Musical: instruments, things that make noise/play sounds (I can only take so many of this type before I’m the one who’s overstimulated. Haha!)
Active toys: sports balls, bikes, ride on toys
Books: I have found 20 at a time facing outward so Tommy can see covers works best for us
Always toys: Those you always have out (For us that is the basketball goal, the play kitchen and books and art supplies since we are not ready to do these independently)
“When you aquire more toys, put them into your rotation boxes and if they don’t fit, choose what toys to take out of rotation so new toys fit, all the while keeping to the limit you set for amount of toys you want out at a time.”
Does this sound doable to y’all? Easy Peasy totally changed my approach. I was bringing up bins from a few categories and rotating those out - like all the active toys, all the puzzles and all the building and THEN rotating for all the music stuff, all the puzzles rather than choosing a few from each. I am so excited to start toy rotating in this new way! I have already noticed that fewer toys is helping Tommy play more independently and be more fully engaged with the toys he has.
Where We Ended Up
For now, we landed on 8-10 toys knowing this will probably adjust when we add in the baby toys too. We’re storing and organizing all the out-of-rotation toys in our toy closet downstairs and aiming to rotate every two weeks (maybe more, maybe less, we’ll see how it goes!). Upstairs, where we do all of our living, we store toys in a few woven bins in the living room and 2-3 clear bins under Tommy’s bed. As for our “always” toys, we are keeping about 20 books out for him to read, his basketball goal and balls, as well as his stuffed animals.
What do y’all think about this approach to toy rotation? Doable? Similar to what you are already doing?