Ready to make a frontal assault on the toy box?
Those of you who have been following the blog know that I’m a bit biased toward decluttering via getting rid of possessions rather than just organizing things and building lots of shelves. So in keeping with that theme, set a goal to get rid of X pounds of toys or Y boxes. You might surprise yourself!
I’m going to use the word toy room to refer to an area that you want to gather toys, it may just be an area of a particular room that shares other uses.
First decision, with or without child(ren)?
It will go faster without them, and there’s less moaning, but there’s less buy-in.
One would like to think that having them participate clearly indicates that you place a premium on decluttering and get pleasure from it, so this is a positive consideration. It doesn’t seem to work out that way in my household, however.
Step 2. Collection
Assuming that you want toys to remain centralized, gather toys from all around the house into the area you’ve designated as the toy room/area.
Step 3. Collection boxes for Wrong Location, Toys To Be Donated , Missing or Broken Piece Toys, Garbage/Recycling
The toy area probably has non-toy items that don’t belong here - books, old library books, kitchen items, kids art works, various other items the kids grabbed from through the house. Create a box outside the room, but not blocking the entryway and collect everything from the toy room there.
I’m fortunate enough to have enough space where books, games, and toys are stored in different areas of the house so for me, games and books are (generally) Wrong Location items. It’s not worth getting to fastidious though; if the kids are enjoying games and books in that toy area just leave them there.
Set up a box for Toys To Be Donated and another for toys with Missing or Broken Pieces.
You’re also going to find stuff that should just be thrown away.
Step 4. Broken/missing Toy Collection
Now the toys are gathered, and the non-toys are removed, this is a good opportunity to sort through and bring toys together that are broken or missing pieces. If it’s a high quality toy and/or one the children still enjoy and in serviceable condition then hold on it. Be honest with yourself as to whether it’s worth fixing the toy. There’s probably items worth 10x-100x that toy in your house that are worth fixing first.
Games can be a special case, we call the games which become unplayable when you a lose a single piece, Lose One Piece games. All isn’t lost however. There’s actually a thriving community of gamers on BoardGameGeek that unites spare pieces with games. I’m not aware that the same exists for toys in general.
One reason for temporarily holding onto broken/missing piece toys is that it’s reasonably likely you’ll find the part as the clean-up/declutter progresses.
Step 5. Donation Assessment
As you examine each toy, consider whether the toy is outgrown. Some other child could still enjoy it. Throw it in the donation box. Be especially thoughtful about keeping odd-sized or awkward toys - they need to have a higher bar of play value to make their constant storage challenge be worthwhile.
Step 6. Symmetric Shelving and Storage Boxes
Once you’re at this step you probably have a good idea what you need in the way of storage. You may need to purchase plastic storage boxes
Toys aren’t worth much if they aren’t accessible. The plastic storage bins work well, but you need a few different sizes, but no more than three sizes. I suggest buying enough of each size and of the same brand at the same time to last you while. If you purchase them piecemeal, it can be hard to find the exact same type and they won’t stack well.
The goal is this phase is to make it easy for the kids to pull out and put away their toys. Heavy toy chests or inconvenient storage creates a bad feedback loop which created the original problem.
Label the boxes, with pictures if your kids are very young, and start filling boxes.
You should consider removing some items from the original boxes if the boxes are outsized or awkward. Unless you’re a collector, keeping Lego in the original boxes is a losing proposition. Chemistry sets can be combined. The original boxes for many toys are not well suited for storage so I recommend discarding them.
Keep the heavier and larger boxes nearer the floor and ensure your shelving is kid friendly in height. Be careful of stacking boxes above the height of the child as they can pull it all down.
Some groups take their game storage very seriously.
Step 7. Create A Toy Library
This is a good opportunity to take a few of the boxes out of sight and store them elsewhere in the house. On a rainy day, cycle back in a few of them and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how it creates a freshness and new play value out of older toys. When you do this, take away a few of the previous boxes.
Step 8. Boxes Go To Their Right Locations, Clean-Up
Now that the toys are sorted, it’s showtime for the missing/broken toys. Life is too short to hunt these down any further, you’ve put the time in. If you think there’s play value left, but it’s not quite up to your standards, it’s fair game for the donation box. If not, discard it. Take away the Wrong Location box, put the Donation Box in the back of the car and toss the garbage box (and/or Recycle).
You’ll probably find yourself with a bunch of smallish toys that have no proper home in a labeled box. Create one more storage box for these.
If you’re still motivated, this is a good opportunity to find the right homes for the items in the Wrong Location Box. Read The Two Minute Rule.
Probably the best opportunity you’re going to get to vaccuum and dust in the next few weeks as well.
Step 9. Stand Back and Enjoy Your Work
If you’ve removed a fair amount of items, you’ve made future clean-ups a bit easier. I’d like to hear about what’s worked for you, and even put up some photos of before and after.