How do you keep dolly's stuff tidy? Home corner things?

Hi all, having a big reorganise/streamline of DD2's bedroom, just wondering how everyone else goes about keeping all the dolly bits together and tidy, and yet still accessible for frequent play?

Same question applies to home corner things, how do you keep that area looking tidy?

we've just started bilby at a Steiner playgroup - and home corner stuff is big there. What they do is have a wooden open bookcase with shelves. on the shelves are an assortment of cane, wicker low baskets (some are bowl shapes). In the bowls and baskets are the toys, sorted by type. So all dolly clothing is in one basket, dolly imaginery food is in one basket, dolly sized cooking stuff in another, dolly sized plates and cups arranged on a shelf. There is a cradle on the floor, an ironing board set up against a bookshelf. At the end of playtime, we sing the "tidy up song" and a big part of the play, is the tidying up at the end.

we've applied what is there, to our home. bilby's toys are in our tiny lounge area. we have a cube type open cupboard. each cube opening has a cane/wicker cube basket in it (not so good, cos you can't see inside them easily - i now realise LOWER side baskets (more like wicker trays) would have been better). dolls in one basket. playcloths in one basket, dressups in one basket, animals in one basket, jigsaws in one basket, musical stuff in one basket, blocks in one basket, one basket for pebbles, one basket for pinecones, one basket for shells. This has simplified our life. i can get out ONE box, empty it, we play with that stuff and then put that away eventually. In our tiny space, it's working much better than the "everything all together" we had before.

we don't ahve a home corner, cos there is nowhere to put child size stove, ironing board etc. i am working on making a toy stove from a shoe box (small space idea i was told about).

We keep all of the dolls clothes and blankets in the bottom of DD's large chest of drawers. All her other toys/bits are kept in two of those plastic 5 drawer towers sorted into their respective genus' eg all the cooking/shop/shop/food stuff in one, barbies in another, puzzles etc

eta just read Gigis post - very similar theories.

Beats me, DD#1 has almost no toys (something the midwife commented on when I showed her her room the other day) and DD#2 tracks all her toys into the lounge so we regularly have a major disaster area :)

DD#2 has several open hobby boxes on the floor of her room which makes her toys VERY accessible. The home/cooking stuff seems to end up in the bathroom though, in the plastic basket in there, or goes outside to make mud pies so it is the least troublesome set of toys.

I'm more interested in knowing how to get one child to play and the other child to take her toys back to her room for once lol

DD has a lovely toy cot/cradle with a deep pull out drawer underneath - all dolls clothes and accessories are in there.

Other than that I have plastic tubs that fit under the bed and sort everything - musical instruments, tea sets, cars and dudes...

Gigi, I'm totally in love with your steiner description...although I fear we've already passed much too far over to the plastic dark side to ever get back there!!! BUT...I must say, going thru DD2's toys, most of them are pretty "basic" in the play sense.. eg, a big tub of coloured wooden blocks (lots of sizes) and a few wooden people, animals thrown in, a big tub of wooden train track stuff, dollies & a smattering of clothes & blankets & scarves, a tub of musical instruments. Gee I would love to know how the tidy up song goes!!

Rumpled Elf, my DD went thru an extended patch of not playing with any of her stuff. It took me a long time to understand that she has no interest in anything that requires attention to detail (eg forget about craft, etc), she is essentially a social creature and much prefers hanging out with family even if she's not "doing" anything.

Lulu the cradle with the drawer underneath sounds brilliant! DD's getting a cute wooden cradle for her birthday (my latest op shop find hehe) but nothing so clever as that.

Sounds like I'm already doing similar to what everyone else is - tubs on shelves or drawers. Which should be easy. BUT I think the *real* problem is that if anyone besides me packs up, bits from sets get left out and not sorted back into their proper homes, they get lobbed into the toy cupboard (yep we actually have the luxury of a whole cupboard!) and then the whole thing goes to pot.

Sorting stuff doesn't work for more than about 10 minutes in this house. I used to try and do it but gave up, its futile. Now I'm happy if the blocks box is over 80% blocks, there's no living things in the stuffed toy chest (cats or toddlers, mostly) and everything else is off the floor. I do get anal about sorting the books, mainly because I don't want to read a 5000 word book to the toddler, so anything pinched from the older kid's shelves gets put straight back.

Marydean: we had years of her not playing with toys. She makes beds out of cardboard boxes, makes fuzzles to sleep in the beds, draws beds a lot, and after years of the lego sitting there untouched now she makes very elaborate castles with beds in them. But they are just set-up beds, once they are set up that's it. The other kid has all the toys she used to have and never touched PLUS new ones bought especially for her, which is why the little one can make such an unholy mess in such a short time lol - sheer volume of toys!

I'm not sure I want to know how messy this house is going to get with two little ones in it O_o

marydean
here's the words to the tidy up song - they're not rigid, so i just try to keep the theme of the song in the words- it's very sing song - very basic -

let's tidy up, let's tidy up
put all the toys away
let's tidy up, let's tidy up
everything in it's place

put all the toys away
everything in it's place
put all the toys away
everythin in its place

sung quietly and repetitively, it's a bit of a meditation. an end of one activity, before you start the next thing "it's time for dinner now" etc.

You can put photos or line drawings on the boxes to help your child know where to put things.
e.g a picture of a doll, on the tub or basket where you want the dolls put.
Depending on the age of the child, you will prolly do most of the tidying, but the important thing is to model the behaviour (tidying up) and normalise it, so the child associates tidying up, as a normal part of play. Eventually, they want to get more involved and they get quicker at doing it, the more you have the habit going.

not very long ago, we had heaps of plastic and battery operated stuff - i never thought i could change over - i have surprised myself - i had so many "roadblocks" in my head - it's too hard, bilby will whine for the old toys, etc etc. but i tried it, gradually (one thing at a time) and to my surprise, she hasn't missed the plastic or battery operated stuff. She is playing on her own alot better now, and making up songs, games to amuse herself - allowing me to do my stuff e.g cook dinner in peace - when before, she wanted me to entertain her more, and play with her. Now i play with her when i don't need to cook dinner, but she's much more accepting when i can't. About a year ago i stopped having the TV on in the late afternoon, and that really cut out the bad tantrums that HAD been happening. I think she was overstimulated by TV, at that time of day, was on overload and her way of telling me that, was to tantrum really bad. i never thought turning off the tv would help, but it has, so i've stuck with that pattern. SHe just has Playschool a few days a week now and is much happier for it.

she loves to be involved in what i'm doing too, e.g sorting and hanging out the washing (we have a clothes airer inside, cos nowehre to hang up clothes outside).

i forgot to say, she also has a basket of drawing stuff (wax crayons, no textas, paper) and a tub of playdough stuff.

What i want for her the MOST, would be outside play area, with sandpit, lawn, trees, but that isn't possible, so we make the most of what we do have. She goes to a childcare centre with chooks, rabbits, ducks, real grass, sandpits, wooden/rubber/metal play equipment (not plastic), a balinese hut, vegie patch - so that is where she gets most of her outdoor play needs. This is a community child care centre near us.

different things work for different kids/families - i'm just sharing what we have tried/are up to at the moment. it's always changing (as i learn new ideas, and get a bit braver).