Organising and clearing out kids toys!

So, today I realised that my kids have WAY too many toys. I literally spend most of my day cleaning up toys after the kids. DS has 2 sets of 4 drawers in his bedroom that are full of toys, a container under his bed with his Thomas stuff, DD has a few toys in her room but not many and the loungeroom is mainly overrun with toys. Lots of little ones and a number of big bulky ones.

I guess the answer is obvious, toss what they don't play with and keep what they do but I struggle to get my head around the fact that we have paid good money for these toys and I also feel bad giving away/selling "their" toys. I don't know where I am going with my post by any clarity that can be given to me on this situation would be very much appreciated :)

You could try only giving them a few then every couple weeks change them over

I am ruthless with toys in this house. I regularly cull but what I love the most is toy rotation. I put about a third of the toys away and bring a third of the hidden toys out every few weeks. The kids LOVE it, it’s kind of like they’ve never seen them before except better because they remember how much they liked playing with them. It’s also quite a good excuse when something goes missing, I’ll just say, “oh it must be in the toy rotation, you’ll just have to wait till the next change over”. :think: I’m not quite sure how long that will work for though. :lol:

I have just started doing the toy rotation thing after my lounge room started to resmeble a toy shop! We arent even the ones who buy it for DD either!!!

I have also bought a few big plastic tubs with lids from reject shop and put toys not out to play with away in and then a few

Smaller tubs have come in handy as well.
-One small one for scrapbook, stickers, crayons, chalk.
-Another small one for play dough and playdough cutters
-Another small one for paints paintbrushes, painting plastic plates, painting water cup and paint shirt. these are then easy to pull out of the cupboard when we feel like playing

I completely forgot about the toy rotation idea! Love it, thanks girls! Where do you store the toys you have "put away"? We have very minimal storage space inside and also in the garage as DH has his boat and other cr@pola in there. Maybe I could store them under the house with the other few boxes of stuff I have stashed!

Bella- I have done the same thing with the craft stuff, we have the 3 different boxes as well. So easy to grab out and pack up!

:bump: Just wondering if there are anything other ideas out there? I am going to try the rotation system this week I think, just need to go and buy a large storage box!