Toy Rotation to manage chaos
Hello Mama, today we are going to explore the world of toy rotation aka, less toy clutter. What we want is to NOT have all the toys out at all times because it creates a major physical chaos in our home and usually means we cannot tackle the mess; it is overwhelming and makes us and our children more dysregulated.
This feeling of our life being chaotic or like we live in chaos, is quite common. We do live in a society that promotes busy-ness, doing it all, having more (money, furniture, clothing and toys). However, if you look around at what psychologists, therapists, coaches say, it seems like decluttering is the way to go to feel better and less overwhelmed. Clutter can be material or mental. I address all of this in episode 73 of my podcast about Chaos. One aspect of material chaos is often the amount of stuff (clothing and toys especially when it comes to children) and while I recommend you read Denaye Barahona’s book on minimalism for Families, I am going to give you an easy trick that might make you and your family feel better : ROTATE YOUR TOYS.
TOY ROTATION What does it mean ? It means that you can keep toys that you believe will still be used but you don’t have to have them all out at all times. The goal is to not have all the toys you own available to your child(ren); you only have a few out. Or put in a positive sentence : you only have available what is necessary for the child’s development and interest. It seems simple doesn’t it ? and it is.
HOW TO PROCEED
Organization Take a deep breath first, get all the toys out and organize them either by age, developmental phase or theme (building toys, art, costume etc). The system you put in place to organize your toys is up to you, it needs to make sense to you to find them when they will be needed. While you do this (re-)organization, you will and need to declutter : anything broken or incomplete needs to go in recycling/garbage, if your youngest and last child is 3, ask yourself if you need to keep the baby toys or if they could be used by a friend or be donated (I understand if you keep some family heirloom). What is to be kept goes in your organization system and you store everything in clear bins, labelled with what is in it – so it is easy to retrieve. If you need help decluttering and making decisions, hire professional help, here in Halifax, NS, Natalia at Daz design can be booked to help you, she even has systems she can help you put in place.
Away from your child These clear bins you have organized need to be stored away from your child, the goal is for you only to have access to it whenever you decide to get some toys out. You might have an attic, a crawl space (like us), a basement, a closet… as long as the children can’t access it but you can, you store wherever you have the space.
For the child Our children need spaces that are not covered in toys, cluttered with things they cannot handle cleaning up. My law is: if you find it overwhelming to tidy up, your child feels it even more. The only way you can have your child on board with cleaning up is to have shelves, or a storage system in their toy room, bedroom, living room (wherever they play), that has no more than 6 to 8 activities available (for one child- for more children, then you will have slightly more). What is available for them to play with is : -what is developmentally appropriate -what they are interested in, -what can promote focus and/or creativity and imagination. Depending on the space you have, maybe you have an art corner, a building corner, a movement space… it is up to you and what your child(ren) needs.
Note on Perfectionism If you start having thoughts about things looking perfect at all time, consider reflecting on why you want it this way. Life is not perfect, it is beautifully messy. Messy does not mean overstimulating which is why a toy rotation system helps.
When is it time to rotate ? When your children don’t seem interested in certain toys and they have not been used in at least a week or so, time to take these away to their bins in the adult only space and replace by something more stimulating and interesting. You remove what is not being used and get out what could be of interest to your child. Once you will have this system in place, you will see it feels less chaotic.
Tips on tidying up I am going to leave you with a great tip : when your child does not tidy up and refuses to do so, instead of heading into a power struggle war, offer to do it together while you listen to their favourite song. Ask which toys they want to clean up and which one you should do and power through together as you sing along. It is a great way to connect and way less stressful for everyone.
With love,
Adeline
For more on organization for busy homes, follow my friend Kelly @simplehomemom on insta or on substack, she is a great writer too.