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OHhh here is your chance to do what I finanlly did...realize my kids DO NOT NEED so many toys. Either do us parents! I tossed every broken toy, detached wheel, little pieces of something, etc. and kept only actively used things in good condition. I admitted to myself that there were only a couple of things (ONE box of legos, ONE collection of toy monsters, one box of art supplies, etc) that my son used regularly and kept them, and I also admitted that every year on Christmas and birthdays would bring more NEW stuff into my house. Even gettng rid of half of the stuff wasn't gonig to be missed for long. Yes, get organized. But start your new life in your new place with less stuff...best advice I can give! But just so you know, I was over run again by the time my kids became adults and am STILL purging my sons closet of Bionical parts and pieces....
This is the other one we use. We have canvas bins that go in half the cubes. The other half are open shelves with puzzles and games stacked in them. Target sells the cubes and bins in all different colors. You could make it look more "adult" if it is going in a common area.
This is the "system" we use as well. Ours are done in "espresso" which sort of matches the rest of the furnishings. We are fortunate in that we have a dedicated playroom, but it is also an open part of the house that people see.
The first thing we did was turn these organizer bins into a wall unit of sorts that looks like this:
Ignore the dots and each "x" is a cubby. The TV is a 37" LCD mounted on the wall. One of the cubbys does duty holding the cable box, DVD player and Wii. The ones at the top around that one hold all of our DVD's and Wii games. Most of the cubby's are filled with assorted colors of fabric bins. They make ones that are in tans and blacks for a more upscale look, but since it is a playroom, we use all different colored ones.
My wife printed out pictures of what is in each bin and attached it to the front. All the blocks go in here, all the Ninja Turtles go in there, all the Star Wars over here, all the Barbies in there, etc. Having pictures helps the kids be more responsible with what they take out.
Some larger items are stored on top of the cubbies (the cubbies are anchored to the wall) and the kids do need to ask us to get them down when they want them. There is also some space to the right of the whole unit in the corner that we use for some larger toys as well.
One of the added bonus' to this system is that when we have entertained for adult parties in the past and needed the room, we take the larger play center pieces and put them into the garage. We then turn the bins around so the pictures are facing in and take the toys off the top. Oila, we now have more space for entertaining and no one feels like they are standing in our playroom for cocktails.
We have found that once they know where the toys are and can easily find where to put them back, they are much better at keeping everything cleaned up and organized. The penalty for not cleaning up when asked is that you lose the bins that were left out for a week. It only took a couple times before this really hit home and now everyone is quick to cleanup when told.
On keeping the number of toys under control, we go through them each year right before the holidays. We take anything that is broken or has missing pieces and it gets thrown away. My wife and I pick out anything that hasn't really been played with in awhile and set it aside. The kids are then allowed to pick a couple things out of that group that they want to keep. The rest gets donated to a charity. This conveniently makes room for all the new toys that they get for the holidays, without having to add to our storage.
We do keep some overflow toys in our garage. We have a large metal shelf that we keep all the board games on and there is a large bin that we keep all of out outside toys, like balls, in. My daughters are really into stuffed animals and dolls, but we limit the number they have at any given time and the extras live in a plastic bin in the garage. Every once a in awhile we cycle them through and they think they are getting new toys.
I just re-organized DD's (6) room a couple of months ago. She had accumulated so much stuff that it had become impossible to put it all away. We spent an entire weekend on the project. We took EVERYTHING out of her room. The only thing left was the bed. Even her dresser, bookshelves, etc came out of the room. Nothing went back in without my approval.
We re-organized her room in sections. One bookshelf became her "art center" we put cloth bins in most of the shelves, but left some open spots for bigger items like her pottery wheel. Each bin held specific items. One was for all of her beading and jewelry making. One was for coloring books, one was for sewing, weaving loom, friendship bracelet making supplies. You get the point.
In another section is her "doll section". She has a bin for all of her barbies and another bin for barbie clothes and small accessories. Another bin for other doll clothes, and it goes on and on.
Another section is her reading section. We organized her books according to what she could read by herself, what she could read, but still needed some help and books we read to her.
Her underbed storage is for stuffed animals and a couple of bins of "off-season" clothes.
She also has a toy box/bench which holds the few toys she has that don't fit a specific category.
We went with the cloth bins, but considered getting the wooden bins either with the chalkboard paint on the front, or painting them ourselves, but she is old enough to remember what is in each bin now.
It is great. If she decides she wants to play with her friendship bracelets, she gets out that bin, plays and then everything goes back in the bin and on the shelf. She likes it because she can keep track of her toys and it isn't overwhelming any more. She used to not play with her toys because it was just overwhelming to try to find all of the parts.
I love it because if I am asking her to clean up, it isn't a huge ordeal of trying to figure out where to put things. I can hand her the bin that it all goes in and it is cleaned up in 30 seconds. It is so much nicer now.
I forgot to touch on art work. We took one wall in the eat in part of our kitchen and installed three medium sized cork boards, one for each kid. We put up their latest and greatest and once the board is filled, something has to come down before something else goes up.
We keep all school work for the entire year in a large portfolio folder thing. At the end of the year we go through it and toss anything that doesn't matter anymore like homework, worksheets, etc. We pick a few of the really cool things and they get put in a bin that we keep in the bottom of our closet. We have a bin there for each kid and it is where all the sentimental/collectible, etc. stuff goes. The nice things we want to keep for them in the future.
The key is to try and break the idea that it's all important/sentimental. When you look at it as it trickles in, you have an urge to keep it. By dedicating youreself to going through all the years work at one time, you can more objectively separate the wheat from the chaff.
Getting the kids involved in clearing out some things may help. My children have four sets of grandparents and tons of stuff they don't use. We are restricted by a certain household goods weight limit when we move and if we go over that weight limit we have to pay the difference so I've made that a point to our kids. (Now that's really an exaggeration because obviously their toys aren't going to push us over the limit compared to the BBQ and piano but they haven't caught on yet, sue me lol) Plus my son has an emotional attachment to everything including garbage. He's 12 and we are still working on not stopping in the middle of the street to pick up shiny objects.
I liked Fly Lady for a bit, shined my sink and all but eventually she became an annoying buzzer with constant emails to my phone so I fired her.
OHhh here is your chance to do what I finanlly did...realize my kids DO NOT NEED so many toys. Either do us parents! I tossed every broken toy, detached wheel, little pieces of something, etc. and kept only actively used things in good condition. I admitted to myself that there were only a couple of things (ONE box of legos, ONE collection of toy monsters, one box of art supplies, etc) that my son used regularly and kept them, and I also admitted that every year on Christmas and birthdays would bring more NEW stuff into my house. Even gettng rid of half of the stuff wasn't gonig to be missed for long. Yes, get organized. But start your new life in your new place with less stuff...best advice I can give! But just so you know, I was over run again by the time my kids became adults and am STILL purging my sons closet of Bionical parts and pieces....
Plus it helps that they grow into different kinds of toys. Like video games and iPods that don't take up so much space and aren't like legos and blocks and children's books and toy cars and the figurines, and on and on.
It helps not too have too many toys, but harder when they're little.
It helps to gather pieces you know just get thrown on the floor WHILE they dig for what it is they REALLY WANT. When you see these toys don't take them ALL up at once. As you go from place to place in the house remember to stop, and discretely pick up a few pieces here and there. Have a pillowcase, or plastic bag, but make sure they can't see it, NOR see through it. Have a place you keep this sack out of the normal place it would be found upon. Yes. You’re hiding the sack, because this is the sack that will hold old toys, or unpopular toys out of sight FOR possible re-circulation, or outright trashing, or passing on to the thriftstores.
This allows for days and even weeks to go by without the kids seeing these random toy parts that get little to no love at all. The holding period of the sack depends on the amount of time you need to take note of whether or not your child will earnestly look for anything you have placed in the sack already OUT OF SIGHT. This helps you to “restore” what you may have been wrong about removing, and allows you a chance to find a creative way to put the toy back into their “active” toy-pan. Heehee.
You’ll fill this sack with only a few pieces A DAY, or with whatever you know you could remove without gaining attention on yourself during the day. Remember you are aiming for stuff that gets little-to-zero attention, because busted doesn’t count if the kid still loves it.
What will start to happen is that they won't really miss what they are no longer interested in, and this allows you to separate what’s in the sack for its next location. When a little trash sack has been made out of the original sack, push this sack down into the trash [on the bottom if you can, and cover with other more commonly visible trash]. Some of those toys can be taken from the sack during random pick-ups, and sacked for dropping off at the thriftstore for other children to be enjoyed.
Thirdly the sack allows you to pull from it any toy they are not enjoying, but you really like and pack it away for pulling out months, or even a year down the line. Why? Sometimes pulling out a toy that has been out of sight for months can make it NEW again to the child.
Also it helps to tell your kids that if they want a new toy they need to let you know which toys they are willing to give up in order to make a spot for the new incoming toy.
One last plan may help. If you give each child a basket [the small dishpan size, or smaller basket] for holding their "smaller toys" this can; help them put those teeny toys in an easier place, allows you to set a limit on, "when it's full we add nothing more" guideline, make it easy for you to reduce what's in there when you think it's time, move the baskets about the house easily, and finally placing those lil baskets nearly anywhere around the house without them dominating the room they are in.
Thanks, I have used Cozi in the past. I guess I'm trying to find ideas how to keep KIDS organized and how to encourage them to take responsibility for their toys. It's one thing for me to have the cutest wicker baskets I can find from Pier 1 but what works for a child? I want to find something for my kids where they store their books, toys, and other little things they play with. I tried a large toy bin but that became a huge mess since they'd throw everything out of the bin to get to the toy that was of course, at the very bottom!
Bins that can be organized with a picture and the name of the items that go into it work well. Also, rotate toys. Put away a bunch and then bring them out when the kids are bored. It's good to rotate toys every 6 to 8 weeks.
I think that toys need to be "purged" every six months or so, time to give things away to other kids. Have three bins max of toys. Children really don't need a roomful of toys, it just becomes clutter. I am not a person who saves things. Because I can't...I don't have the space, time, or energy to go thru the stuff. Same with clothes, shoes, all other clutter...art supplies...
I am, by nature, a very organized person. Add to that being a child care professional for 20+ years with 4 kids of my own and I can tell you that there is no ONE perfect solution to this issue. lol
First things first, successful organization and clean up will vary by age and personality and what kind of toys will definitely factor in on top of that.
Younger kids should have larger sized toys compared to the older kids. (Duplos versus Legos, Tonka versus Hot Wheels) Therefore younger kids need less 'bins' and open shelves. What bins they have need to be easily opened and closed. Younger kids need far less choices available to play with at any given time than older kids. (never have all toys accessible to kids at all times - have upper shelves or closet space where toys can be stored then switched out about every 6-8 weeks)
Pictures on bins/shelves are great for the kids who care about such neatness and are capable, but one larger toy box may be best for others.
Permanent places for things such as doll houses, car garages etc that are not in the walking path work well for rooms that have the space.
Train/lego tables that have storage space are great for other things as well like Kinex, dinosaurs, or small blocks so that you can rotate out those items as well.
If you find you have a collection of stuffed animals that you just don't want to part with yet, use them for room decor. Tie some yarn around their necks and hang them on push pins on the wall.
Same for some other things....too many baseball caps? Hang them on the wall above the closet door. Have a collection that has accumulated of one brand/character? Use it to decorate a tall shelving unit with on the top shelves and use the bottom shelves for toy bins.
So, sort through everything you have. Have a current keeper section, storage section, trash section and donate section. Use small moving boxes to sort it out and you can see exactly how much space it all is taking up and can help you decide which section something should go in. Some things are great in duplicate while others are redundant.
Once you move, figure out the best storage arrangement. Shelves? Bins? Desk? Table? etc.
(Warning on open bins that many of the shelves favor - they gather dust so very quickly!)
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I want to find something for my kids where they store their books, toys, and other little things they play with. I tried a large toy bin but that became a huge mess since they'd throw everything out of the bin to get to the toy that was of course, at the very bottom!
