source: cafemama

In the wake of Christmas, I always find myself wondering if I’m ever going to get the toys organized and put away. Even though we kept Christmas very simple as far as the gifts we gave our girls, they are very blessed to have many, many people who love them, and they walked away with quite the stash.

Besides wondering how in the world I’m going to limit next year’s Christmas gifts because no child needs as many toys as they received, I’m also thinking through what our toy organization will look like now, and my guess is many of you are wondering the same things.

Here are a few things to consider before we get started:

What to keep, what to give away? In our house, the rule is “one toy in, one toy out.” I’ve always involved my girls in the process of cleaning out their toys to make room for new ones. Because it’s “normal” for them, they don’t get upset by it, but rather help me decide which we should keep and which we should pass on to other kids who might not have as many toys as they do.

source: jek in the box

Now, for us this rule is not as rigid as it sounds. I don’t actually count the toys and make sure it’s one-for-one. However, we have a tall wardrobe cabinet in our playroom (maybe 4′ by 6′ and about 2′ deep) with shelves in it. All toys (with the exception of big things like their Rose Petal Cottage and their small stash of stuffed animals) must fit in this cabinet. If we have more children, then we may or may not expand the cabinet to make room for some more, but for now this is plenty of room to keep a variety of toys.

How many toys your family has is a decision only you can make. There is nothing wrong with limiting the amount of toys you keep, or you may decide that you’d like for them to have a bigger variety. Everything I’ve read suggests that the more toys children have within their reach, the less they play with any one toy in depth, so that may be something for you to consider as you organize your toys.

source: dazed81

What is your toy philosophy? Again, you need to think about what role you want toys to play in your family. This will in part depend on age, number of children, whether you’re home all day or only in the evenings and on weekends. Whether you want all of the toys available to your children on a given day or want to limit the number within their reach, it’s important to decide ahead of time so that you can design your toy organization around your philosophy.

We’ll talk more about different organizational options tomorrow, but knowing your toy philosophy will in part determine whether you use shelving or cabinets, storage bins or baskets. If you don’t know what your goal is ahead of time, you may end up with a organizational system that is beautiful and neat but doesn’t quite fit your needs.