Organizing Toys: The Toy Organization Process &
Children's Toy Storage Products

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Legos, stuffed animals, books galore?! Organizing toys is essential to parent, child, home and happiness!

With toy organization comes...

  • educated children on how to get and stay organized
  • relaxed parents who don't feel overwhelmed by mountains of toys
  • a clutter-free home with toys in their place
  • happiness

How nice and what a pretty picture that paints in my mind!

These plastic drawers have been a fantastic toy organizer! It rolls and the drawers come out for easy access.

Now imagine the opposite...stress, clutter, piles, tension, mounds, yelling, overwhelming, chaos, ahhhh! Need I say more?

The following tips on organizing toys will lead you to clutter-free heaven. Enjoy!



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Organizing Toys: The Process

Utilize the general organizing procedure of purge, sort and store, and apply it when organizing toys.



PURGE:

  • Start by going through their items WITH THEM.

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: This part of the purge process is important according to age group. You probably know what they don't use or value when they are small children...

Let's say from the age of 8 and older, it is imperative that you ask your children what toys can be given away or pitched. This introduces them to the purging process early and avoids any boundary crossing.

Also if your child is struggling with letting go of stuff that you know they don't use, encourage them by explaining that there are kids who have absolutely nothing. Rather than letting unused toys collect dust, giving them away will make less fortunate children happy.

  • Depending on your situation, either decide what to keep and what to discard or help them do it. In order to do this, ask appropriate questions (i.e. Have they outgrown it? Do they still play with it? Are the pieces missing? Is it broken?)

  • As you make decisions, put the item in the corresponding pile, bag or box - Keep, Donate, Distribute, Trash.

  • Make a "maybe" pile if there are items that they really don't use but aren't quite ready to give away. Put this stuff in a box or bin and store it in another room (i.e. basement or attic). If they don't request any of the items within 6 months, the box can go straight to a charity.

  • It might also help if you're giving the toys your child no longer plays with to someone they know. They might be more susceptible to the idea of letting things go if they know who it's going to and that it will be appreciated and used. For example, I was helping a client's daughter (11 years old at the time) clean out her closet. She was excited to give away the stuff she no longer wore because it was going to a friend of hers.
  • Take out the trash for a clean work area. Put the items going to a charity in your car. This avoids any undoing of your hard toy organizing work.

SORT:

  • Now that all of the unnecessary items are gone, separate what's left into categories (i.e. board games, books, stuffed animals, etc.).


I stored my son's baby books in a bin on the floor, so he could easily get to them. This bin is so cute too! I found it at our local Home Goods store.

STORE:

  • Put the categorized items away accordingly (books on a bookshelf or in a bin like in the photo above, stuffed animals in a bin, etc.).

  • Check out the recommended products for organizing toys below!


We use a soft, big bin made by 3 Sprouts to hold larger toys. There's a link to this bin below!

MAINTAIN:

  • The best way to keep your kids organized is to get them in the habit of putting things away early and make it part of their daily routine. At the end of the day (or play date or what have you), we sing the "clean up" song with our toddler son and put the toys back in their proper places. He's only 2 years old, so we put most of the stuff away. However, he sees us doing it and I can tell that the habit is starting to have a good impact on him (because he'll take one or two things and put them in a bin).

  • At least once a year, do a toy purging session with your kids. Doing this around the holidays is a perfect reason to get them motivated to do so...they will be getting more toys and giving stuff away promotes charity for those who are not as fortunate.


Organizing Toys: The Products

Toy storage organizers are a great way to keep the toy clutter under control and teach your little ones to put things away. Take a look at the following storage for kids as well as the endless ideas on Pinterest!


3 Sprouts Toy Storage Bin
We have this porcupine bin, and it's great! It holds a lot, is super cute and has been pretty durable.



3 Tier Toy Storage Organizer
This kid-friendly organizer is lightweight and great for storing toys. Kids can reach in to get what they want, and clean up is as easy as sorting the toys into the bright-colored bins.



Mesh Over-The-Door Organizer
Typically used for shoes, this organizer doesn't take up any floor space and is fantastic for sorting and storing little toys!



6-Case Activity Organizer
Sort art projects, Legos, games, you name it into the cases to keep everything organized.


Kids' Toy Boxes
Need to store stuffed animals or other large toys? Check out these top-rated toy chests that hold a lot and make clean up time as easy as throwing everything in.



Sterilite 3-Drawer Cart
The green drawer cart in the photo at the top of the page is from Target, but this is the same one in white from Amazon. I can roll it anywhere and take the drawers out to let my son have easy access to his toys.




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