8 Simple Steps To Create An Organized Playroom That Is Easy To Maintain
The holidays have ended, you’re in lockdown, you’re trying to function with virtual school, work, and a million other things, and to top it off your house looks like Santa’s workshop exploded all over it. Research shows that clutter can hurt your mental well-being, and Visual clutter can also increase your levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.
So how do you eliminate the chaos caused by toys and take control of your home?
Instead of organizing your playroom only to have it destroyed in a matter of seconds, follow these 8 steps so the organization lasts.
Toy Rotation- Kids become overwhelmed when there are too many choices they end up jumping around from toy to toy without ever getting fully engrossed in playing with one specific thing.
Fewer toys out at one time cuts toy clutter way down. If visual clutter stresses you out, you may find that less toy clutter helps you stay calmer during the daily stresses of parenting and lockdown life.
Having fewer toys makes cleaning up faster, and the faster clean-up process helps both parents and kids keep a fun attitude about the task. Also, it’s easier for kids to help clean up when the rotating toys have a specific “home” to return to.
Decreasing the number of toys your child has access to will increase her ability to play independently and creatively. Because they will immerse themselves deeper into the play experience with the fewer remaining toys, they’ll be able to focus better. Plus, kids tend to play longer and more creatively with fewer toys around. They’ll also become more creative in their play turning household objects into toys.
Setting up a toy rotation system gives you the perfect opportunity to declutter toys. You can get rid of broken toys, donate the toys your child has outgrown, and sometimes you’ll even give new life to an old toy by finding missing pieces or pairing it with something you hadn’t thought of before.
Rotating toys also stops your child from getting bored because when it’s time for a new set of toys to come out, kids get excited and tend to get lost in play with the “new” toys for a long time. Then when they seem to lose interest in the current set of toys you have out, rotate to a new set.
2. Storage: Where do you put it all?
Storage for toys out of the rotation. Here I suggest a closet or a small storage area in the basement. A simple shelving unit such as this will do the trick along with small plastic storage containers. Group the toys and label the containers so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for when you rotate them back in.
Storage for toys in the rotation. In your playroom, living room, or child’s bedroom, I suggest the Kallax from Ikea for all smaller toys and books. This shelving unit is great because it fits into any space, it is very durable, and when you place it horizontally children have access to all of the shelves. You can also get baskets that fit into it perfectly, eliminating some of the visual clutter.
My number 1 tip is DO NOT BUY STORAGE CONTAINERS MADE BY TOY BRANDS. Ex) barbie accessory holders, LOL doll containers, etc. They don’t work so don’t waste your money. Stick with a basket with smaller Tupperware style containers inside for accessories and smaller pieces.
3. Group toys When you’re grouping toys consider how your child plays and interacts with items. Some children play by brand- barbies, paw patrol, etc. while others play figurines and it may be any type of figurine. You want to make sure bins are packed according to how your child likes to play. The whole point of organizing and displaying toys this way is to encourage children to play on their own and put things away on their own. Don’t over complicate it!
4. Create Zones. A section for puzzles, one for blocks and building materials, one for figurines and one for playing house, Etc. By creating these zones, kids will see where things go and are better able to put things away in the right spot when they’re done playing with them. This is also a great way to deal with larger toys. Large toys should have a place on the ground near the shelving unit, store the small toys used to play with the larger item inside or on top of the large toy. For example, your cars go with the car ramp, or your tea set is stored inside the kitchen.
5. Eliminate large bins that become dumping grounds. If you do have a trunk or large bin try to keep it simple with just dress-up items or in the case of dolls or barbies use the large bin to store it all but get smaller bins inside for accessories, clothes, etc so they’re all together but still separated. The last thing you want is your child coming to ask you to find something so by separating smaller items they’ll have a better chance of finding it on their own.
6. If your child is a collector get them special treasure boxes for each collection. That way the items have a place and can be neatly stacked in their room. There is also a limit to what fits in the box so once it’s full they have to get rid of one treasure to add another.
7. Encourage your kids to tidy at the end of each play cycle. Put things back where they belong before lunch, dinner, and before bed. This makes one less thing that you have to do at the end of the day.
8. Set boundaries around gift-giving- I know this is harder once you have school-aged children and birthday parties but with family and close friends it is okay to limit the number of gifts or ask for experience items instead of toys, maybe it’s a membership to your child’s favorite museum or money to go towards dance or music lessons. Not everyone is going to listen to this, but if you don’t try you’ll never know.
Organizing your play area will keep your home from looking like a toy bomb went off, it will teach your child responsibility and accountability of their things, and most importantly it will give you more time to enjoy playing with your kids.
Happy Organizing!
-Jocelyn