Organizing my son's room...

Sara Noel · 09-09-2002, 02:07 PM

He's not even 3 and has way too much. We have shelves, we have totes, sterlites on wheels, tables, and we have toy boxes. I went and bought two of those plastic chains that hang ceiling to floor and have little clips to hold stuffed animals. I'm trying desperately to organize that room of his. His room is quite large, but is busting at the seams. All other rooms in our home I would consider to be quite simple, but that room....soooooo much stuff.

Any ideas on toy storage? We don't have a basement or any other room to even store things.

Sara

homesteadmamma · 09-09-2002, 02:41 PM

Probably the quickest way to organize is to simplify. Does he need all the stuff he has in his room? Stuffed animals - does he need them all?

I began a keepsake box for each of our kids. When I did a major organization of their rooms, I asked them what their favorite toys were that they wanted to keep. Stuffed animals were the first to go. (I wonder why we end up with so many stuffed animals to begin with.) I placed a few in their keepsake box and the rest we donated to charity.

Clothing - I took a look to see what the kids preferred to wear and then donated the rest to friends/family. It was amazing here how much I ended up giving away and how much more room they had in their dresser drawers.

Books - again I purged many of the books the kids had and gave them to our grandchildren or donated them to the public library. Books that the kids never used anymore or even read. Once some of these were gone, the kids had room to place some of their toys.

The toys that the kids no longer played with, I donated to goodwill. There were so many that they had been given or we had boughten that they just didn't even look at. I kept most of the educational toys and a few of their favorites and out went the rest.

This may sound unfair, but now their rooms are simple and they enjoy what they have. When a new toy comes in, out goes an old one (that has become a rule in our house, even with clothes). It just keeps everything so much simpler.

HTH

Jerseygirl · 09-09-2002, 05:20 PM

Because of dss limited attention span and the fact that he does not play with most toys, we limit what he has access to at any given time. I keep a box of craft supplies in the mudroom so they have to be used with supervision at the kitchen table, his videos are in a small box behind the couch, his trains are lined up neatly on the window sils when not in use-step on one once and you'll know why I insist they are up off the floor every night. He has a small book case for books and has the bottom drawer of his dresser for other odds and ends he plays with. His big trains and tracks are stored in a case in the garage, put together when he wants, then taken apart when done.

dz_blonde_girl · 09-10-2002, 08:28 AM

Maybe you could "rotate" some of those tubs of toys. You could store some out of his room to bring out on rainy days etc. Let me tell you from experience...start the out with the old before bringing in any new NOW, while you still have a chance. I know it's really hard to part with you child's beloved toys, but I promise it will only get worse.