Question if you rotate toys

m_and_m

Right now we have all of DD's toys sorted in bins by type- blocks, balls, dress up, dollhouse, puzzles, kitchen, etc. It was a massive undertaking to organize this, because we've never been good at rotating or organizing toys so we had 3.5yrs worth of stuff all piled together in various boxes...

Anyway, I'd like to start rotating what she has out. Is it better to rotate by type (ie, one week of building blocks, one week of kitchen play, one week of dollhouse) or to have a varied selection?

I'm afraid that if she only has one type of thing out she'll get bored*, but then on the other hand I don't want her to be looking for other kitchen toys if she only has a few of those available along with non-related items. I'm also pretty sure I'm overthinking this, lol. If it makes any difference, I also nanny a 2.5yo and 7mo at my house. There tends to be altercations between the older two when they want the exact.same.toy so we have multiples of a lot of things. 

 

 

*Awhile back I told her if she couldn't take care of her toys I was putting them all up. She was so <sarcasm>heartbroken</sarcasm> that she helped me pack them up and put them in my closet, lol. She has yet to be bored and there were literally ZERO toys out for about 2 weeks before she came to me and said "Mommy, I'm ready to take care of my things now." So my concern about boredom is likely unfounded. I've been giving her toys back a little at a time as she keeps them picked up, and right now I think there is probably a good amount available to play with so I think it's a good time to start rotating.

franciscaz

We honestly had too many toys so we donated many of them.  We got rid of the "baby" like toys like the FP singing mirror and all the duplicates (I think we had 3 or 4 race car tracks).

Now we have bins organized by theme (blocks, little people, mega blocks, trains, dress up, etc.) and we don't really rotate them in a fancy way.  We just let the kids pick one bin at a time (in addition to their favorite favorite toys that never go up).  If they want to do a new bin than they have to clean up on their own the old bin and put the old bin up before they can get the new one out.  Usually one bin will last a few days.