Community› The Bump Local Boards› Northern California Babies
Northern California Babies
New Discussion

Do you have a system for rotating books/toys?

tri_bride05tri_bride05
in Northern California Babies
I feel like since Christmas and M's bday (2 days apart) we have toys everywhere - by the end of the day, my house looks like a toy store exploded. He'll pull things out, play for a few minutes, then pull something else out. I'm thinking about doing some sort of rotation and only keeping some toys out at a time, but not sure how to go about it. If you do this, how often do you rotate toys? Are there certain toys that you leave out all the time? What about books? We have a couple of baskets for books, but he has so many books now that the baskets do not contain the books and the entire corner of his room has his book basket is covered in books (in the basket and semi-piled around it) - it looks messy and makes it very difficult if we are trying to find a specific book. Would love any tips on how to get the toy situation under control - especially before #2 arrives!
imageLilypie Fourth Birthday tickers Lilypie Second Birthday tickers
Report Reply to Post

Re: Do you have a system for rotating books/toys?

  • NorcalLindsNorcalLinds
    I put toys on vacation so he forgets about them. I'm trying weekly swap outs. I throw stuff in a box or bag shove it on a closet. I'm not sure how much this helps but I think the mess is less :-)
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • futrkingsleyfutrkingsley member

    I don't have a system per se but I've put toys on vacation.  ;)  I meant to do it before Xmas but only did it last week while he was asleep.  Any toy he hadn't played iwth in two months went into the bin, plus the larger little people toys (an airplane, bus, firetruck) because he rarely played with them.  I left out things I really like (the wooden toys and some musical things) plus his new Xmas toys.

    Actually, I didn't even leave out all his Xmas toys. There were too many so some got put away since he hasn't grown attached to them yet.  I did the same at his birthday and have never needed to get them out. 

    For books, I keep two baskets.  One is day time books that sort of rile him up -- for us that is some Dr. Suess, black bear, and Sandra Boynton and her dancing animals.  Those are upstairs for daytime use.  By the bed is a basket of night time books -- the going to bed book, how do dinasours say goodnight, I love you through and through, etc.  They are quiet books that encourage snuggling.  This ensures we don't read a rile up book before bed.  Every night I pick the books we read before bed so we get a decent rotation.

    Hope that helps!

     

    Report Reply
  • jsugrinjsugrin member

    I leave out really big things but about once a month or so I move the room they are in, living room/Andrew's room/Cooper's room.  When Andrew was younger I did weekly swap outs but eventually I totally purged a large closet that has shelves and made it the toy closet.  I have four different baskets that have small toys so those can easily be pulled out and put away and then the medium sized toys, either Andrew will head to the closet because he wants something or I do a rotate when I notice Andrew's starting to get easily bored and antsy during the day.

    For books we have a bookcase in Andrew's room and then we also have some books on top of his dresser (it's a tall one) and another stack (current favs) on a nightstand by our bed since that is where he reads books with DH before bedtime.  We randomly move books around as week get sick of reading the same thing 20 times a day :)

    Report Reply
  • scrapmama2201scrapmama2201

    I did a huge purge of toys before the holidays in anticipation of Christmas followed by the boy's birthdays. I also just reorganized our toys and playroom. I bought the fabric bins and sorted toys out. Ty can play with one bin at a time and all other toys must be picked up before he gets a new one down. Bigger trucks and cars were sorted into laundry baskets which are stored underneath the slide/play structure in the playroom. He also has a train table with six bins that houses all the trains and track. Books are kept on a shelf and then we have three baskets that are rotated every couple weeks (mostly to keep us from reading the same ones every night).

    It took me a few attempts to get to where I was happy with the organization. Most of it started because I wanted to get rid of all toys missing pieces or ones that weren't played with. I also wanted to pack up all toys with small parts so that Jake wouldn't have the chance to choke on them or put them in his mouth.

    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"