June is nearing six months old now, and she loves to roll around on the floor from toy to toy, pushing her bright yellow bee to make him sing and rattling her plastic keys to watch their googly eyes spin. We’ve even got a play center she can sit it, ready to go as soon as her feet touch the ground in it.
The problem? There’s so much stuff! I had this vision of myself as a very streamlined parent, with one small basket of toys that would be neatly tucked into a corner and put away each night after bedtime.
I was going to have a rule once we reached the basket’s limit: One toy in, one toy out. June would be a benevolent donor of toys whenever she received a new gift. I’m still going to try to enforce that rule, but in the meantime, I realize that babies do like to have a lot of different toys to turn to. Colors, shapes, sounds, textures—these are all big deals.
So I do want her to have a bunch of toys… but I also don’t want the living room to look like a daycare all the time. We live in a small apartment, so there’s no real “separate space” for June.
I’m wondering if anyone reading this blog has found creative space solutions that work for toys and blankets and all the fun accessories that come with babies.
Let me know how you’ve handled the baby stuff invasion.
Hi! I am a daycare provider with two daughters of my own, but I still want my home to look as streamlined and clean as possible! I found a simple solution to the problem! I went to my local Ikea and purchased this shelf http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20116274/ I also put the shelf going horizontally so it is low, and my girls can reach their toys. On the top, I have a little upholstered pad so the shelf will double as a reading bench! I leave the end two shelved open for books, and the middle shelves I put the baskets that hide all of the colored, blinking, and buzzing of the toys! Hope this helps!
First, you can try and control the toys but it is a fruitless effort. Especially once your child gets old enough 1) to receive birthday gifts, 2) be aware of her toys and enjoy playing with different things at different times, 3) develops the memory of an elephant and will literally recall that tiny piece of yellow plastic that was in a party gift bag 10 months ago and why is it no longer here because all of a sudden she wants to play with it. My kids know every single toy they own, even if they haven’t played with it in over a year and lord help me if it is no longer around when they decide they want it. Also, as kids get older the toys get bigger and more involved. That said, you definately need to control the madness, especially if you live in an apartment (like me) and don’t have a playroom (like me). First find a place in your apartment where you can put some kind of wall unit. Then go to Ikea. You are looking something that has a combination of shelves (especially good if they are low down and you can put baskets in them), cabinets with doors and higher shelves. Put all the toys that you want your kids to be able to access on their own in the low baskets. This way they can get into and out of them relatively safely and easily (I like baskets better then actual drawers because they are removable and generally lighter). Put all the toys you want control of (play doh, paints, markers, electronics) in the higher out of reach shelves so you have to get them for the kids and therefore you can monitor their use. You only have to leave magic markers in a location where they can get to them once, and you never make that mistake again. In the cabinets with doors, you can put the larger type toys that don’t easily fit into drawers (dollhouse, racetracks, big packages of blocks, etc.) Ikea has several of these types of units. Find one you like and try to limit the toys to what fits into that. Also, make ziplocs your best friends. Start the habit now of sorting toys into ziplocs (all action figures, all cars, all ponies, all costume jewelry, all princesses, all legos, all doll clothes, etc.) it makes finding things much easier and keeping things neat a lot easier.
Maggie & Jennifer both make wonderful points. I will take an empty very large diaper box & fill it with toys. Put the box in the top of the closet or where ever you can keep the box out of reach. Once a month or once a week (your preference)rotate the toys out. Dump out the toys you have been storing away & then refill the box with toys that have been available to be played with. This helps ‘keep it fresh’ & exciting for the kiddo. It’s kind of like getting new toys. Once your baby is walking well (usually after 12M) get your baby to help you pick up the toys with you. My baby is now 20M & she has 75% participation in toy pick up & cleaning up real messes since she was 14M. We talk about the picking up or cleaning up & I try to keep a smile on my face (even mommies have feelings, right?). I have a friend that has a bench in the living room for a toy box, the type that the seat raises up. Or you could put baby blankets &/or stuffed animals. You can get one to help go with your normal decor. Good luck
Hi
I have to agree with many of the comments left already. Our little guy is now just over two, and has very generous friends and family so we’ve had the same issue. We employed a similar strategy, especially in his first 18 months when we lived in a small apartment. We kept an eye on the toys he naturally gravitated to, and put many of the others away, and then rotated some in and out so he always had his favorites, but we never felt too cluttered, and he was always surprised by something “new”.
Now that he’s older (and thankfully has bigger playspace in the family room) we do something similar but are working on the “pick up” process as well. He now knows when he’s “makin’ a mess” as he says, and we work on picking up one toy before taking out another, and putting our books away after taking every single one off the shelf. He’s only two, and it’s not perfect, but it helps. He has a big set of bins ((basic bookshelf-type frame with a dozen open boxes of different sizes) that hold many of his smaller items, and a bookshelf for all his books, another of his go-to items. His bigger toys (a train track and a tool bench and a toy piano) can stay out on the playroom floor. At the end of each day, everything goes back in the bins and bookcase, usually with his help. We’re trying to make it a routine that is a natural part of his playtime
We also took all of the new things he got for his November birthday and for Christmas and rotated a few in at a time after letting him see them all– we left them out or under the tree for a few days and waited for him to ask us to open and use them. If we saw he really ignored some for a while, they went into our storage area. They may come out again soon, but right now his fascination is trains and cars so lots of the other stuff is happily hiding until he asks for it.
As for the storage, we also have a beautiful toy box that doubles as a bench (my Papa made it for me when I was little and it’s now Jack’s) that we put nice square cushions on. It looks like grown up furniture but it held his blankets, toys, and any number of other things in our apartment without being an eyesore, and now it’s in his room doing the same. I’d definitely look for a multipurpose item like this if you’re in a small space.
Good luck– and don’t get swallowed up by the mountain of toys!!
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