{"id":624,"date":"2012-07-04T04:53:06","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T11:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/?p=624"},"modified":"2012-07-04T04:54:22","modified_gmt":"2012-07-04T11:54:22","slug":"10-ways-to-organize-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/07\/04\/10-ways-to-organize-toys\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ways to Organize Toys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do you feel like your house has been overrun by toys?\u00a0 Does it look like you run a daycare out of your home?\u00a0 If so, it\u2019s time to take control of the toy clutter in your home! Check out these 10 different ways you can organize toys:<\/p>\n

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  1. Over-the-door shoe holders work well for organizing small toys.\u00a0 <\/strong>There are many shoe organizers on the market, but you should lean toward the ones where the pockets are clear so that the toys or craft items can be seen at a glance.\u00a0 If she can\u2019t see what\u2019s in the pockets then she will never play with those items.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Use clear shoe boxes to organize like toys.<\/strong>\u00a0 The point of using clear boxes is that it allows her to see what\u2019s in each box so she won\u2019t have to tear everything out to find something, or she won\u2019t ignore it because she doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s in the box.\u00a0 Organize similar items like matchbox cars, kid\u2019s meal toys, blocks, and action figures by putting them into separate boxes.\u00a0 Print out picture labels or word labels so that she can match the toy to the box it goes in.\u00a0 This will also help during clean-up.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Open baskets on the floor provide a place for bigger toys.<\/strong>\u00a0 By placing baskets on the floor or near the floor they will be low enough for her to reach.\u00a0 Label the baskets just like the shoe boxes so that she will know where to put away her toys.\u00a0 Open baskets are roomy enough for dolls, doll clothes, stuffed animals, bigger plastic toys, and the like.\u00a0 To get the baskets up off the floor you can hang a shelf about a foot off the floor and place the baskets there.\u00a0 Try to avoid heavy toy boxes with lids that can smash little fingers.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Keep outside toys outside or in the garage.<\/strong>\u00a0 By moving the bigger toys that kids can ride on or other outside toys to the garage you will free up a lot of space in her room.\u00a0 Toys that fall into this category might be balls, hula hoops, roller skates, bike helmets, and ride-on toys.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Bath toys belong in the bathroom.<\/strong>\u00a0 Keep a limited number of bath toys in the bathroom, either in the tub itself or under the sink in a box.\u00a0 Bathtub toys should be near the bathtub and not left all over the house.\u00a0 If the toys aren\u2019t close to the tub when it\u2019s bath time they won\u2019t get played with.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Reduce the number of books on display.<\/strong>\u00a0 Bookcases are great for storing books, but it\u2019s very easy to pull out 20 books when trying to decide what story you want for bedtime and then not put them back.\u00a0 By choosing 15 to 20 books and displaying them on a shelf where the front cover can be seen it will reduce the number of books that are out, and as you rotate through the books your child may see books they haven\u2019t seen in a while.\u00a0 There also won\u2019t be an overwhelming decision of what to read that is common when there is a bookcase full of books.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Get rid of what you don\u2019t need.\u00a0 <\/strong>While you are organizing be aware of toys that are no longer age appropriate, no longer played with, or are broken.\u00a0 Donate or sell the toys that you can and trash the toys that are broken or have missing pieces.\u00a0 There\u2019s no reason to keep toys around if they aren\u2019t being played with anymore.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. Put hooks on the wall.\u00a0 <\/strong>Many things can be hung on the wall.\u00a0 Dress up clothes can be hung on hooks.\u00a0 Some toys with handles can be hung on the wall.\u00a0 If it can go up on the wall that will ease the clutter on the floor.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Use a toy hammock to corral stuffed animals.\u00a0 <\/strong>Many times it\u2019s hard for children to part with stuffed animals, especially ones they\u2019ve had since infancy.\u00a0 Choose a couple of favorites to stay on the bed and then put the rest to sleep in a hammock.\u00a0 She can still see them, but they won\u2019t be taking over her whole bed or end up all over the floor every morning.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. Stay organized by getting rid of one thing for everything that comes in. <\/strong>Don\u2019t over buy toys.\u00a0 Kids love simple things like paper and crayons, boxes, and tissue paper.\u00a0 To avoid having too many toys again, make sure that for every new toy that comes in you get rid of an old toy.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Do you feel like your house has been overrun by toys?\u00a0 Does it look like you run a daycare out of your home?\u00a0 If so, it\u2019s time to take control of the toy clutter in your home! Check out these … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nanny-tips-2","category-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions\/627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}