MONEY SAVER: Toy Rotation

 With the flurry of Christmas and New Year's done I look around at the disaster that is my house and wonder "Where am I going to put all these new and wonderful things we were given?".  If you're wondering the same thoughts as me the solution is much easier than it first appears.  Toy Rotation!  I'm sure you've heard it before.  It seems to be a new topic among Moms these days.  Toy rotation not only clears the clutter and organizes (*GRIN! Organizing!*) the toys it is a MONEY SAVER as well.  Your kids will pester you less to get a new toy since rotating existing toys will feel to them as if they've just gotten all new toys.

The trick is "Where do I get started?"

 

Getting Started: This is the easy part.  Look around your play area/play room/designated play space.  How are the toys organized?  What containers do you have for your kid's toys?  For myself I have a standing shelf with bins (small and large) and two extra-large bins in the playroom.  This is a very good start and the jumping off point for rotation. Wasn't that easy?

Extra Large Play Room Bins

 Getting Organized: Now that you've identified the toy containers you have to work with, you need to group the toys into different categories.  These can be very broad like "cars", "blocks", "dolls" or they can be very specific like "hammer and pegs", "tractor puzzle".

 * Be sure each category (2 categories max.) fills the toy container you are working with.  Keep track with pad and pen of how many different categories you have.  Do not place the same toy in several categories.  This will only create confusion. If it is a special toy give it it's whole own category (we'll deal with this later). 

* Fill your containers with some of the categories you have created.  You will find you have more toy categories than containers.  This is good.  This is how you create rotation.  For myself I have 3 container sizes (as mentioned above) 8 small, 4 large and 2 extra-large (14 total bins) but 28 toy categories.  

* If you have triple, quadruple (or more!) the number of categories than containers you will need to either a) broaden the category to include more toys or b) get rid of some toys.  One complete rotation (twice as many categories as containers) is all you and your kids need.  You may feel differently about your toy situation.  Use your own discretion. 

Are you with me so far?  I hope so.  That was the tough part.  Let's move on to the easy stuff again.

Creating the Rotation: With your current toy bins full you now need storage containers for the surplus toys.  The easiest way I have found to store these toys is with bins of similar size to the bins in the play areas.  Use what you can find, what you have on hand, and what would be appropriate to use in your storage space.  For my small bins I found clear Omni shoe boxes (on sale for $1.20 each at Canadian Tire) that were the exact same size!  For my large bins I use the medium Omni boxes.  For my extra-large bins I use a same-sized cardboard box.

Bins with matching Omni storage

Use storage solutions you have on hand

* Place all the extra toys/categories into your storage containers (use one storage box per category) and find a place to store them.  It could be an attic, the garage, the basement, wherever!  It's best if it's not a place where your kids will see them or discover them before they're due to be rotated.

My bins stored on a shelf in the basement

* Next you must decide on a rotation that fits you and your kids.  From my experience 2 months is an optimal rotation time.  It's enough time for my kids to get tired of the toys they're using so they don't come to my crying that "someone stole" such and such toy they were playing with yesterday in the night.  This means that the toys not currently being used need to be stored somewhere safe and dry for at least 2 months.  You may choose to rotate every week, every month or biannually.  It's up to you.
* There is one exception: special toys.  These are the toys that your child LOVES and plays with every. Single. Day.  For my son this is his train set, his blocks and cars.  I can rotate the kind of cars but he needs cars.  He needs trains.  And he needs blocks.  I make sure these are always available to him and I don't rotate them out with the others.  Also if your child does throws a fit at a toy being "taken away" due to rotation just pull that stored toy back out.  Easy.

Toy Reassignment:  So now what do you do with all the extra toys? All the toys that didn't really fit into a category,  the toys that the kids have outgrown, broken or just don't play with anymore; what do you do with them?  Simple.  Reassign them.  Give them to your neighbour's kids.  Or sell them in a garage sale.  Or donate them to a local playgroup/daycare.  Or donate them to the Salvation Army thrift store. You can put them out with weekly garbage but I dislike this idea the most.

Benefit: A FANTASTIC benefit to creating a bin/container system like this is that when your kids outgrow a category you simply empty the corresponding bin (by donating, selling or tossing the toys) and fill it with the new toy (or category) your child has acquired.  It makes "finding room" for that new toy much much easier.  You simply eliminate an old one.  Voila!

Thank you for following my blog.  I hope you are enjoying it!

Please leave me a comment or send me at email to let me

know you were here!

Tomorrow's topic is "TIME SAVER: Being Organized!"