You might have a great system for organising your shoes or your paperwork, but when it comes time to organise your kids’ toys, it’s a different story entirely.

Not only are there likely way too many items to deal with, but they also have frustratingly different – and often very large – sizes, making them hard to fit into many places and making their room look like a disaster zone even after you’ve tidied up.

So what’s a mum to do? Here’s how to organise your kids’ toys like a pro.

1. Purge first!

You can’t even begin to organise your kids’ toys until you know exactly how much there is to contend with. So, get some bags and boxes ready – it’s purging time!

Take everything out of your kids’ drawers, closets and shelves and take stock of what you’ve got. Make piles of toys to keep, donate and throw away.

I like to use the black bag method for purging items my kids are unsure about. Grab a large black bag, like a garbage bag, and go through your kids’ toys. If they seem a bit hesitant about whether they want to keep a toy or you’re sure they never play with it but they insist they still want it, let them know you’ll keep it in the bag.

The bag will be kept in your garage or storage room for a set time – say, a month. If your child asks for the toy during that time, you will retrieve it for them, but once the month is over, you’ll donate the remaining toys that they’ve forgotten about to children in need.

2. Rotate your child’s toys

I recommend taking the toys that your kids truly can’t live without and dividing them into categories such as action toys, pretend play toys and educational toys. Then, set aside a third of the toys in each category to leave out right now.

Next, take the other two thirds and put them in two containers to store away. After a few weeks, I put away the toys we left out and get out a different box. Cycling the toys this way keeps your kids from getting bored and dramatically reduces the number of toys they can leave all over the floor at once!

3. Organise by category

It’s pretty tempting to throw everything from your “keep” pile into a couple of big containers, but resist the urge to do this. You need to invest in smaller containers – a small price to pay for your sanity, if you ask me – and devote each one to a particular type of toy.

I recommend going lidless for two reasons. First, it makes it easier for them to clean up. Second, if they can’t see what’s inside a box at a glance, they’re probably going to dump the entire contents out when they’re trying to find a specific toy, so make it easy for them to find what they need.

4. Keep messy toys out of reach

This is probably my best bit of advice for organising kids’ toys: place those messy items that have lots of little pieces – Legos and puzzles, I’m looking at you! – and things like paints in areas your kids can’t reach. That way, you’re far less likely to walk into their room and be greeted by a mountain of mess.

5. Consider shelving

A wall of toy storage shelves can be a real game-changer. Consider installing a few low rows of shelves; you may even be able to make a bench on top depending on how high they go. Then, fill them up with your bins and boxes so everything is off the floor and in its place, yet still easy to see and access. As your kids get older and outgrow toys, they can use the shelves for books and other trinkets.

6. Try some preventive maintenance

We all know it’s better to prevent something than have to treat it, so why not apply this philosophy to organisation? Schedule set times throughout the year for purging your kids’ belongings. At a minimum, you should do this just before their birthdays and Christmas when their list of possessions is about to grow.

7. Use a simple system

Not only is there no need to get too complex with your system, but it’s actually a bad idea. Whatever system you use to organise your kids’ toys needs to be simple enough for your little ones to follow. Even if you’re the one putting everything away now because they’re too small to do it on their own, you want to establish these habits as early as possible. Your kids are watching everything their mum does, so set a good example. Then, move on to helping them do it as they get old enough until that sweet day arrives when they are capable of putting everything away on their own!

I hope this helps!

Love,

Nakita xx