Toy Organization, ugh. Even thinking about it gives me anxiety! How many of us are certified organizational experts? Who is fully trained in Feng Shui?

Hands? Anyone? Anyone?

Yeah, me either, so I won’t pretend I’ve done hours of lessons, passed tests or have a certificate hanging on my wall. But I will say that I have 10 years of experience raising boys, and lots of them. And so far, we have all survived it, and I would even so we are thriving, so that has to count for something, right?

Along the way, I’ve tried to get the toy situation organized, find a way to keep the chaos to a minimum. And I’ve failed. Then tried again and failed. And tried probably 37 more times to find what actually works for us.

And Eureka, I have found it!

This post will be tip 1 in a series of things I’ve have learned along the way to keep all our toys (5 boys worth!) as organized, managed, and tidy as possible.

 

Part 1: Finding the Right Layout

 

One of the biggest things that I learned was where we put our toys makes all the difference in the world! At one point, we had some toys in the bedroom closets, some toys in the toy room, some on the porch, and anywhere else we had the space to store them. What this meant was that when the boys played, we had a mess in the bedroom, a mess in the toy room, a mess on the porch, toys in the family room as they walked through from the bedroom bringing a specific toy to the toy room…. There were toys EVERYWHERE!

But when I got over the stress and frustration of not having a single adult room in the whole house, I stopped focusing on the mess and started focusing on the details. What toys did they play with most often? Where did they like to play with each type of toy? Which toys did they put away easily and which ones were left out for days at a time? Which toys ended up outside and which toys stayed inside? And once I started learning how they played with the various toys and why those toys ended up on the floor of a certain room, I was able to start better organizing where the toys should live.

 

Identify The Issues:

In the beginning, you entered our home into the biggest room in the house, which we made the toy room. I know, what an entrance! I hated it, believe me, but we have 5 boys with lots of stuff, so for us, it made the most sense. It fit all their toys, we had gymnastics bars for them to swing on and it was a great room for them to just be loud and crazy. And it was loud, and it looked crazy, constantly. So it was an easy solution, the front room would be the toy room.

From there, you walked straight into the kitchen which was an open concept area with the dining room and family room. The family room was at the back of the house, the back room, and housed the only TV we own, a couch and recliner, and toys all over the floor. Off the left side of the family room was a hallway to the boys’ bedrooms and straight through it had sliding glass doors out to the porch and backyard. It was basically used as a walk through for the kids from their bedrooms or the toy room to get out to the porch and backyard. It was constantly filled with discarded toys, outside toys that made it inside, and we always had dirty footprints on the couch from the boys running in, chasing each other, jumping up and running across the couch and off to the toy room. But it was just too small to use as a toy room, it didn’t fit everything that they had, so we felt stuck.

 

So our issues were:

• The front room was the only room big enough to hold the big toys and gymnastics bars.
• The front room looked like a war zone for any guests coming to visit.
• The house was SO LOUD! When the boys got going with their gymnastics bars, nerf guns, or whatever active game they played, it was like the local school was conducting recess in my house.
• The family room looked like a tornado had touched down daily with a mix of bedroom toys, toy room toys and outside toys.
• The outside dirt and mud always made its way into the family room and the foot prints on the couch was one of my biggest pet peeves, I just wanted one place to sit in the whole house!
• The boys NEVER played toys in their room, they only went to retrieve whatever toy stored in there and bring it out, and it mostly ended up lost in the family room, never to be put away again.

 

Observe the Issues to Find the Right Solution:

But after a few weeks of really observing how the boys were using the toys, I started realizing that it would be easier if we were able to switch the toy room and family room and only the room size was holding us back. So, Luis and I had a long talk, what was more important:

• Having a lot of toys, some of which were never played, or
• Creating an environment that allowed us more peace in our home?

The answer was very clear. Having a home layout that made the house less clutter, less messy, decreased mom’s stress level and allowed the boys to have fun with the toys they loved was WAY better than making sure they had hundreds of toys to choose from every day.

So I created a 2 step strategy:

1. Switch the rooms first, create the family room at the front of the house like I always wanted, complete with a little office area for mom!
2. Reduce the toys to what would fit in the new layout and be prepared to explain to the boys that our priority is the family, not the toys.

 

Implement the Solution:

Step 1: Switching Rooms

The first part was pretty easy, I took all the toys out of the front room, stacked them on the porch and in the back room and moved the family room into the front room. I instantly felt better! Luis and I had a place to sit that was quiet and away from the toy room, bed rooms, and noises of a busy kitchen. I had a place to work, the couch stayed clean, and the TV was no longer in jeopardy of being shot with a nerf gun, hit by a sword as the boys ran through, or broken by a baseball that sometimes got hit through the open sliding glass doors that the boys ALWAYS forgot to close when they played outside. Ahh, my calm corner. I knew step 2 would be hard, but it was already worth it!

Step 2: Reduce, Reduce, Reduce!

Ok, step two as you imagine was awful! The boys did not want to part with anything, even if they hadn’t seen it in years, whatever toy I wanted to get rid of suddenly became a precious memory that they just couldn’t part with. So I waited for them to be at school and downsized as much as possible. They eventually noticed some things had gone missing, but for the most part, they had no idea what I had donated or tossed. Then, as much as they loved playing the gymnastics bars in the morning or evening when outdoor time was over, we had no choice but to relocate them to the porch. Not only did it save on space but WOW what a difference on the noise level in the house. Double win!

Some toys still lived in their bedroom closets just because I couldn’t downsize enough to make it work, but it was only the board games and puzzles so it wasn’t a big deal for them. I did have to buy a new, taller bookshelf for our crazy large book collection, new storage cubes for the actual toys like Magnatiles, Legos or superhero figurines, and 5 more cubes just for the MILLIONS of superhero costumes we have (just think, we get 5 new costumes each Halloween alone). So, there was a cost associated with it and it was totally worth it!

We’ve now been living in our new layout for about a year, and I have to say that the house is a much more peaceful, quiet (yup, still have 5 loud boys) and happy place to be!

 

Conclusion:

Ok, now I know, not everyone can just move rooms around or re-decorate to improve their toy organization system. But what you can do is just pause, stop focusing on the big stress of it all and really pay attention to the main three questions:

• What toys did your kids play with most often?
• Where do they like to play with each type of toy?
• How can I make it easier for them to play what they enjoy, where they enjoy it?

By focusing on these questions, you can start finding your own layout solutions throughout your house or just withing the current room.