Originally Posted by misol:
I know a lot of you rotate toys and the reasons for doing so make so much sense. My problem is that since I don't have anywhere to store toys other than the playroom, everything is always out all the time. Ugh! This just leaves me with a disorganized mess of toys that the children don't REALLY play with and a huge mess to clean up 5 times every day.
How, exactly, do you all rotate toys and how often? I know that Kidkair mentioned in another post that she stores the toys in 12 bins and rotates them monthly. Sounds easy enough. How large are the bins that you use for toy storage? Where do you keep them? Aside from the obvious (like Christmas games will go in December's toy bin) how do you determine which toys you put away for which months or is it just random?
Anyone else care to share their rotation system? Help, I am drowning in sea of toys!
My bins are 66 quart bins. I store them in the basement. I have the bins on shelving so I can access all of them whenever needed. Currently they are randomly sorted with no theme except obvious stuff like a turkey in Nov.
I have a separate bin for baby stuff and when I have a baby the baby stuff gets changed monthly as well the only difference is that it's just two sets of stuff rather than 12.
I also have other tubs for books and places for extra diapers and stuff and places for high chairs and cribs not currently being used. We have a section of the basement that is for daycare stuff. It's about 8 feet by 8 feet.
I rotate blocks, stuffed animals, balls, potato head accessories, dolls, puppets, noise makers (instruments), cars, trains, food/kitchen toys, and dress up clothes. Not every month has all of these but most do.
I find that puzzles and games are not worth it because the kids always want to play with them by simply making a mess as they don't understand the rules so I keep a few for SAs.
I think it's great to wait so long to see the toys again because then I don't get bored playing with them after only a couple months of them being gone.
I have the books in smaller bins and rotate them seasonally though I'm getting so many that I'm thinking of going to monthly with them as well.
I rotate them on the weekend before the new month or the first weekend of a new month depending on what I have going on. I tried rotating them with the kids here once but that lead to a month of them piling up all the toys to rotate. The last two months I made a game of them taking everything out of drawers and such and organizing them on the floor and counting them and such just so all the toys were out at the end of the day and then after everyone was gone I put all the toys in their month box then emptied the new month's stuff into the drawers and on to shelves. The kids had a blast taking everything out and not having to clean it all up.