How many toys should be left out?

[Homeschoolmom3]

Okay....I am trying to declutter and organize again and I'm trying to decide how many toys need to be left out for play?  I have one 3yr old and my other children are older so their "toys" are in their rooms.  It has turned out that he has toys set up all over the house (by my doing).  Not sure if I should consolidate to one area or have is spaced out like I do now.  I do rotate toys but how much should be left out?  What works for your kids?  Also, do you have a set school room?  I have one for my older kids but try to keep little one out do to them trying to study with peace and quiet.....Would love to hear ideas! 

[SKL]

At 3yo most of my kids' toys were in enclosed bins or drawers (furniture) that they could access.  The exceptions were the big toys - train table, toy kitchen, dollhouse - and the softies on their beds.

 

Here's the train table they got around age 3, and we still use it for their doll castle.  The drawers, which can be opened from either side, have a lot of space, and we use them to store many kinds of toys.  For smaller toys I put small bins inside the wooden drawers.

 

http://simpleform.net/best-application-of-train-table-with-drawers/wooden-train-table-with-drawers/

 

I also bought decorative boxes like this, which hold crafts, doll clothes, etc. and don't look like clutter:

 

http://www.hottubsales.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/decorative-storage-boxes-with-lids-121.jpg

 

I also have wooden cupboards (with doors) and other furniture that hold toys but look neat-ish.

 

So we don't have a lot of toys "out" but I've always had a lot of toys within the kids' easy reach.  When you walk into a room, you don't think "oh my gosh, this place is full of toy clutter."

 

I have always kept them in one part of the house, though.  I don't like having toy clutter all over the place.

[Julie of KY]

I always chose one place (or one place plus a bedroom) and designated a certain amount of space. How many toys was dependent on what fit into that space. I also would have set up a train table or other big toy that didn't move. We also had some bins of toys in the closet that we could intermittently pull out.

[Rachel]

We keep the majority to toys in our playroom/ school room but I allow the kids to take them to other parts of the house. On the first floor is a Little People barn with animals, a tractor with trailer, and occasionally another vehicle. It's easy to put away if I don't want visible toys in the living room but it also doesn't take up a ton of space so I don't feel overwhelmed by toys. That seems to be plenty to occupy my 2 year old when the rest of us are doing other things. He will go up to the playroom too if he wants to play trains or something else instead.

[Coco_Clark]

I keep out only as many toys as they can reasonably pick up.  I know that is a cop-out but every kid is different.  If they cannot regularly pick them up, then that means there are too many.

 

I DO prefer to have all the toys in one or two spots.  I think it encourages tidiness, or at least discourages getting all the toys in the kitchen out, then wandering to the livingroom and getting all those toys out, and then going in their bedroom and so on.  We keep all toys in their attic bedroom, excepting outside toys which have a bin outside and a wicker basket of "baby" toys in the livingroom (because babies cannot go up to the attic).

 

We do not have a school room, but all of my kids are young and need to be at my elbow.  We school in the kitchen where I can watch everyone and be doing the dishes as well.

[Homeschoolmom3]

Thanks for your thoughts!  Would like to simplify and consolidate rooms....uhh....any other ideas?  we have one bedroom that we have made the "school room" where my kids go to do computer work and then it has all of the supplies and 5 bookshelves of books there is also a table in there to spread out and do work.  I have a "den" off of the kitchen that I was thinking of changing to a playroom so we can have all of my 3yr olds toys in there since we are mostly upstairs during the day.  However, we have a HUGE open basement that I have used for gross motor and active toys...balls, climbing gyms, skee ball, b-ball, etc.  Would you all move all toys to the basement?  I'm just not sure if he would stay down there all alone when we were up here working.  Is your playroom if you have one on the main level or on another level...does your preschooler stay in there by himself?  Thanks again!

[Aspasia]

Thanks for your thoughts!  Would like to simplify and consolidate rooms....uhh....any other ideas?  we have one bedroom that we have made the "school room" where my kids go to do computer work and then it has all of the supplies and 5 bookshelves of books there is also a table in there to spread out and do work.  I have a "den" off of the kitchen that I was thinking of changing to a playroom so we can have all of my 3yr olds toys in there since we are mostly upstairs during the day.  However, we have a HUGE open basement that I have used for gross motor and active toys...balls, climbing gyms, skee ball, b-ball, etc.  Would you all move all toys to the basement?  I'm just not sure if he would stay down there all alone when we were up here working.  Is your playroom if you have one on the main level or on another level...does your preschooler stay in there by himself?  Thanks again!

Our playroom is in our basement. My kids play down there, but they all play together most of the time. Every now and then someone will disappear and then I'll hear the quiet clinking of toys in the playroom. Even the 2yo goes down there and plays by herself. But only sometimes, like 10% of the time. 4yo might be closer to 20%, but it's still not a ton.

 

I've actually been thinking about spreading our toys out more. Right now they're all in the playroom (except the baby toy basket in the family room on the main level). All of our toys are in Trofast bins (Ikea) in the playroom, but my kids drive me crazy, because they love to build large structures with the bins themselves...which means emptying ALL the toys out. Then when it's time to clean up, it's super overwhelming and everyone is melting down. So I've been wondering if putting one Trofast organizer (we have three in the playroom) in each of the kids' rooms might reduce the temptation to empty all the bins. I would still keep the big things like the train table, play kitchen, and gross motor toys in the basement playroom.

[Momling]

None! We keep all toys in bedrooms. If one of my kids brings something out, it has to go back to their bedroom as soon as they're done playing. If not, I clean it up and put it away for a few days off limits. It's not that I'm weirdly tidy, it's just that I want our communal areas (aka the living room and kitchen) to be free of Legos to step on or toys that the dog chews on and not dominated by stuffed animals. Communal items (the TV and computer) are in communal spaces, private items (my exercise bike, tennis racquets, ballet gear, toys) are in private spaces (bedrooms). I've never had a problem enforcing this - even with a constant stream of foster kids - and it makes me happy to not have toys in my living room.

[Coco_Clark]

I would keep the gross motor stuff in the basement, and make the room off the kitchen a toyroom.  Our toys are on a different floor out of necessity but my kids didn't like to play up there by themselves until 4, closer to 5.  My 3 year olds always wanted to be near me.  If I had had any way to keep toys on the same floor I spend the majority of my time I would have done so at that age.

 

  

[Homeschoolmom3]

Thanks for your input and thinking of going that route Coco_Clark.....thanks again everyone for your comments!