A house with kids can go into a total chaotic mess in less than 5 minutes once they start playing with their toys. It is a joy to watch them play kinda reminds us of the carefree stage of our lives or that we are able to provide the toys to them that we could not afford to have because we were too poor.
However, after each of these play sessions, the section of the home where the children play are left in a total and chaotic mess. If they are too young to understand how to keep away their toys, an adult would need to keep away the toys for them as they can be a real tripping hazard.
Eventually, most parents would train their kids to learn to keep away their toys on their own.
Should the kids play in a dedicated room or in the living room?
If a child has a dedicated room to play, then you would probably be able to get away occasionally with no picking up the toys and tidying up on certain days when you are totally exhausted. However, the downside is that you would need to also be in the room to monitor especially if the child is too young. If you are a blogger, then you may work on your posts as your child is playing with the toys.
But if you are a busy mom who needs to clean and do other chores, as well as keep an eye on your child, then some part of the living area would be used as a play area and to store toys. Usually a child would prefer to play at the living room where it is often abuzz with activities and there are other adults nearby. Even after they are old enough to take care of themselves, they would still prefer to be near their parents.
Some families have chosen to have a dedicated toy’s room where most of the toys are stored. Then they also allow their kids to bring some toys to the living room especially when they are not able to sit there to accompany their kids.
How to organize and store toys
My suggestion is to use clearly labeled storage bins to store the toys. The bins can be placed on storage shelves or stacked neatly at a corner.
Same category of toys should be placed together. For example, it can be categorized like:
- toy cars/ trains
- Lego sets
- dolls
- soft toys
For example a friend’s house uses storage bins with labels. For example, the clear storage bin above is specifically used to store the railway tracks.
Then a separate bins to store toy cars:
Personally, I prefer to use clear plastic storage bins because it is easy to see through.
Another place where the toys are scattered all over the place, together with small lego sets. There were some kids who enjoyed playing but after they left, we helped to clean up.
The toys are quickly placed back into the plastic storage bins. While the smaller lego sets are placed in the blue bin with white cover located next to the green bins.
Displaying your toys as a decorative item
Sometimes, you may choose to create shelving to display your toys- example completed lego sets. Or you may use it as a decoration piece at a table top.
For example, my adult friend build the structure below while she was recovering from an operation:
My friend told me that after she complete putting the structures together, it gives her a feeling of accomplishment and a morale boost each time she looks at the structures.
Another one is a children’s playroom where Lego sets are used to decorate a shelving:
May I also add, if you may want to consider investing in a storage unit with glass windows. This helps to enable you to display your toys but save you a tonne of time in having to clean and wipe the dust off each and every one of them. It also help to avoid the items from falling off.
In conclusion, toys can be stored away in labeled storage bins (for better organization). Some favourite toys or completed sets can be also used as decorative items on surfaces or shelves. Certain toys carry a special meaning in our hearts and when they invoke nice feelings each time we look at them, it is such a pity to hide them in a storage box. Why not put them up for display 🙂