Organizing Toys

Someone recently asked me how I organize toys...  

Right now most of the toys in our house are in the dining room which is set up as a playroom.  (This is mainly because we don't have a dining room set, but it also works well for us right now.)  All of the toys in the playroom are "Ellen-proof" so I don't have to worry about her choking on something, etc.  This is the stuff that gets played with all of the time.

Why have a dining room table when you can have a train table?!?!?

 Then everyone has their own "special" toys in their own rooms on shelves in baskets.  We are lucky to have large closets in our bedrooms, so Clare's Barbie house and Barbies are in her closet (which means most small items are contained in the closet) while Jude's closet has bigger toys like building blocks in it. 

I know some people rotate toys out so there is always something "new" to play with, but I have never taken the time to do so.

Thinking about the toys in our house, I was motivated to go through our stash on Saturday.  And because Ellen is starting to be more interested in baby dolls, blocks, phones, and books and not the "baby toys."  (1 year-olds are such a fun age...I think I could watch Ellen take care of her baby doll all day!)

This was something I put away since Ellen was probably going to fall out of this soon...especially since she started to try and stand up in it once she climbed inside!

This was the pile of baby toys I put away...then yesterday I found more baby toys in the depths of my diaper bag.  (I think they are multiplying on me.  And to think before Clare was born I had about 7 random toys in 1 small basket for kids to play with when they came over.  Times have changed!)

During my clean out I decided to make a "rainy day box" of toys from what we already have on hand.  I plan on bringing these toys out on boring days when we need a change from our "every day toys."  And so far no one has even asked for or missed any of the toys now residing in "the box!"   

As I was cleaning out and sorting toys on Saturday, I noticed tatertotsandjello had featured two of the recent projects I have posted on my blog!  

Organizing and a blog shout-out...couldn't ask for a better Saturday!