Toy Organizing

[kcnjason]

How do you keep your kids from dumping the bins of toys? I have 3qt boxes of things like; ponies, dinosaurs, blocks, magnetic toys, cars etc and they always seem to scatter them and then nothing is sorted and I find myself sorting toys out always. Mehta do others do? What recommendations do others have???

[thetoddlerwhisper]

it took alot of training and repeating myself but now they do fairly well not making a mess. i use the same sort of system as you

[MarinaVanessa]

I do bins also and sort toys of the same type in each, Have you thought about taking pictures of the toys and taping them to the outside of the box so that the children know what goes in which bin? Then I'd have the children sort and put away the toys themselves with only the really little ones having help from me.

My 16mo DCK now knows what goes where even if it's slow going but at least he helps. So then I only have to worry about what the 12mo is doing and I give her extra help ... as in I pick up a toy, hand it to her and then show her where it goes. Then LOTS of encouragement to get her to put it in the bin.

I find that it's easier if I have specific clean-up times built into our routines and then I add extra clean up sessions if it gets too messy. Breaking up the cleaning like this and making sure that the mess doesn't get too big helps the littles from feeling overwhelmed by the mess and then not wanting to clean it up. I also watch them like a hawk. As someone dumps, there I go to get him to clean it up and put the toys back.

[Naptime yet?]

I allow dumping (ha ha!), but only one bin at a time. One mess has to be cleaned up before another is made.

[Annalee]

I do bins also and sort toys of the same type in each, Have you thought about taking pictures of the toys and taping them to the outside of the box so that the children know what goes in which bin? Then I'd have the children sort and put away the toys themselves with only the really little ones having help from me.

My 16mo DCK now knows what goes where even if it's slow going but at least he helps. So then I only have to worry about what the 12mo is doing and I give her extra help ... as in I pick up a toy, hand it to her and then show her where it goes. Then LOTS of encouragement to get her to put it in the bin.

I find that it's easier if I have specific clean-up times built into our routines and then I add extra clean up sessions if it gets too messy. Breaking up the cleaning like this and making sure that the mess doesn't get too big helps the littles from feeling overwhelmed by the mess and then not wanting to clean it up. I also watch them like a hawk. As someone dumps, there I go to get him to clean it up and put the toys back.

I also like to tell my little ones when they pick up they are feeding the bucket/bin!

[jenn]

I allow dumping (ha ha!), but only one bin at a time. One mess has to be cleaned up before another is made.

Mine are only allowed one tub out at a time. They can dump it, scatter it, play with it, stare at it,...whatever. It gets completely picked up and put away before another tub comes out.