A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Declutter Toys

Have you ever noticed that the toys in the playroom or designated drawers and cupboards multiply as time goes by and felt overwhelmed by the number of toys in your house?

Do you want a clean and tidy playroom for your children to play and grow in but do not know how to start decluttering the toys?

Years ago, I did not know how my children’s playroom could be occupied with a few toys at the start, and gradually led to a huge amount of toys in it within a short period.

I often find sentimental toys that were purchased or gifted when my children were newborns.

In their toddler years, I also continuously bought various kinds of toys that improved my children’s motor skills and development.

Ultimately, I realized that the entire playroom was filled with many different types of toys.

By then, I started to ponder what I should do with all these toys and exactly how I should start decluttering and organizing them.

Before starting the decluttering process, I need to find reasons to convince myself to get started.

I read books on decluttering and researched the reasons for having a tidy children’s playroom.

Gradually, I found myself getting into action and started to declutter.

Let me share with you a few reasons why you should declutter the toys in your child’s playroom.

Reasons to declutter the toys

1. Constructive Learning Journey

It serves as a lesson plan for your children to acquire real-life skills. Decluttering is an ongoing process that requires consistent efforts and determined motivation.

You will be the role model for your children by showing them how decluttering is done.

Also, you can ask them to declutter the toys together.

It can be a bonding session with your children.

2. Prevent The Development Of Bad Behavior

When the playroom is filled with a large number of toys and clutter, your children may have difficulty finding the specific toys they want to play with, which may cause them frustration.

There may gradually be a possibility of developing temper tantrums in them because children do not yet have the patience to search everywhere for what they want.

3.  Save Time

You will probably spend more time tidying up after them, thus reducing the quality of time spent with your kids.

4. Save Money

Decluttering helps you to save money.

You do not need to splurge on storage boxes just to keep the toys tidy and organized, and you do not have to spend money on getting bigger or extra storage space.

5. Improve attention span

Decluttering helps improve children’s attention spans by allowing them to focus on a relatively small number of toys at a time.

Steps to declutter toys

So, how do you declutter toys exactly?

Follow through the steps to achieving a clutter-free playroom for your children.

1. Make yourself completely free

Set aside a few hours when you are free from appointments and mum’s duties.

You do not want to start picking up calls or having a conference midway through when tidying up the toys.

Decluttering requires time, as it is a big transformation of the children’s playroom into a fun sanctuary.

This will be the space where creativity and fun flourish without the existence of clutter.

2. Sort the toys by classifying them into Broken, Old, New, and Current.

Some of you may be afraid of decluttering.

It may instill fear and regrets in you, afraid that once you decide to chuck out or donate the toys, you will miss them to a large degree and be at a loss for what to do after that.

After all, you will not be able to get them back again.

The thought of decluttering only exacerbates the action, as the real deal of decluttering can be extremely overwhelming and daunting.

But fear not. Read through the tips thoroughly to conquer your fear and minimize the possibility of regrets.

Start by separating the toys into four general categories: “BROKEN,” “OLD,” “CURRENT,” and “NEW.”

BROKEN

First and foremost, there are bound to be toys that are chipped off, broken, or simply outgrown.

For safety purposes, throw away the chipped-off and broken toys immediately.

Do not keep them at home or donate them away.

Tell yourself it is okay to throw them away as the toys are no longer in good condition to entertain your kids.

If the toys are of sentimental value, take a picture of them before throwing them away.

The sentimental value, coupled with the memories of the toys, should be kept in your heart, not by holding on to the physical item.

Safety should be the number one priority in the toy room.

You should not be holding on to the damaged playthings just because precious memories are attached to them.

OLD

What do I mean by old toys?

Some examples of old toys would be discolored toys or toys that are hand-me-downs from friends and family.

The wear and tear of the toys may cause hazards, especially for toddlers.

Moreover, some of these toys do not necessarily meet the current safety standards as the safety standards are often changing.

We should not forget that there will be a change in the age recommendations for those toys over time.

Old toys could also refer to toys that your kids have outgrown.

If your kids are no longer playing with them, consider donating away to people who need and love the toys.

Some people would appreciate your generosity for such an act, as they may be limited in their financial ability to constantly buy new toys for their children’s development.

I would highly recommend you opt for this path.

It saves time and energy, and most importantly, it helps to evoke a feeling of positivity in both the recipient and you.

Alternatively, you can sell the good-condition toys on eBay, Craigslist, or online marketplaces such as Amazon and Facebook.

In your spare time, you can even visit the pawn shops and consignment shops in your area to sell the toys and earn some cash.

Either of the options would ensure that the toys will not go to waste

NEW

There are many instances where you will start buying new toys for your children, or even so, your children will receive tons of toys during special occasions such as their birthdays or during the Christmas season.

Relatives, friends, and even acquaintances choose to buy toys for your children in the hope that they will take a liking to the new toy by providing them with some engagement to their senses.

They may hope to interact with them or simply buy them to allow them to learn through the toys.

When all these occasions happen within a short period of time, you will store the new toys in some corners of the room and overlook them as time passes.

Otherwise, you may be waiting for a timely opportunity to open the toys and keep a massive pile of them.

To reduce the increasing number of new toys, take out every new toy you have kept and lay it on the floor.

Filter out the new toys according to the age recommendations indicated on the packaging.

You do not want to throw away the toys that are suitable for your kids to play with at present.

Open the new toys that are suitable for your children at their current age and throw away the packaging, as the packaging usually takes up a lot of space in the playroom.

Start giving the new toys to your children.

Remember, you must give the new toys one at a time to prevent the loss of focus and attention span.

CURRENT

All toys that do not belong to the other 3 categories will go into this last category, “current.”

The toys in this category are easily identifiable as they are played with frequently or taken out daily by your children.

You will notice that this category has the greatest number of toys after all the segregation is done.

Do not be alarmed by the number of ” current toys,” as we will go into more in-depth segregation.

3. Segregate the “current” toys according to your age suitability.

Firstly, you must prepare at least 4 storage boxes to store the toys and label accordingly.

Depending on the number of toys you managed to segregate in the above, you gauge how big the storage boxes should be.

Below is an example of the age range for segregating the toys in the “Current.”

-Infant

-1 to 2 years old

-2 to 4 years old

-4 to 5 years old

There is no hard and fast rule on how you should do the labeling.

Many toys in the “current” category probably no longer have their original packaging, so you will not be able to determine their age recommendations.

Do not waste your time going to the toy shop to check again or searching Google for the information. Either way, it will take up a portion of your time and hold up the process of your decluttering project.

Over the years, you have spent quality time interacting and bonding with your children and acquired experiences along the way, such as choosing suitable toys for them to play with and learn from.

You know your children best and their learning development as they grow.

Sort the toys according to what you feel is suitable for their age.

There is no right or wrong, even if you sort it differently from others, as the development of every child differs from one another.

The interest of your children in certain toys may also vary from others.

Below is an example of how you should do it.

Let’s start with the infant segregation.

Infant

Everyone will know the kinds of toys to go into here.

Toys that are relatively soft and would make noise once your baby holds onto them or toys that are textured as a baby likes to grasp toys.

Examples would be rattles, squeeze toys, and textured balls.

1 to 2 years old

Toys that will go into the 1—to 2-year-old segregation would likely be toys that respond to their actions, such as nesting boxes or cups, rubber ducks, and small and simple musical instruments such as xylophones and tambourines.

2 to 4 years old

Moving on, when your children reach the age of 2 to 3, they will have developed certain fine motor skills and started liking pretend play.

Therefore, toys that would be subject to this segregation would be small kitchen sets, stuffed animals, and doll houses.

4 to 5 years old

Most of the toys in this segregation would lean more toward interactive educational toys, as the learning ability of children of this age range has increased tremendously.

Consider storing toys such as action figures, construction sets, and blocks in the storage box of this age range.

 You will be super glad once you have reached this stage because it means that you are close to completing a clutter-free playroom.

4. Decide where you want to store the storage boxes.

One important point to note is to refrain from placing all the storage boxes on the floor in the playroom.

If your children see the storage boxes, they will be curious about the contents of the different boxes and probably start to rummage through them.

Only store the storage box containing toys suitable for your children at their present age.

Other than that, keep all other storage boxes out of their sight.

Otherwise, you will need to spend more time tidying right after decluttering.

Depending on your lifestyle and comfort level, choose a designated place to store all the storage boxes which are also accessible for you to take them out in the future.

Many of you are facing difficulties in decluttering the toys in the playroom, especially if you need to juggle family and work amidst other ad hoc things that your life revolves around.

I was one of them, and I believe you, who are reading this, are facing a similar predicament.

For those reading this article, you have already taken the first step to researching how to declutter the playroom.

Therefore, taking things slow in decluttering your children’s playroom is okay.

You do not have to put pressure on yourself to ensure that the playroom is decluttered within a few hours of your spare time or that it is extremely tidy and detail-oriented.

Find the motivation to start decluttering the toys and work your best out of it.

Enjoy the process of decluttering and do it at your own pace.

You will find that the outcome is better than what you had expected, especially if you find joy and content in doing so.

Let me know in the comment below how you progressed in decluttering the toys.