Comments on: Why Your Kids Leave Toys Everywhere + How to Fix It With Toy Rotation

By: Magnolia

Magnolia

Hi Kelly,
I love this and cannot wait to get started on it. We are drowning in toys and feeling the stress of it. I am confused about one part of the plan – what do you do with a group of toys that you have a LOT of? Our specific example is Barbies. So all the Barbies go into the imagination toy box. But then, you rotate just a handful of Barbies into each rotation box? Or just put Barbies in sometimes?

Love your blog!!

By: Elaine

Elaine

In reply to Niki. Yes my 2-year old boy seems to be similar too, he would play with some toys pretty much everyday (eg. Lock and latch box with a key and padlock). When I saw that he didn't play with it for a few days, I then rotated it with something else, but later when he saw us opening the door with key, or when he heard the word 'key' in our conversation, he would run to his shelf and want to take it, but he was puzzled when it's no longer found at its "original location / home". That makes me wonder how I shall handle toy rotation plan, as I feel sorry when he looked disappointed for not being able to locate the item from his memory. Hope to hear your insights!

By: Niki

Niki

Great post! Curious…what do you do about toys in different rooms? My daughter plays all throughout the house all day & I’m wondering how that would work with a rotation plan.

By: Kayanne

Kayanne

In reply to Nicole. We have all of our books on a cube storage shelf in the closet except a few in her room for bedtime stories and a few in the playroom. She knows where the books are if she is looking for a specific one but the ones out get read the most. We rotate them about every other week. I am going to set up a toy rotation this week and plan to rotate everything at the same time.

By: Nicole

Nicole

In reply to Joanna. I keep a few books out for my little girl, and switch them when we do toy rotation. It keeps her interested in them, and gives me a break from reading the same stories to her! ;)

By: Ann

Ann

In reply to Joanna. I have the same question about books! Also art supplies...my kids do some form of art every day, but it creates an absolute mess! Thanks!!

By: Nanci

Nanci

Thanks for the nice article, The categories of toys to include is incredibly helpful. Thank you

By: Adriane Thompson

Adriane Thompson

I LOVE the idea about sorting into categories. We did The Great Toy Purge last year and it was amazing! Now before any new toy enters our house, we really think long and hard. The toy rotation thing has been hard for us because we don’t have anywhere for them to go. Any suggestions? I grew up in PA so things like this just went in the basement! Now that I’m in AZ, we have no basement and with three dirt bikes in the garage and two cars, and any other little bit of storage we need for decorations, there’s no space left.

By: Becca

Becca

This is such a great and thorough post. I’ve been interested in doing this but wasn’t sure how to go about it. I love that you’ve given a specific plan and even printable! Thank you!

By: Lynnea

Lynnea

This is an awesome post, thanks for all the wonderful information and ideas. I recently started toy rotation for my kids and love it! I have a question though. One of our themes is “princess/Disney.” What would you suggest putting in the bin for my son for that theme?? I love the themes, my kids do too. But struggling on that one! Any ideas?

By: Amanda

Amanda

We did this in my family growing up, and it was great for us! I love how it made us appreciate the toys we had without needing to expand the entire collection when we needed something new. Like a capsule wardrobe, but for toys!

By: Erika @ www.newparentproject.com

Erika @ www.newparentproject.com

I absolutely love this idea! When my little one is old enough to have a bunch of toys, I am definitely going to try this out!! :) Thanks for sharing!

By: bella marin

bella marin

This is so genius and has worked so well for my family! thank you so much

By: Joanna

Joanna

Hi Kelly,
Thank you so much for the detailed process and description of how to move our toys into a toy rotation. I had the toy rotation talk with my 4 year old and hope to start the gathering and sorting process this weekend. I do wonder what your thoughts are on books. I love books and was an avid reader as a child. That is probably the reason why we have soooo many books geared towards kids. Do you but books in a rotation too or do you have a library area/reading nook in your home?

Thanks!
Joanna

By: Kimberly

Kimberly

Hi, what do you suggest for when your kids have guests over to play. My 2 girls have 5 cousins, 3 of which living within walking distance. The house becomes insane after they all visit with toys spread everywhere and something always ends up missing for a few weeks. Would you bring out an extra rotation box when there are more kids? Or would you just see if they could make due with the one on rotation?

By: Myriam

Myriam

Is there an email i could reach out for to ask specific questions? I want to follow this guide but I want someone to guide me to make sure im doing it right. Help! Playtime is a nightmare here!

By: Myriam

Myriam

Is there an email i could reach out to for specific questions? I want to follow this guide but have someone make sure im doing it right. Playtime is a nightmare here!

By: Mary

Mary

You are awesome for making this article. The categories of toys to include is incredibly helpful. Thank you!!

By: Kelly Holmes

Kelly Holmes

In reply to Tania. Hi Tania, great question! The older the child, the more toys they can handle having out at one time. So if your kids are older, you might aim for fewer toy collections with more toys in each one. But with that said, big kids get overwhelmed too and can definitely benefit from toy rotation. :-) My almost 11-year-old has told me she loves our toy "library" as she calls it. She said she used to feel like all our toys were boring, but now when we get out a new toy collection, she'll say, "Oh I totally forgot we had this!" I've heard from other parents with older kids that they still do the toy rotation and love it, too. Hope that helps!

By: Kelly Holmes

Kelly Holmes

In reply to Sarah Dowell. Ah, I know that feeling well! My first stab at tackling toy rotation involved a big black garbage bag that sat in *our* basement for months. Oops. So glad you're feeling re-inspired! :-)