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Written by

Roxanne Albert, BSN, RNC-OB

Toy Rotation: 4 Steps

  • Uncategorized
My journey introducing toy rotation into our lives!
My journey introducing toy rotation into our lives!

Toy Rotation

I had heard of toy rotation for many years before we introduced it this year, 2022, but was hesitant to do it myself. 

I constantly asked myself:

  • Where do I even start?***
  • All those bins would get confusing and expensive.
  • What if I can’t do it right?
  • What if I put away a toy they want to play with?
  • What if I keep out a toy they don’t like because i didn’t pay attention to them close enough?
  • How often do you rotate? Can you rotate too often? not often enough?
  • Wouldn’t more toys be better because they have more options??
  • Isn’t this just a part of parenthood? Cleaning up after your kids forever.
 

The biggest question that kept me from starting was Where do I even start? The idea of even starting just seemed soooo overwhelming. 

Final Straw

What finally convinced me was when we were cleaning up toys for the 5th night in a row after the kids were asleep.
 
We noticed that they were preferring certain toys, but they had to search for those toys through the boxes!!
 
They were just throwing the toys around to find the ones they wanted. Which was the reason for the mess!
 
This is when we finally purchased the LOVEVERY Montessori Playshelf to start the process.

Our Steps

We broke it down into steps that made the whole process more manageable for us.

  1. Research and buy Playshelf and storage bins
  2. Sort through current toys & books
  3. Start Rotation
  4. Adjust Rotation

  1. Research and buy Playshelf and storage bins

Step 1 was buying a playshelf because we didn’t have one. We were just using our fireplace shelf but needed a better system.

We wanted a shelf that had two levels, and fit a certain dimension. We also wanted to get something that was real wood so that it would last YEARS! The Lovevery Montessori Playshelf and a Sprout kids playshelf fit out requirements! We liked both and I wish I could have ordered both haha but what pulled me towards the Lovevery were two things

  1. It was in stock and available to purchase haha
  2. It has the storage bin in the back for easy rotating!
 
The storage bins was now easier knowing the Lovevery shelf came with a storage area and some bins. All we needed were a few storage bins to put away bigger toys that didn’t fit in the storage area. We grabbed these from Lowes.
 
We also love the Wovewood baskets from Sprout for organizing and sorting toys! They are made from wood and are easy to assemble! Use Code: MAMASTEFIT for 10% off Sprout Kids

2. Sort through current toys & books

This is the one I was DREADING the most!! I had become more attached to certain toys because they use to like them, or they did a cute thing with it one time. The toys had a sentimental value…but the kids did not play with it anymore.

My husband was a huge help in getting rid of toys! He is the reasonable one who would say they haven’t played with that in months, or that is a toy for a baby. 

So we made piles of toys and books for:

  • Trash
  • Donate
  • Keep but put away
  • Keep and put out now

Trash

These were broken or extremely dirty and unsalvageable toys. This is also where the toys we got from the 50 cent bin or in birthday party favor bags went.

This was the easiest to sort through haha

Donate

This is where toys went that were in good condition but the kids either didn’t play with it anymore, didn’t show interest in playing with it even when we played with it, or was meant for a certain age the kids had outgrown. 

At the time we were doing this our we had agreed we were done having kids, so no need to keep baby toys. 

Keep but put away

This is where toys the kids play with a lot, but just no recently. Some of their Lovevery play kit toys that they would occasionally play with but not as much went in this category. Or if we had multiples in the same category – such as gas, we have a TON of car toys. So I would only put some of the car toys out and the rest were put away. 

Keep and put out now

I tried to keep this to 6-8 toys/categories. Let me tell you though, this was HARD! This was also what took me the longest to figure out.

I started with more at first and my husband had to go through after me and take more out.

Why isn’t there a service that comes to your house and does this for you haha 

3. Start Rotation

Now that we did all the prep work, we put the toys that we decided to keep and put out now into the shelf! (After assembling it of course).

I noticed the benefits almost immediately too! Which is crazy. 

  • Less toys everywhere which decreased my anxiety about cleaning
  • It took way less time to clean!!
  • The kids were more occupied with the toys and played with them more intentionally

4. Adjust Rotation

This is a continual step for the next million years (haha). Always adjusting and rotating the toys that are out for the kids to play with. 

I do have to pay attention to the toys that they are gravitating to, and what things they seem to be more interested in during the day to help with my next rotation. It’s not as much work though as I thought it would be! I try to do it every week or so. I just ask, have they play with this this week? if yes I keep it out, if no I rotate it out! 

The hard part does come when we get our next Lovevery Play kits in the mail! I have to let them play with the toys to see which ones they like at first, then I remove some to rotate later. 

Work in Progress Always

This process is an ongoing thing, when we get presents I have to adjust and fight the urge to leave all the toys out.

OR

I have to fight the urge to keep all the toys, even though when I rotated them out the kids did not play with it. I have to constantly assess if it’s time to trash or donate toys. 

But I have to say, my life has significantly improved with toy rotation!

  • I am less stressed about the messes and clutter.
  • My husband is less stressed from me being stressed haha.
  • My kids are more entertained and will independently play for longer than before!

If you have considered toy rotation, take this as your sign to DO IT!!!