If you have ever been to my house, and I am sure most of you haven’t, you would know that we have two, large, beautiful (in my opinion) toy rooms. Yes, two. No, I am not crazy. No, my kids aren’t spoiled with an over abundance of toys. It might seems a little excessive to have two toy rooms but we had the space and I really didn’t feel like buying any more furniture so we went ahead and designated two spaces in our home official toy rooms.

Our first toy room is on the second level of our home. It is the larger of the two toy rooms and it is also where I keep my desk and desktop computer. It works great because while I am trying to write or edit photographs, the kids can play and still be near me. This toy room is where we keep a majority of our toys.

Our second toy room is on the third level of our home with the kids bedrooms and it is actually more of a loft type space. This toy room is use for our larger toys like Carter’s play kitchen, her doll house and Monroe’s tool bench.

Now at this point you might be thinking, how in the world can any mom keep her head on straight with that much to keep clean? Well I am going to walk you through 5 easy steps to keeping your toy room clean and organized. Side note, you do not need all of the space we have to keep things organized, we did this same thing with in our toys in our tiny 900 sq/ft apartment and it worked just the same.

How To: Keep Your Toy Room Organized

Step One: Storage, Storage, Storage

I can’t tell you how important it is to have a designated storage spot for each toy or at least each type of toy you own. We have a wire rack for our puzzles, a basket for our crayons and markers, an ikea bin for our car collection and a rubbermaid bin for our Mr. Potato Head parts. Like I said, a specific spot for every toy. It doesn’t matter if you want to store things in zip lock bags or bins from ikea, give every toy a specific spot to be stored.

Step Two: Keep Toys in Working Condition

I joke around with people and tell them I keep inventory of our toys but in reality, I’m not joking. I really do keep inventory of our toys and when a piece goes missing, I write down exactly what is missing. If I haven’t found the piece after a few weeks, its bye bye toy. There is just no point to keeping half working toys around. Do you have a wooden pizza with only five pieces when it should have six or a tea set with four saucers but only three cups? Ditch the pizza, ditch the tea set.

Step Three: Buy Quality Toys

Buying quality toys means buying wooden toys, like a Melissa and Doug play food and toys that you can continually add to, like Legos or a Thomas train set. One, these toys have longevity and foster creativity and imagination. Plastic toys with batteries generally only have a few functions and those one or two functions will get old pretty fast. Two, quality toys are usually pretty enough to use as toy room decor and don’t all have to be hidden away. Decor that can be played with is always a plus in a home with small children. Three, you won’t have to deal with step two as much when you have good quality toys.

Step Four: Update Toys Regularly

I rotate toys out pretty often our home. I would say every 6 months, I go through and clean out the toys that the kids have grown out of, the toys that are more for babies than for preschoolers or toys that are no longer played with and get neglected. This part is always hardest on me because I don’t like to think about my kids growing up and moving on, but it must be done.

Step Five: Take Pride in the Play Space

I love to host playdates because I love our toy rooms. I love the way they look, I love that I can offer good quality toys that work and have all of their pieces. Kids don’t have to dump out an entire toy box in search of one tiny piece to a puzzle or that missing tea cup. I also love that I can let kids go wild. They can turn the place into a level ten disaster, but because of how organized I keep it, it really only takes 15 minutes tops to clean. Maybe some day when my kids are older, I’ll grow up too and take pride in an adult part of the house but for now I am so happy that I can offer my kids an amazing place to play, learn, and explore.

Clear eyes, full heats, can’t lose.

The post How To: Keep Your Toy Room Organized appeared first on The Glaze Brigade | Official Blog.