Preventing Toy Overload: Keeping the Toys from Overtaking the Home

By Jacqueline Harris

You’ve seen them on some of the home redecorating shows—houses with toys strewn everywhere. Toys have the capacity to take over a home, creeping into every room and all over the yard. And now with the holidays just past, your children have no doubt received even more toys. But, have faith, keeping the toys from overtaking the house is not a difficult process. Here are some tips to bring your home back to order.

At major discount department stores like Target or Kmart, you can find large Tupperware chests to store toys. Plus, most of them come on wheels, which make the picking up of toys or storing the boxes even easier. You can find them in different colors and sizes, which can complement any child’s room.

You can also find hanging chests that can be hung on the wall of your child’s room--an ideal solution especially if the bedroom is small.

Now that you have all of the toys neatly stored, your next task is to rid the house of the old, outgrown or unwanted toys. But don’t do so without discussing with your children first which toys have to go. Then you can select the toys that are outgrown, disliked or broken and put them in a box for a local charity. Charity groups can often fix broken toys.

Often, as new, state-of-the-art or popular toys are received, kids quickly forget about the old ones. But even if they don’t seem to be playing with old toys, you don’t want to traumatize them by getting rid of toys without your child’s help in the decision process. (How many adults today remember coming home from school one day to find that their mothers gave away all their dolls, toy soldiers or trains without asking?)

Explain to your child the reasons for getting rid of old toys, and how doing so makes room for future toys.

Let your children help select their toy chests. You can find a few online or pick them out in stores. They will enjoy choosing the color and style they like. If you let them help in the process, they’ll be more inclined to help keep their toys organized and out of sight in their toy chests.