12 Steps on How to Declutter Toys
How do you feel when you say ‘toys’ out loud? Does it conjure an image in your mind of joyful playtime? Or does it lead to an immediate sense of panic and overwhelm because toys seem to be taking over your home?! In my experience as an organiser, clients often feel like they have lost control over the toys in their home. And this comes down to a number of reasons:
We’ve bought too many over the years and have been unable to invest the time to go through them to consistently declutter and keep on top of the volume of toys, unable to establish the baseline amount that works for us.
We’ve been given too many toys over the years from well-meaning relatives and friends as presents, or through hand-me-downs.
We’ve attended too many birthday parties and received our body weight in plastic tat that often finds it’s way into party bags (destined to remain forever in our homes because our children become so attached to that annoying little unicorn that poos out playdough - sound familiar?!)
Whatever the reason we have let toys take over our lives and homes, it’s time to do something about it. And I can think of no better time to start working on this category with 5 weeks until Christmas, because let’s face it, we all know that the next influx of new toys is coming very soon…
Let me guide you through some strategies on how to declutter toys. Depending on the age of your children, it’s up to you whether you think it’s best to involve your mini people in the process or not. I’d recommend completing what I call a ‘wave 1 check’ first if your children are 8 years old or younger, or if you have a significant amount of toys (this means you go through their toy collection without them meaning: you have great focus and you protect your children from the overwhelm and extensive decision-making). Just create a separate pile of toys for them to consider if you come across an item that you think they will miss.
STARTING TIP: Never invest in any storage solutions until you’ve completed your sorting/discarding. Joy check everything first. Know what you have, then consider if storage is necessary.
Here are my steps to decluttering toys / your playroom:
1. Find the rubbish first. This is an effective way to start if you’re facing a particularly threatening environment of toys strewn everywhere! Grab two bags - one for general waste and another for recycling. It’s surprising how easy it is to fill these bags with packaging, broken toy boxes, bits of random broken plastic etc. You’ll start to see more of the playroom floor in no time!
Start the decluttering process easily by focusing on collecting rubbish/recycling…
Do you really need to keep the old battered Lego boxes that have nothing in them?…
Client AF - playroom before
Client AF - playroom after
2. Sit down, pause for a few minutes, close your eyes and create a vision. How do you want to feel in this space? How do you what it to function? How to you want your children to feel? How do you want them to function with the items in this space? Creating an ideal toy area / playroom vision in your mind will act as your motivator and guide your through the next steps. The stronger the vision, the higher the success rate.
3. Subcategorise. It’s impossible to make decisions about what stays / goes until you’re faced with all of the toys in one category. I refer to this part as the ‘divide’ portion of ‘divide and conquer’. Don’t make any decisions on what’s staying or going just yet until you have divided the toys into their separate piles/categories. Here is a helpful toy subcategory list to use as you sort the toys, but feel free to add your own subcategories as you go along:
Splitting up the toys into piles allows you to see how much you have in each subcategory and provides a sense of awareness over what your accumulation points are. For example, if your daughter has 70 Barbie dolls, this may be a toy to avoid buying, or allowing others to buy her as a gift in the future.
4. Make your choices on what stays following a criteria / a set of questions. Is the toy age appropriate? Broken? No longer played with? Is it a fad toy (popular for a set period of time but something you know your child doesn’t like/play with anymore because they’ve moved on)? Go back to your vision: does this toy align with what you hope your playroom will look/feel like? Does it encourage the kind of playtime behaviours that make it a joyful place?
TIP: Remove the toys from their normal storage zone and put them in a different room to look at them from a fresh perspective…
Client HW - Toys taken out of cupboard…
Client HW - toy storage before
Client HW - toy storage after
5. Go through each subcategory (one at a time) until you feel like you’re left with items that satisfy your vision. At this stage, if there is anything you think your child(ren) will miss, make sure you assign these items to a separate pile where they can complete their own joy check on them later on. We do not want to abuse their trust in completing this process for them. If you think they will miss an item, ask about it or look for it later on, then it goes into their pile for them to make their choice. Their trust in you is precious. Also use your own knowledge of your children to allow you to make judgement calls on each toy. If you’re doing this process, it’s safe to say that it is to reduce the sense of overwhelm your family experiences in your home. Every item you pass on confidently, frees your child from the obligation of making a decision. The less decisions your child has to make, the less overwhelming the decluttering experience will be for them.
6. Organise! Once you have gone through all of the toy categories and completed your discarding and joy checking, you can now work on the organisational part of the process. It’s time to reassess what storage you have, and work on keeping like items together. No doubt you have freed up space and storage boxes/baskets now your joy checking is complete, so it’s time to repurpose your storage options to store items in each category together. For example, keep vehicles in one box, puzzles in one cupboard and Barbie dolls in a chest you emptied will make sure each category has a designated home (and also support your children in knowing where things go too - say hello to a blissful tidy-up time!).
Client AF - Toys joy checked, subcategorised, stored in boxes and ready to find their new home
Client JL - Toys stored following joy checks
Client AF - Toys ready for donation - and yes, she got them out of the house the same day as her decluttering session! Winning!
7. Depending on the age of your children, consider adding labels to boxes and/or drawers to help support them with tidy up time. Add pictures if your little ones are very young. In my experience, children as young as 18 months can begin to support tidying up routines.
8. Tour time! Show your children the new system and where everything is stored. This sounds simple but sometimes we assume children will know where to put things without showing them first. Remember: tidying up is a skill! Playing is a process and involves packing away, but children need this to be modelled to them with us as their teachers. For older children, get them to think about preparing for play date - do they want to invite their friends over to play with everything in a mess? As parents, we need to balance the need for their creativity and exploration with teaching our children how to respect their items, the spaces in their home, along with the values of the family, to make everyone feel calm.
9. Observe your hard work - does it match your vision that you set out with?
10. Get the items off to charity ASAP! Do you really want to be looking at those donation bags on Christmas Eve?! Enough said.
11. Celebrate your success! I know we’re all super busy but please take some time to recognise your achievement at going through the toy category. You didn’t procrastinate or leave it for someone else to do; instead, you took the tidying bull by the horns and completed a mammoth category! So please boil that kettle, pour that glass of wine, fill that bubble bath or book that spa day - whatever floats your boat to celebrate the one and only amazing decluttering champion that is you! I may have gone slightly overboard on this point, but I don’t think we celebrate our achievements enough, and it’s so important for our wellbeing for us to recognise when we’ve finished a significant task.
Client NG - toy rotation system established
Client GF - Toy Library established - with vertical storage for making items easily accessible
12. Maintaining the new tidy reality - It will come as no surprise to you that Mary Poppins will not be popping by to reset your hard decluttering work in this category. Like laundry and the dishes, keeping our toys under control is something we all need to stay on top of. Although you will never need to complete the above steps again in their entirety, you will need to revisit the toy category to check everything still has a home and to assess whether your toy categories are still at peace (not overspilling their designated spaces). You can mark a time in your calendar to revisit this area but I think a good rule of thumb is to reassess before birthdays, the Christmas holidays, summer holidays etc. or when things feel like they are getting slightly out of order. Please be assured, if you’re on top of it from now on, it will take less time to keep under control. Perhaps the process outlined in the steps above is enough of an experience to convince you from never letting things get out of control ever again!
TIP: Operate a toy rotation system (also known as a ‘toy library’) where you only allow a set number of toys out at one time. Then swap over the toys every couple of weeks or when your children get bored of the toys currently available. We’ve been doing this with Romeo and Hermione since they were very young and it still feels like Christmas Day when we do the swap over, as they get so excited about the toys they haven’t seen in a while!
Are you ready to declutter your toys? Let me know in the comments if you’re feeling inspired by this post! And if you have any questions, ask away. Good luck!
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