Written by Shay Gabriel

Twas the night after Christmas when all through the house,
The toys were a-clutter ‘round me and my spouse.
Bins had been placed in each room with care,
In hopes that the children would place their toys there.
The sweet babes were nestled all snug in our chests
As we looked ‘round in stress at the mess of our nest.
Mama unshowered and Dada so sleepy,
Our unsettled minds began to grow weepy.
When all of a sudden a thought brought some cheer –
An idea for keeping toys managed all year!
Away from the window I flew with a flash,
To try my idea for the toys and their stash;
Long shelves lining walls from way high to down low,
Where the lustre of toys out of rotation would glow.
When, what to my wondering eyes would appear,
A child with fresh eyes for the toys resting here.
With only a small set scattered ‘round while in play,
We could maximize interest and minimize dismay.
Yes, that’s it, a toy rotation’s the trick –
We’ll all feel the glee of ol’ jolly Saint Nick!

Do you relate to that mixed bag of thankfulness and overwhelm upon receiving an influx of gifted toys? A solution to toys piling up around the home, throughout the holidays and beyond: Toy rotation!

You know that burst of excitement a child has upon receiving a new toy? They dive in, play hard, get lost in their own imagination…until an hour or a day or a week later, they’re over it. Well, it turns out there’s a cure for that, too: Toy rotation!

Cue the choir! Toyyyy ro-ta-tion. Toyyyy ro-ta-tion. Oh to sing the praises of toy rotation and how it has impacted our family home.

Truly, I can’t speak highly enough about the benefits of toy rotation for our family. It’s helped us prevent clutter and chaos, minimize tidying time, make tidying actually feel attainable for the whole family… We’re better able to keep sets together, keep toys from going missing… It encourages a renewed sense of interest and creativity in our kids as their minds continue to develop and change…and the list goes on. I love having a toy rotation in our home, and I daresay, so do our kids.

In fact, it’s like Christmas all over again when they rediscover a toy that’s been out of rotation for awhile!

WHAT IS A TOY ROTATION?

A toy rotation is a system for organizing toys so that only a select few are accessible for play at any given time (in other words, “in rotation”); the rest remain organized and out of reach (“out of rotation”). It is the opposite of tossing toys into a giant toy box in the middle of the room — the system I was most familiar with before becoming a parent myself.

How often you swap out the toys and which toys to swap is a matter of preference. I like to follow my children’s lead on this. I used to set a weekly reminder in my phone, but now it’s second nature to swap out toys as I notice they’re going under-used or as my oldest requests something she wants out of storage and back into rotation.

HOW DO I SET UP A TOY ROTATION?

There are many ways to go about creating your own toy rotation system – I’ll share what works for us!

Identify where you’ll place the toys that are “in rotation.”
Prepare a storage system for toys that are “out of rotation.” I recommend a system that allows you to easily see and swap toys in and out of rotation.
Gather a set of small bins for any toy sets that need to stick together (e.g. all those alphabet puzzle pieces, building blocks, bead threading set…). You’ll want the bins to be practical for placement both in and out of rotation. The simpler the system, the better, if you ask me!

In our own home, we’ve designated a single 6-cube cubby shelf in the playroom for any toys that are currently “in rotation.” Six cubes means six toys/toy sets — and if that doesn’t sound like much, I encourage you to dump the parts and pieces of six toy sets onto the floor and reconsider. (I had to reconsider, myself, since I originally had two 6-cube bookcases.) At least for now, a 6-cube shelf works great for us and our two infants! If you’ve ever seen a Montessori style shelf, it looks like that – toys neatly displayed, contained, and accessible. This also means toys that are easily put away, kept together, and swappable! We also keep plushies in the playroom; they get their own designated basket for easy tossing when we feel the need to tidy up (we like to play “basketball” for a fun and easy way to get the toddler involved!)

For toys that are “out of rotation,” I’ve built a two-track shelving system on a wall inside a room that remains locked. That’s where we place self-contained toys (e.g. a piggy bank that holds its own coins, a tool box that stores its own tools) and toy sets that are placed in bins. I also have a few designated baskets and large bins for storing the following specific toy categories: cars, dollhouse play, dress-up, and, wait for it – all the random sshhhhhtuff that comes from who knows where and threatens to control your entire house if you don’t control it first! (Aka an ultimate motivator to start a toy rotation system.)

SOME THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATIONS

Consider the child’s preferences. The purpose of our family’s toy rotation is multi-fold, and part of the intention is to observe which toys our children are actively engaging with and which ones have become “uninteresting” for the time being. We are very careful not to take a toy out of rotation if it is still regularly being played with. But if we notice that a toy has remained untouched for a few days, we might swap it out for something new. I often involve our oldest, a nearly-4-year-old, in this process. That might sound a little like this: “Which toys do you want to keep out in the playroom right now? Are you comfortable with me putting this toy away for a little bit, and we can take it out the next time you’d like to play with it?”

Less clutter, let clutter. I think it’s also important to note that what looks like clutter to an adult might be intentional for a child at play. For example, I recently began to tidy up a blanket and pillows strewn about on the sofa; my toddler intervened with tears – I hadn’t known that the set-up was a campsite for a favorite plush doll, so I apologized. Having a toy rotation actually helps us to embrace this concept – there is so much less clutter overall, so when the toys that are currently in rotation are strewn about alongside blankets and pillows, it doesn’t read to our parental brains as unmanageable chaos the way it once had.

Stay the course (a kind disclaimer, from experience): If your child is old enough to notice the newly-implemented toy system behind the usually-locked door, surprise! This room just became their favorite place in the house. For the first few weeks of our new toy rotation system, my toddler regularly asked to go inside the storage space. She loved that she could see all of her toys neatly aligned in one place — and I couldn’t blame her. I just stayed the course, acknowledged her requests to swap in a toy she wanted to play with, and eventually the newness wore off. The benefits of the toy rotation, however? They’ve stood the test of time!

An exception to the rule (because there are no rules): As I mentioned earlier, we keep baskets and bins for certain categories of toys stored in the closed-off space (e.g. dollhouse items). Such toys are usually “out of rotation” and only come out to play on an as-requested or as-inspired basis. For example, my toddler might ask to play with her dollhouse, and I’ll set her up with a safe space away from baby sister. We’ll pull out the dollhouse items, and when it’s clear they’re no longer being played with or my toddler gives me the green light, we’ll tidy up the dollhouse items and store them back in the locked room. The goal for us is not to prevent our children from playing with toys they’d like to play with — it’s to make that more manageable.

give it a go!

Have you implemented a toy rotation in your own home? Tell us about it! How is yours set up? Any tried and true tips? Share your thoughts with us here or on social media — we love hearing from you!

Shay Gabriel is a content creator at Sprout and Blossom whose love of parenthood and psychology has merged into a super-obsession of all things birthy, baby, & beyond. She believes an informed experience lends to an empowered experience, no matter where you are along the perinatal or parenting journey.

The Joy of Toy Rotation: A Solution for Clutter 'Round the Holidays & Beyond

WHAT IS A TOY ROTATION?

HOW DO I SET UP A TOY ROTATION?

SOME THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATIONS

give it a go!

SPROUT AND BLOSSOM, LLC