Help Your Children Keep Their Rooms Clean with Toy Rotation!

I think it is pretty safe to say that I am not alone in my struggles to have my child keep her room clean.  There are a few times where I felt I was on the brink of just taking all her toys away for a little while.  We have been using a book rotation for awhile and it has been great so I decided to take the leap and apply the same idea to our toys!



When I worked at a preschool, we rotated the toys every couple of weeks to keep things interesting for the kids.  For one two week period we might have magnets, large plastic blocks and safari animals.  The next two weeks it could be magnifying glasses and things from outside, wooden blocks and farm animals.  Of course we would have more than three toys out at once but you get the idea.  It helped draw the kids attention to toys they might not have originally gravitated towards because they were "new" and exciting.

My goals with this new system are:

• Even if she has everything out at once, it shouldn't take her more than about 15 minutes to clean it all up by herself.
• Hopefully, it will draw her attention to some awesome but neglected toys when they are out on the shelf.
• To keep me from completely losing it and taking all her toys away! 

So far, C and I are both thrilled with the set up.  She now only has one bookcase for toy storage and everything has to fit on it comfortable in bins.  She also will always have her dollhouse, books and a selection of her stuffed animals.  

For her first rotation she chose to have:

•  House pretend play (includes: food, dishes, home related dress up).  These items are in the bins on the top shelf. 
• Small princess dolls and small blocks are the second shelf.  This shelf also houses books that are too large for her fabric book storage.
• Geoboard, farm animals and musical instruments on the bottom shelf.  I allowed her to have the bus next the shelves since it is so large 

The doll house will always stay out.  She plays with it regularly and it is too large to store!

Her bean bag, books and stuffed animals are near each other so she can snuggle up and read.  The green couch actually folds out to become her bed.  For months C would get out of bed and sleep on the floor because she said it was comfortable.  We tried to find ways to convince her to sleep in her bed but we finally gave in and got her something that lays flat on the floor.  I figure it is better to get her something comfortable than have her just on the carpet!  If she ever changes her mind, we will get the bed back out. 

I know we need to do some decorating on the walls but at least it is nice and clean!  The rest of her toys are stored in her closet.  She has so much stuff!  We have donated a lot to Goodwill the last couple of months but we still had a lot to store.  I labeled the bins so we can easily find what we are looking for when it is time to switch.

The rest of her toys are on the top shelves in her closet.  The stuffed animal bag is creeping me out a bit, maybe I should turn it so I can't see any eyes!

My next project is to get her books more organized.  I feel like it takes us forever to find the book we are looking for!  

Do you think toy rotation might work for your family?  Do you have any tips for helping kids keep their rooms clean?  I would love to hear from you in the comments below!  Thank you so much for visiting Joy Focused Learning!

~Angela

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