Birthdays and Christmas may bring new toys into the home and difficult decisions on where to store them. However, being ruthless with older toys is a critical step in bringing toy storage under control. Our mini assignments to create and manage a ‘toy’ outbox were inspired by the Apartment Therapy.
Step 1
Create an Outbox
Evaluate every toy in the home and allocate some to an “outbox”. Some newer toys may not yet be age appropriate, older toys may be broken or have missing pieces. If you have very young children, remember to keep the toys out of sight so they don’t remove anything during the process. Older children can be encouraged to participate in the process. No final decisions on the toys in the outbox yet, think of it as a staging area.
Step 2
Your Outbox part II
On to the art and craft supplies- send dried-up markers, crayon bits and empty glue bottles straight to the garbage. Place any unused items in the outbox. For books and CDs/DVDs here’s what you may consider sending to the Outbox:
• Needs cleaning or repair
• Multiples
• Too young (your child has outgrown it)
• Too old (it's good to have books that are a little bit too difficult for your child but if it's going to be years before they're ready, put it in the Outbox)
• Not favorites
Step 3
Clean, Repair, Recycle, Sell, Store, Give away or Trash- the final phase
Go through your outbox for toys that need washing, wiping or an all around refreshing. Torn books that your child likes can be re-glued or taped if possible. We’ve compiled links on cleaning up inked dolls, matted hair, bent or broken parts, stuffed toys and more:
http://babytoolkit.blogspot.com/2007/12/clear-unsightly-blemishes-case-of.html
http://www.huggies.com/en-US/articles/newbaby/playing/how-to-clean-baby-toys
http://beafunmum.com/2012/09/how-to-untangle-barbie-hair/
http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/more-techniques/cleaning-toys-00100000064932/index.html
Time to make a final decision on the remaining toys. What will you end up keeping and storing, sell or donate to someone else or send to the recycling bin?
Step 4
Be inspired
Now that you’ve completed your editing, you will need to consider how the remaining toys will be stored and organised. We’ve created an inspiration and product gallery of toy organisation just for you here.