Sorting through the chaos

Sometimes it seems the kids’ toys are taking over your house, but it doesn’t have to be this way, writes Jessica Kramer

Growing up in a family of nine, feeling like the house was more toy store than sanctuary was a common experience. As the eldest – and with a 10- to 17-year gap between myself and the other children – I was privy to a lot of the organisational conversations the adults of the household had and consequently picked up several tips.

Most of the kids are now all grown up, but lucky for us these strategies have stuck and now we can use them in our own households.

Here are just a couple we’ve found handy over the years:

Making toys seasonal

Whether you’ve got one child or seven, toys accumulate almost as quickly as the kids lose interest in them. The solution to this was dividing the toys into two or three groups and leaving only one group out to be played with.

The other one or two groups of toys would be stored away, out of sight, until the kids got bored with their current group – or the seasons changed, whichever was sooner – and then, voila! new toys.

This strategy is particularly good while children are young enough to have limited memory past a few months, as then the toy swap becomes almost as exciting as Christmas.

Intuitive sorting

Ah, Lego – the delight of children, the bane for parents. Keeping track of all those little pieces that are essential to build the finished set is almost as painful as stepping on a Lego in the middle of the night … but not quite.

When it comes to storing Lego, building blocks, marbles, and other toys that include myriad pieces or you just have a large collection, trust your gut. Observe your child playing with the items and how they organise themselves – do they look for a piece based on colour, or shape, or another factor? Understanding how your kid’s brain works in this way will inform how you store them.

For example, you might store your Lego based on colour for your first child and then when their sibling grows up and starts playing with it you might switch to storing by finished set.

Sacrifice aesthetic where needed

No, that row of clear storage boxes doesn’t match with the carefully curated lounge room, but it does mean little Timmy can see the toys he’s searching for without opening and tipping out every box and basket (though, let’s be honest, he may very well do that anyway).

When you go shopping for extra storage solutions, also keep in mind that they’ll need to be easy to open for little hands, and sturdy enough to stand some sitting, standing or stamping on without collapsing (or able to be fixed to a wall to avoid falling over when it’s inevitably climbed up).

You may also like to consider clear containers or ones with open tops so the children can see what’s in them at a glance.