How to Minimize and Organize Kids Toys

Ideas to keep your kids’ toys organized and store them effectively.

Do your kids’ toys feel completely out of control? Like, are your house and furniture getting buried under toys your kids only played with for 2 seconds? I have an 18 month old and I already know how that feels. Over the past few months, I’ve been noticing trends in how he plays and decided to make a few tweaks.

With that in mind, I want to share some tips and tricks to how I keep his toys organized so they’re not overruling my house. Let me show you!

Declutter the Kids’ Toys

Purge some toys.

I don’t want you to buy any tubs or storage bins until you declutter the toys. What does this mean? Likely, you have some shelving, boxes, or bins with toys that haven’t been played with in 3+ months. Likely, those toys are hanging out in your living room or play room.

Evaluate the toys: Was it a favorite? Is it large and cumbersome? Sort your toys into 3 piles: Favorites, Useful & Creative, Donate. Keep the toys that are/were favorites and those that spark creativity for your children. Donate the rest!

How many kids toys should you store?

If a toy hasn’t been played with in over 3 months, then it should either be donated or stored elsewhere. Once Griffin outgrew all of his baby toys, I got one SMALL storage tub and packed away all the baby toys that he no longer uses. Since we’re having more kids, I don’t want to get rid of them yet.

I emphasize one small storage tub because a baby doesn’t need tubs upon tubs of toys. I recommend only having one tub of toys per age range. So, toys for 0-1, 1-3, 3-5, and 5+.

organizing kids toys for minimalists
The bottom two tubs are clothes from 0-12 months and the small tub on top + extras are all the 0-12 month toys we’ve kept.

When it comes to kids’ toys, less is more. Kids easily suffer from decision fatigue, so if there are less options to play with, they’re actually likely to have better quality of play. I see this every day with Griffin – if all of his toys are put away, he plays much better than if there are 10 toys already on the floor. With so many options, he can’t choose what to play with.

If a toy is super annoying, get rid of it now. You don’t need that negativity in your life, mama!

So, only leave out your kids’ favorite toys. You can always rotate out for ones that are packed away, but limit their choices and see how their quality of play improves. And only keep one “rotation box,” which doubles as your storage container.

Hide the Toys in Plain Sight

I can’t repeat this enough: Don’t let your living room look like a play room. It’s okay to leave their favorite toys out, but make sure that everything has a place and it’s not overrunning your living room. I found this dresser (below) locally and we painted it white. It houses all of Griffin’s toys. He knows they’re in there, so he can easily get out whatever he wants to play with.

When he’s done, we put them back! And when he’s in the right mood (lol, toddlers), he helps us, too!

ideas to store kids toys

I see heaps of moms who have overflowing baskets of toys in their living room. They feel like they’re drowning in all the kids toys because they are. Listen: It’s okay to keep toys in the living room, just make sure you can hide them in plain sight. How?

Put a Lid on it

Make sure any containers you use to store toys have a properly fitting lid. This will help keep kids toys hidden while also ensuring your containers don’t get so full that they’re overflowing.

Don’t use clear plastic containers

Kids toys don’t really fit with your decor, do they? Probably not. Try to find fabric or colored containers that fit with your decor so you can’t see them when they’re stored away. This will “camouflage” the kids toys so they’re out of sight and out of mind.

If you have a dedicated area for the kids to play that’s not in your living room, then it’s fine to use clear containers. Just make sure that your living space isn’t overrun with kids toys. Got it?! 🙂

It’s so nice being able to chill in our living room without seeing kids toys everywhere. We get to remember that it’s an adult space, too!

How do you store kids toys?

I’d love to hear your strategies! Leave me a comment and let me know!

Pin these kids toys storage ideas later!

the key to store and organize kids toys

2 thoughts on “How to Minimize and Organize Kids Toys”

  1. Pingback: 36 Amazing Homeschool Room Ideas That Encourage Learning

  2. I liked the dresser that you use to keep your toddler’s toys in. It easily blends in with the room, the kid knows his toys are in there, and it’s easy to put things back when needed. I have an unused decorative chest in my room. I’ll bring it to the living room so my son can use it to store his diecast cars.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *