Rotating Toys = Mommy Sanity

I don't know about you but our family has acquired enough toys that rotating them has become necessary or we would look like a Toys R Us store.  Don't get me wrong, we purge, donate and throw away toys that are not played with or broken all the time. We just happen to have a big generous family who loves to buy our kids prizes.

 Welcome to our family room, don't be fooled by these pics, its almost never this clean.  This is the room in our house that is dedicated to our kids and their stuff.  I don't stress about it always being picked up or the room being spotless because it's meant for them and their stuff.  When toys migrate down to the kitchen or living room I make sure that it gets back upstairs so I can keep my sanity and have at least one area free of toys and clutter.

So let's talk rotating toys. I rotate toys at the beginning of the month because that it what works for me.  I have a big storage bin that holds the small toys that aren't out that month.   HB loves this day so he ended up in most of the pics.

The process of rotating toys is messy but don't worry the end result is a less cluttered space for you and your kids so keep the end goal in mind when your house looks like this.

Because I have a child that gets overwhelmed with to many choices I also rotate our kids DVDs each month.  Sometimes he asks for a movie that is put away and I tell him that it isn't out right now but we can remember to keep it out next month and he has always been fine with that.

This is a before pic of the movies we had out for March.



Here is what we put out after.  Notice that "Cars" and "Cars 2" are staying out?  I make sure to pay attention to what phase he is in at that point and right now its Cars so if I put it away I will be asked about it multiple times so its just easier to leave them out.

We also have several big items that I rotate.  The ones that are in storage fit under our clothes in mine and hubs closet or in HB's closet.  This month the easel got put away along with the basket of cars under it

and the tent came out.  After this pic I put a blanket and pillow down in there and some of his stuffed animals hang inside the tent for the month along with whatever else he puts in there himself.

Also, when I move these big things I will vacuum under them before putting something else in its place because I know that I am going to be to lazy to move them when I vacuum each week.

Tool Box went away

to make room for drums.

This shelf was home to a "Cars" swirly race track toy and a bead maze. We are keeping HB's Veggie Tales Pirate Ship and the cookie monster toss game there.

I try to have one type of each toy out so when the train track and trains went away the Car's race track came out. See what I mean?  Both track style transportation toys and if they were both out only one would be the favorite that month anyways. I always keep one of these bings for miscelaneous toys.

Little Peoples Zoo went away and the "Toy Story" toys came out...not sure where most of them were for this photo shoot.

He has several big trucks like these so he chooses two at a time to keep out.

Dinasours almost always stay out because he plays with them often and they don't take up much room.

Lego's went away and blocks came out.

"Car's" characters stayed out for a second month because he just added to this collection on his birthday so they are still a newer toy.  He has way more than these but he tends to have one with  him at all times so they get spread out.

And, what is this??? Could it be??? an empty basket which I'm sure will be filled up by the time you read this post.

What are your tips and tricks? Do you rotate toys?  Do you have a designated space like a toy room for your kids to play in?