Your child more than likely has a progression to how he or she plays with toys during the day. Make note of this progression as this will be extremely beneficial information that will help simplify the organization process. The vital pieces of information here are which toys make a debut every day and at what time.

While you are at it, make note of toys that your child does not give a second glance at. This is yet another step that will help streamline the organization process.

When your child is not present, gather all toys and make three piles. The first one will be toys that the child loves, the second one will be toys the child seldom plays with and the third will be toys the child never plays with.

Once you have the toys sorted, place the last two piles into their boxes. As the week progresses, see if the child asks about any of the toys from either of these piles. If the child does not, then the toys should be donated or given away.

If the child does ask for the toy, then pull that specific toy out to keep, and donate or give away the rest. The first pile should be kept and should be further divided into the progression that your child plays with the toys.

Choose a home base for toys. If need be, you can have two areas for toys, so you can organize them by type of toy. For example, the bulk of toys can be kept in the child's bedroom. This has the added benefit of arranging it so that you have less of an area in which to pick up the toys.

Your child will likely stay in the area where the largest amount of toys is, and if he or she does wander it will be with one or two toys.

What this means for you is that at the end of the day there will be fewer toys distributed throughout the whole house.  

Have guidelines for how many toys can be out in the child's room. Children tend not to notice or care how their toys are kept as long as there are toys available. Setting boundaries or guidelines will not only help make life easier for you, but once those guidelines have been in place for a while you will notice that you have to clean up less daily.

Once you have your boundaries make sure to stick to them because the structure is beneficial for the child. If you set boundaries, and then abruptly stop enforcing them, that can irritate the child. This is because the child might not be able to find the toys they want and might not be clear on if it is okay to do anything about the situation. 

If your child is at an age-appropriate level, talk to the child and see what ideas they have on organizing. If they came up with the plan or helped come up with it they are more likely to adhere to it. This will make it easy for all parties involved. You might find that you are surprised by the ideas that your child suggests. It could be something that you would never have thought of, but makes a lot of sense and is the simplest solution.


Organizing your child's room does not have to be a painful process. Utilizing the tips above not only gets your child's room organized but keeps it organized. Some of the above tips will require you to invest time upfront. This is necessary so that you can invest less time in the future.