Toy Rotation: A Complete Guide and It’s Benefits
Do you easily get overwhelmed by the amount of toys your child has? Are you tired of stepping on toys that seemingly never have a place?
Have you started plotting toy murder? If you answered yes to any of these, you NEED to start a toy rotation.
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What is toy rotation you might ask?
It’s exactly as it sounds. Instead of letting your child have free-reign of all his or her toys, you put some away and rotate them out every day or week depending on what you decide.
What I like to do is rotate out every couple of days different containers of toys.
Why would you want to start a toy rotation?
Another question you might have is why start a toy rotation. Well, let me give you a look at some of the AMAZING benefits:
- Less Clutter
- Prevent meltdowns caused by overstimulation
- Keep Parents Sane
1. Less clutter
Conquering clutter can be a full time job especially as a parent to toddlers. It is as if you have a walking tornado following you when you clean.
One of the benefits of toy rotation is that you have less clutter. If your child is only able to have a few toys at a time, there won’t be nearly as much messes as before.
2. Prevent a meltdown of overstimulation
When kids are young, they have a tendency to get overwhelmed by too much stuff whether its toys/people/options and that’s when it becomes meltdown city.
This is why the next benefits of toy rotation is that it helps prevent said meltdowns. Again, toy rotation limits the amount of toys a child can play with at a given time, and this can help a child who might be easily overwhelmed by too much.
3. Keeps parents sane
As parents, we all know those toys that seemingly drive us bonkers. One of the last benefits of toy rotation is that it keeps us parents sane.
This is because you control what toys are allowed and when, so the noisy toy that your loved one gave to him/her can still be played with, but in moderation. (Side note: I was that relative before I had kids…so Karma got even).
Another way it keeps parents sane is that it keeps parents from walking on a minefield of toys. I am a big fan of having my child clean up after herself, but apparently she isn’t. 😉
The Complete How-To to Start a Toy Rotation
So, your next question is probably…well how do I start a toy rotation?
There are a few things you will want to round up before starting. These include storage containers, and labels.
I personally like a storage container for toy rotation that is big enough to hold a decent amount of toys, but not large enough that you are again overwhelming your little one.
Then, you will want to label the storage containers with days. I like to label Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and weekend (Friday-Sunday).
You could just as easily rotate out once a week if the daily rotation doesn’t suit you.
That’s all there is to it! You will be so happy you started a toy rotation because not only will it feel like a weight off your shoulders, it will also help your child too!
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