Rotating Toys Part 1: Organizing toys into bins

When I was fresh out of college, I heard about a study that was done on school children.  It basically stated that when learning toys/manipulatives were in organized containers and when everything had a place, children were less disruptive and more on task than when things are disorganized and toys/manipulatives were all over the place.

This had a profound impact on how I taught and now how I am raising my daughter.  A has a few shelves that are her own that house her toys.  We have LOTS of toys, but only a few are out at a time.  This is how I go about keeping things organized.

1.  I took all of A's toys out of her room and sorted them into piles: stuffed animals, dolls, cloth books, stacking toys, shape sorters, etc.

2.  I lined up five Sterilite 30 qt. containers along the hallway.  (I chose these simply based on size)

3.  I would place one item from each pile into each bin.  If I didn't have enough sorters, for example, I'd just substitute something else I had.  I continued doing this until the bins were full.  If there were items that had pieces, I'd label a plastic baggie and put the pieces in that.

4.  I had a lot of dolls/stuffed animals, so after I had put one of each in the bins, I made a separate bin to house those things.  I also had a lot of puzzles as well as bigger toys that do not fit into the bins.  I made a separate bin for puzzles too.  The big toys are either stored in the closet or in a big tub behind A's glider.

Tomorrow:  Step two--labeling and storing bins