How to Declutter Toys

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Are you overwhelmed by the amount of toys in your home?

Do you need some help decluttering the floor, countertops, beds, and everywhere in between?

Like many items in the home, toys can quickly take over a space…seemingly in the blink of an eye!

That’s why it’s a good idea to have a practical, no-frills approach so you can easily decide what to keep, and what to toss.

In this post, I offer four simple tips to help you declutter toys in the home.

These basic tips are good for any type of toy, be it soft, hard, stationary, mobile, analog, or digital.

Declutter toys with broken parts.

Let’s face it, the average toy goes through a lot.

A toy is played with, adored, and sometimes even crashed, and smashed. It’s not unusual to find a toy with a broken part or two. Depending on the toy, a broken part could mean the difference between the toy functioning properly, to not functioning at all.

As such, it’s a wise idea to go through a toy collection and remove any items that have broken parts, or damaged beyond repair. Anything that’s overtly cracked, warped, bent, banged up, crooked, snapped, crushed, or smashed is probably a good candidate.

Another added bonus in removing broken toys from the home is that it can drastically reduce the chances of an accident or injury from the damaged toy in question.

Dispose or recycle toys with missing parts.

If a toy is missing a key component or more, be it door, limb, switch, flap, insert, piece or tab, the usefulness of the item is drastically reduced. Sure, small missing decorative pieces, such as a sticker, decal, or small embellishment, can be easily ignored, and the toy can continue to be used.

But when the main component to a toy is completely missing, however, such as a yoyo that is now only just a string and a finger loop, well, this pretty much renders the toy useless.

Consider rounding up toys whose key components have been missing for the better part of weeks, months, or possibly even years. These types of toys should be relatively easy to spot. The toys never seem to work or function properly, or are regularly abandoned or ignored.

Don’t just limit your search to singular toy items, consider removing jigsaw puzzles, board games, and other game sets that are severely lacking in key pieces or parts.

Remove forgotten or abandoned toys.

Does this sound familiar? What was once the favorite toy, has now been pushed aside and completely forgotten about. You know what they say: out of sight, out of mind.

Removing forgotten or abandoned toys can free up a whole lot of space in the home. Look at it this way: if a toy isn’t regularly used or played with, it’s just sitting around in the basement, den, living room, playroom, or bedroom, taking up precious space.

If you’re looking to reclaim some much-needed space in your home, it’s worth rounding up these toys and removing them.

Create storage locations for toys.

Lastly, one of the main problems with toy clutter is that toys don’t have a specific storage location in the home. No storage location means, you guessed it, toys end up wandering all over the home. It’s no wonder toy chests are so effective!

You can easily create your own storage locations for toys throughout the home. All it takes is a little bit of thought and planning. Large baskets can be used to contain toys in the bedroom, as can as shelves in a short, sturdy, bookcase in the living room, or smaller plastic containers with lids in the den.

You may even find it helpful to devote specific areas of each room for toy storage, such as an unused corner of the family room, children’s room, or bedroom.

How about you? Which of these tips resonated the most with you? What steps are you going to take to declutter toys in your home? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

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About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

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