When I was pregnant with my daughter Mae, I was recalling memories of my childhood. I grew up in a family with six kids and I remembered having so many toys between all of us. My mom was and always has been a hard-working woman and prioritized decluttering but, it was hard. There was always a birthday, holiday, or another occasion bringing toys into our home. We were not the only ones to struggle with this. As Carly Dauch says” The growth in the toy industry has resulted in an increase in the number of toys in the average home, this could present persistent distraction, influencing the quality of toddler play.” As the oldest, I saw how overwhelming cleaning and decluttering these toys was for my mother and I wanted to find a potential solution. I self-identify as a messy person that gets stressed around clutter (I’m my own worst enemy). I was looking for a solution that would not only help me keep my child’s play area clean, encourage my children to clean, and help me manage my stress.
I discovered the concept of toy rotation; the idea that children and parents benefit from an environment where instead of being all out at once, toys are carefully selected and put out in more manageable quantities. When children loose interest in a toy, the toy is rotated out and replaced with a toy the child hasn’t seen in a while. Through my research I have learned about more benefits of this technique then just having a more manageable play space for your kids.
Keeping a Calm Space
I have often had difficulty in keeping my living place clean because I am a natural collector and accumulate clutter very quickly. One thing that has helped me with this is toy rotation because I spend less time cleaning every day when there are less toys out. It also keeps things simpler for your children to participate in keeping things clean because it is harder to be overwhelmed and not know where to start. One fellow blogger, Lauren Tingey remarked “When your home is neat and tidy you will be able to relax and stop feeling like you always have to clean.” This is one way toy rotation has benefited me.
More Space to Play
With less toys out at a time there is more space for kids to be kids. Lauren Tingey stated, ” They need space for all of (their) activities, and if their bedroom or playroom is full of toys it will actually prohibit them from what they need to do to develop as a whole child.” Children can become easily frustrated if there isn’t enough room for them to play and causes more negative behaviors.
Easier to Stay Focused and Foster Creativity
In a journal published by Elsevier was a description of an experiment in which two groups of three-year-old children were put in a room with four toys or a room with sixteen toys. The children that were in a room with four toys played for longer durations of time and played with the toys in a greater variety of ways. “This suggests that when provided with fewer toys in the environment, toddlers engage in longer periods of play with a single toy, allowing better focus to explore and play more creatively.” (Carly Dauch)
Conclusion
The point of this post is not to tell parents to buy less toys for their kids or to not give gifts to their children. My goal is to help parents become aware to the fact that having all the toys out at once is not helping them or their children and to encourage them to find a way to organize toys in a way that is more manageable.
Citations
10 Benefits of Toy Rotation & Having Fewer Toys | Simply Well Balanced (simply-well-balanced.com)
The influence of the number of toys in the environment on toddlers’ play – ScienceDirect
An abundance of toys can curb kids’ creativity and focus | Science News