10 Minute Challenge: Toy Organization

I’ve started giving myself 10 minute challenges. I set my timer for 10 minutes and tackle a household chore while my children are having a snack or lunch. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in only 10 minutes when you focus on the task. The 10 minute challenge is a weekly feature on Mommies with Cents. Each week, I will show you one of the things I was able to accomplish in 10 minutes. I encourage you to join me- it really easy amazing what you are able to achieve, even if it’s incremental, if you set your mind (and timer!) to it!

With a December birthday plus Christmas, it feels like toys have overtaken our home.  I haven’t perfected toy organization and I probably never will.  It changes and evolves as the toys breed & multiply (I swear they do!)  Since Christmas I have already changed things several times.  It helps to have bins in different sizes with lids.  My son who is 3 got a lot of toys with little pieces and we are learning to play with one toy at a time and clean it up before we move on to the next one.  The kids got a train table for Christmas.  It didn’t have any storage drawers but we are using the space underneath for storage and it’s working out pretty well.  My two year old daughter tends to make a huge mess of stuff and lately it has just been moved to the hallway so she can’t get to it from the playroom.  This is what my hall looked like this morning:

I reorganized some bins and put puzzles into a new larger box that I just bought.  Then I put them under the train table:

This is a picture of everything that I managed to get under there- 5 bins and 2 buckets of stuff with a little bit of space left over:

This way my oldest can ask to get out a certain toy that he wants to play with while my 2 year old leaves the bins alone (mostly).  Going for the “out of sight, out of mind” effect.  What I really need is a cabinet or closet with a lock on it.  I’m thinking about saving my swagbucks up for one!

I’d love to hear ways you manage your time at home with kids. Please share your tips with me and our other readers by leaving a comment, then come back next week for another 10 minute challenge!