Toy Sorter - FREE PDF

It’s the beginning of the year and “a good purge” is on every aspiring neat-freak’s mind. Today we’re focusing on toy sorting. My biggest piece of advice to you is this: do not sort toys in front of your children. There will be tears (mostly theirs). Battles will be lost (mostly by you). 

Depending on the age and maturity of your kids, I think it’s a great idea to have them “help” with some of it. Sometimes I’ll pull 3-5 toys aside and ask the boys for their input. Explain to them that there are boys and girls who don’t have many toys and we’re going to give some of our toys to them. (Note: I don’t ask if they want to give/share toys. What if they say no? This is a parent-directed activity and I’m telling you what we’re doing.) Then I ask, “of these toys which ONE do you want to keep?” If your kid is like my oldest, the answer will be “all of them.” If I sense a tug-of-war starting, I choose a toy to keep and say “I think this is the toy you use the most. Is this the one you want to keep?” I wouldn’t spend more than 5 minutes on this. Keep it going, keep moving forward. Stick to your guns- only keep one toy. 

When you’re using the Toy Sorter Flow Chart, there are pictures for the possible destinations for the toys. Here’s a helpful key, as well as a few tips. 

Trash: For toys that are missing pieces and don’t function.

Storage: If you plan on having more kids, save money by saving toys! But also save your sanity by getting them up and away so you don’t have to look at them all the time. Storage also includes two "wild card" categories that, honestly, I try to avoid. 

Toy Rotations: Y’all, I tried this. I tried so hard. It’s not for us. If you have the time to sort toys monthly and the storage space to store twice as many toys as you need, go for it. If you’re trying so hard to do toy rotations and you haven’t rotated the toys in 3 or more months or if you’re struggling with storage space, this is me giving you permission to stop now. 

Purgatory: If you’re on the fence about a toy, put it in purgatory. Without your child knowing, put the toy away - completely out of sight out of mind. If after a month your child hasn’t missed the toy then donate it. If they notice immediately AND keep asking for it over a period of a few weeks, keep it.

Sentimental: The most precious and special of toys can find a forever home in a special box. We’re talking Andy-level toys. Not Slinky-dog or Rex. 

Donate: Everything else. (Side note: give yourself permission to get rid of the toys that you HATE. It’s your home, you’re the gatekeeper and you’re allowed to make decisions that preserve your sanity.)

Keep: When you decide which toys to keep, the first consideration should be your budget. Not financial budget, but your space budget. Just like you designate a certain amount of your monthly finances to entertainment, designate a certain portion of your home to toys. Before you decide how many toys to keep you need to clearly designate certain toy spots in your home, otherwise the toys will overtake your house. The home is yours, not your child’s: you decide where toys go and where toys do not go. Be the boss girl of your house. From there, I use this Toy Sorter flow chart to decide which toys to keep and which to get rid of. 

Click HERE to download the Toy Sorter flow chart, and happy sorting!