Spring Cleaning Tips
March 21, 2016
10 Quick Ways to Tidy up the Playroom
#1. Rotate Toys
Most children these days have an excess of toys and if the playroom is too packed, there will be no room to play, so inevitably the mess moves to other rooms!
Our top tip is to rotate toys. Take half the toys and put them in the attic, after 6 months take those out and put away the other half. It is like getting new toys every 6 months!
Don’t forget to remove batteries from toys before putting them into storage. Waste batteries can be easily recycled at your local shop in blue WEEE Ireland battery boxes or local recycling centre. Recycling through WEEE Ireland will also help raise much needed funds for LauraLynn, Ireland’s Children’s Hospice.
#2. Storage Boxes
My particular favourite. I bought a storage unit with large plastic boxes, pink and purple in our house, but you can get them in a variety of colours. The girls and I grouped their toys together and added them to the boxes. We have one for art, one for dolls etc.
The rule is you have to put back the toys into the correct box before you empty the next one. It works most of the time anyway! And the top of the unit is just the right height for their dolls house, with a bit of room left over for colouring on too.
#3. Get the Kids Involved
One Mum awards points to her kids for each section of the playroom that they tidy up. She turns it into a treasure hunt, with rewards hidden in the mess so the children are eager to be the first to find the treasure! Ingenious.
#4. Do a Toy Cull
I find this is best done when the kids are not around as they never ever want to get rid of their toys. Although it is great if you can get them in the habit of giving a few bits away to charity every so often so they get an understanding of helping others who may not have as much as they do.
They also don’t mind giving them to their younger cousins as they know they will still get to play with them when they visit their house.
New to me was recycling of broken toys – I was able to recycle the electronic toys at my recycling centre where access is also free for this kind of waste. (You can find your local recycling centre listed here.)
#5. Have a Tidy Up the Playroom Race!
Ok so one of our Mums has admitted that she used to sing the William Tell Overture and her kids had to tidy up the playroom before she finished singing! (Bonus points if you can guess which of the Mykidstime team that was, names in the comments box below!)
Joking aside, this is actually a really quick and fun way to tidy up the playroom and if your singing voice is not up to much, you can always break out the cd player or get the kids to sing or whistle as they work! Or use an egg timer.
#6. Use the Walls
Once the kids get to school artwork starts to come home in abundance. Instead of trying to store it in folders and on shelves, celebrate it by decorating the playroom walls in your child’s artwork. Blutac will hold most of their precious masterpieces in place and as new pieces come in get the kids to decide what comes off the wall to accommodate it!
#7. Have a place for everything
This will help to tidy up the playroom and keep it looking neat. And if children get used to each toy having a special place, they will automatically put that toy back to the that place when they have finished playing with it.
#8. Turn Tidying Up into a Game
Be clever with the games you choose and the kids won’t even realise they are tidying up. We play who can make the rooms in the dolls house look best. Or who can sort the Lego pieces into colours fastest. Or who can fit the most dolls in a box. Kids are competitive by nature so they enjoy trying to beat their siblings.
#9. Use a Rug or Toy Tidy Mat
Before your kids start to play put a rug on the floor. Then when they have finished playing and it is time to tidy up the playroom, everything can be gathered up quickly and put away.
Or you could purchase a toy tidy mat from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com, which are designed to gather all the toys up easily and quickly after play.
#10. Do a Little Every Day
Try to tidy up a little bit every day. Maybe pick a different set of toys or books to organise and this will help keep the playroom tidy.