Toy Rotation and storage

Do you have too many toys in the house? Well you may have too many or maybe they just need to be organized so their not out all the time. We have found that if all of the kids toys are always accessible to them, they don't seem to play with them as much. So we decided to organized all of our toys in Rubbermaid containers and label them (see pictures below). Some toys are just hard to store because they are so big. So we just did what we could to have some order.

The thing I love about this, is my kids know they only can have one box of toys down at a time. Before we get another box down the other one has to be cleaned up. Even the friends kids are great about choosing a box and then picking it up. The other thing I love about this is they get so excited about a toy they have forgotten about, and one box can entertain for a long time.

We do have some toys that always stay down. These toys get rotated as well within the other toys. The other thing I also don't like is a lot of toys in the kids room. I love to have them play in their room but I have them take a box a toys and play in their room and then when their done it gets put away. They have a hard enough time keeping their clothes picked up. If they always had a lot of toys stored in their room, I'm not sure I would want that battle. Plus I don't like them playing with toys when they are having quiet time/nap time.

When birthdays and Christmas come and we get more toys, I go through and organize again. If I can't find a place for toy, we have a toy donation day when my kids find some toys they don't play with anymore and we give them to charity or our church nursery. I am always surprised at what toys they pick and that it's not a big deal for them. I just snapped these so you can get an visual idea of what I'm talking about. Do you have a way you keep your toys that you and your kids love? Please share! This is only one idea.

This is the area that always has toys in it. It's down low so the kids can get them at all times. Some of these toys get rotated with others when I think the kids have lost interest in them.
These cupboards are in our laundry room. The buckets fit perfectly on the shelves. We have a box with just baby toys, and one with cars and trucks, we also have a character bucket with a lot of McDonald's toys, dinosaurs, animals, and such.
More buckets with labels, little people farm, play dough, marbles, games, magna cars.

P.S. If you haven't voted on last weeks post, do it now you still have time.