My in-laws just can't help buying huge toys to fit in my 850 sq ft apartment. Fortunately, half of them are collapsible this year.
So how do you rotate your toys? Do you have sets of toys that go together? How do you store them? How frequently do you rotate?
If you have more than one child, how do you manage the toy balance? Especially toys really only meant for one age?
clementine / 770 posts
No advice , I'm actually wondering the same thing! Most of our Christmas presents are currently hidden in the spare room...
coconut / 8472 posts
Every so often I gather up all of the toys that haven't been played with in recent memory and I put them in the guest room. When he's bored I'll break out a couple of things.
Generally though, I'm finding this isn't a great rotation strategy, it's better at identifying toys that need to go. Because a lot of the time they get played with out of novelty and then a day or two later he's lost interest again.
There are some blog posts here where people have done much more involved types of toy rotation. Usually involving categorizing the toys (like for example puzzles, building toys, art toys, etc) and rotating out an entire category. I personally do NOT have time for that 
.
persimmon / 1023 posts
The first time, I did separate his toys into categories and put 3 items from each category out and the rest away. Once I realized sorting them was time consuming and annoying, I just got a big bin and put all the old stuff in it and put the new Xmas gifts out. DS plays much better when there's less out so right now he has a train track, tea set, duplo blocks, a few cars, a puzzle, some stuffies and lots of books. He seems to stop interacting as much with his toys after about 6 weeks, so then I will take those items away and bring out 5-6 more from the big bin downstairs. I also have art stuff like paint and play doh in the closet ready to go if he's really bored or we can't go outside much. I try to have one big pretend play thing at a time (rotate dollhouse and play kitchen, etc)
grape / 87 posts
I took so many holiday gifts back. I feel a little guilty, but he just has so many toys. Sometimes I just exchange them for books or nice wooden puzzles, but we are overwhelmed. I've decided to stop holding back books and clothes I buy him for xmas and his birthday so he has fewer things to open.
clementine / 756 posts
We have one of those cube storage things from IKEA that holds all his toys in the living room. We just bought a couple extra cubes and keep those in storage. Initially, I did try to divide up toys that are similar into the "out" bins vs the "in" bins. But since I jut switch between the two, I don't have to do that over and over. So, once a month or so we'll just switch out the cubes and it's super easy.
persimmon / 1310 posts
My daughter seems overwhelmed when there are too many toys available. Plus mess! So I use a montessori-style display and rotating of items. I'm not strict about it, but I generally try to have one or two things from each category available. Each has it's own basket on the shelf, which allows her to see what's available without dumping stuff (amazingly it works!). We rotate about every three weeks or whenever she seems bored. The extras stay in my master closet.
nectarine / 2460 posts
The main console in our living room has 4 large cubbies at DS's height. 1 is always for books and 1 is for "out" toys. The other 2 cubbies have big baskets where I keep the "hidden" toys. Whenever I think of it I swap out a basket for the out toys. I tried to make sure each basket has a variety (1 puzzle, 1 art, 1 thing with letters, etc). It works well for the most part except when DS is really bored he'll get into the closed off baskets....
pomelo / 5084 posts
@codeitall: This is by no means a "system," but I keep all my DS's toys in his closet and literally pull out 3-4 for a week or two, then shove those back in the closet and put out a few different items, etc. Ha!
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