WFMW: Rotating Toys

Today's Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family is the "Mom, I'm Bored" summer edition. One of the ways I've been staving off boredom in my girls lately is by rotating their toys.

I had heard this advice before, but I just started to follow it, and so far I'm very pleased with the results. Old toys seem new again after being put away for a while, and it reduces the clutter and mess in my living room at any one time. It's also been a good opportunity to remove broken toys or random odds and ends and just straighten up the toy area.

I didn't really feel that my older daughter has an excessive number of toys, but I was interested to find that when I reduced the number of toys out she actually plays better with the ones available. And of course, this saves me from buying new toys whenever the girls seem bored with what they normally play.

Here are the before and after pictures for this month's rotation:

For now I'm trying to rotate the toys at the beginning of each month. That seems like long enough to make the toys that come back out exciting again. When I brought out her Little People airplane a few days ago after a month in the closet, my daughter was so excited and has been playing with it since.

This strategy is especially important for us since we don't have a playroom, so the girls just play in the living room. Controlling the number of toys that are out keeps the area a lot calmer for everyone!