Toy rotation has been amazing for our little family, both in keeping our living room under control and in maintaining Calvin’s interest in his toys, rather than buying him new ones to keep him interested.
I first heard about toy rotation when I was pregnant with Calvin. I was quickly and eagerly devouring every mommy blog and YouTube channel that I could get my hands on. My Pinterest board became nothing but baby related content. Toy rotation was something that really appealed to me because we don’t have a ton of space for baby items to be out in our home, so being able to have a small, designated play area that rotated entertainment sounded fabulous!
SO WHAT IS TOY ROTATION?
Toy rotation is exactly what it sounds like. You rotate your child’s toys between storage and the play area or room. The purpose of toy rotation is to constantly change your child’s play environment. It helps to keep them entertained for longer stretches of time, with fewer toys, when they are offered a select number to play with, rather than a plethora of toys in a chest. Even though a certain truck may have been on the shelf only two weeks ago, when you rotate it back in, the truck becomes new and exciting all over again.
HOW DO I PRACTICE THIS TECHNIQUE IN OUR HOME?
In our home, Calvin has a toy corner in the living room where we spend almost all of our time. If you would like a more detail look at his toy corner, head over to this post. Every 10-14 days or so (depending on Calvin’s mood and continued interest in his current toy options) I will rotate his toys. I take all of the toys, books, and stuffed animals off of his toy shelf and I spread them on my kitchen island. If there are any that he has really been enjoying recently, I’ll often leave them on the shelf for another week or two. If he’s playing with them, there’s no reason to stop him. But he’s often lost interest in the toys on the shelf and gets bored with them very quickly.
In my mind, I have the toy shelf split into sections. Each long shelf has three slots to be filled, stuffed animal slot, book slot, square shelf slot, and the optional slot on top of the long shelves. So when I am looking for new toys to put on the shelf I know I need: 1) books, 2) a stuffed animal, 3) a large toy for the square shelf, 4) six slots of baskets or toys, and 5) an optional toy on top of the shelves.
WHAT BENEFITS HAVE I NOTICED?
First and foremost, Calvin is much more entertained with his toys. I can usually tell when I need to swap them out because I will set him on the floor in front of them, he will play for a minute or two, and then he will be right back at my feet, begging me to entertain him. If I rotate his toys when I notice these signals, it’s like I got him a whole new set of things to play with.
Second, he will play with the toys on his own. Because the toy shelf is on the floor and everything is within his reach, he rarely (if ever) needs my help to get something to play with. It also allows me to put out toys that he is interested in and that are relevant to his development. (This is one reason I love the Lovevery kits so much).
Third, if there are a limited number of items on the shelf, there are a limited number of items for me to clean up at the end of the day. Cleaning up the toy corner is so easy because I know every item that should be there. It takes me five to then minutes to get the entire thing looking perfect.
HOW DO WE STORE THE TOYS THAT ARE OUT OF ROTATION?
We live in a two bedroom basement apartment. All of our storage space consists of the kitchen cabinets, pantry, under the bathroom sink, a built in bookshelf in Calvin’s room, and the closet in each bedroom. All of our clothes are in our closet, but all of Calvin’s clothes are in a dresser, so his closet has become our main storage room. But it’s really not much. It holds our decor, camping gear, crafting supplies, gift wrap, baby clothes, sentimental items, soap making supplies, souvenirs, pack n’ play, hiking gear, newborn supplies…it holds a lot of stuff. So trying to find somewhere for Calvin’s toys to go was a challenge.
I use the top shelves of the built in bookshelf in his room. I got several of the locker bins from the Dollar Tree, used some chalkboard stickers to label them, and I keep almost all of Calvin’s toys stored there. The only ones that don’t go there are stuffed animals and the toys from the Lovevery kits. I keep those toys on the shelves or in the boxes they came in so that I can keep the play kits partially organized for future kids to use and learn through.
WHERE SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR MORE INFORMATION?
I recommend checking out One Hundred Toys, Montessori Method, and But, First Coffee Blog for more information about toy rotation. Kallie (from But First, Coffee) is one of my personal favorite for all things motherhood, toddler parenting, and saving money. She runs a blog, YouTube channel, and Instagram account.
I also recommend just giving it a try! You may realize that for your family, rotation needs to be done at night while the kids are sleeping. Or maybe you only need to rotate once a month. Maybe you just need to rotate the location of the toys, but you can leave them all in the playroom. Maybe you just switch what room the toys are in (rotate all toys between bedroom, playroom, and living room). Maybe you only need to rotate toys in the winter when so much more time is spent indoors, but during the summer, playing outside occupies enough time that you don’t need to turn the indoor toys.
I’m excited to keep implementing this method as Calvin gets older, bigger, and smarter. I’m also excited for the day when we have a bit more space and I can dedicate more than a couple of shelves and a corner of our living room to his play. Thanks for reading!
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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