Womb to Bloom - Maternity & Beyond

At first, your baby will most likely not have that many toys, so organizing them will be easy. A few stuffed animals in a basket and some rattles or teethers in a small tote, and you’re set. Do keep small toys in a tote with handles so that you can carry them easily from room to room as you set up playmats in different places for your baby’s tummy time.

As time passes, your baby will acquire new toys to develop more complex skills. This is the time when you need to figure out how you will organize your nursery or playroom so that you don’t lose control from the start and end up with stacks of toys and books tumbling onto your head from all directions like the contents of Fibber McGee’s closet.

A fine way to make toys safely accessible, reduce clutter, and empower your baby to make explorations on his or her own is to set up low bookcases along a couple of the walls in your nursery (or playroom, if your baby has another designated space for play). Use brackets or straps to secure these bookcases to the wall so that they will not tumble over onto your baby once he or she starts pulling up and climbing onto things.

Next, invest in a set of storage containers. You might pick up woven baskets either at full price from baby stores such as Pottery Barn Kids or The Land of Nod or at highly discounted prices from stores such as T.J. Maxx’s HomeGoods store or the clearance aisle at Cost Plus World Market. Discounted wooden serving dishes, salad bowls, and platters also make safe and interesting toy containers (and those with compartments can be used for educational sorting games later!). Or you could get canvas totes from baby stores such as Babies ‘R Us or buybuy Baby or from household goods stores such as Bed, Bath, and Beyond or Linens-N-Things.

Perhaps you want all your storage containers to be matchy-matchy and fit a particular color scheme. Or perhaps you’ll pick up containers in a variety of materials and sizes and use them based on which store a particular item the best. For example, a long wicker bread tray can hold perfectly a small library of tiny Dr. Seuss board books. And a wooden salad bowl is a fun way to hold a collection of hand-sized colored wooden balls. A tote is a good container for grouping a set of toys that are the same, such as blocks or various rattles.

Not all toys need to be put into containers. Stand-alone toys such as ring stackers, pull toys, or toy xylophones can be set by themselves on a shelf where they are easily accessible and pretty to look at. And some toys should be rotated in and out. If your baby has received from friends and relatives enough stuffed animals to populate several zoos, store the bulk of these in a large, laundry basket-sized tote or hamper in the closet or in a toy hammock suspended in a corner of the room. Then keep only a few at a time down where your baby can reach them. In fact, if you have too many of any kind of toy, keep the extras stored neatly in the closet in clear plastic totes (The Container Store has an excellent and fairly inexpensive modular line) and bring only a few out at a time.

When arranging toys on the bookcases, think about your baby’s safety once he or she is pulling to a stand and reaching up for things. Place heavier items on bottom shelves so your baby only has to slide them an inch or two down onto the floor to play with them. Baskets and trays of lighter objects such as toy vehicles, fabric books, and teethers can be stored on the higher shelves.

From the beginning, model for your baby how to put toys neatly away when play is done. Sometimes it is fun to get lots of toys out at once, and you don’t want to interrupt your baby when he or she is investigating several toys one after another, so don’t enforce the rule yet that one thing must be put away before another is taken out. Once play is over, however, cheerfully put things away, perhaps even singing the Barney Clean Up song to reinforce the point that we should all clean things up.

Once your baby has mastered picking up objects and transferring them from hand to hand, help your baby put a few things away each time you play. Toward the end of his or her first year, your baby will develop a keen interest in putting small objects in a container, so be sure to encourage that skill as much as you can. Of course, he or she will also enjoy then dumping everything right back out on the floor!

Most importantly of all, be flexible. Switch storage containers around if you get a new toy that would be better stored in a container you’re already using for another toy. Pack away immediately toys your baby seems tired of, and be sure to bring out “new” toys at least once every couple of weeks. At the same time, keep the toys that are out at any time stored consistently in the same places to develop your baby’s sense of order. By following these few suggestions, you and your baby can enjoy hours and hours of fun, yet organized, playtime.