The holidays are full of joy, gift-giving, and, inevitably, an influx of new toys. While the excitement of new presents brings a lot of cheer, it can also leave your home feeling cluttered and chaotic. The end of the year is a perfect opportunity to declutter, organize toys, and invite your children to help you during this process. 

You don’t have to do this all on your own. By teaching children how to declutter and organize, you are modeling and encouraging useful skills they can carry with them for life. Decluttering toys after the holidays helps restore order to your space and creates an opportunity to teach kids the value of giving and letting go. 

This blog explores practical and mindful ways to simplify your children’s toy collection, making room for what truly sparks joy and creativity.

In this blog post: 

• Teaching children how to declutter
• Toy storage strategies after the holidays
• 8 best toy organization ideas for kids

Teaching children how to declutter

As a parent, it is easy to look at toy storage and organization as the parent’s job. However, organization is a life skill that children can be invited into. Children, even at a young age, can become a meaningful and useful part of this process. 

In The Original Home School Series, Charlotte Mason writes: “The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children.”

The more we empower children to take responsibility in the home, the more we develop their sense of ownership in the home and role within the family. We can encourage children to be capable and useful members of the home, and it can have a long-lasting impact on them. After the holidays, ask children to help sort toys, select toys they no longer need, let go of items, and store them. 

Here are some ideas to involve children in decluttering and toy organization:

1. Create a dialogue. Work together and discuss which toys your children love and which they no longer prefer. Ask questions like: Do you still like to play with this toy? Does this toy still work properly? Do you know of any other friends who would love to play with this toy? Encourage them to think about the needs of others by suggesting that even though they enjoyed playing with these toys, they could also bring someone else joy. (The Joy of Giving is a sweet book that touches on this.) If a child insists on keeping something, respect their opinion and keep that item. They may surprise you and want to get rid of something else instead. 
2. Set a timer. As you work, engage children for set amounts of time like 5-20 minutes and work through this process slowly. Do not pressure yourself to do it all in one afternoon. Work though one area, bin, or room at a time until you have made some progress, and then return to it later. 
3. Sort, pare down, and assess the amount of toys in your home. Ask children to help separate items by type or size. Once you see all of the toys in one group, see if there are any duplicates you could pass on to others or donate. Remove any damaged or broken toys that no longer work. Set aside any toys you can repair or need replacement batteries. By involving kids in this process, they will learn how to manage their belongings and create a functioning space.

Related: 100 Life Skills to Intentionally Teach Your Children

Toy storage strategies after the holidays

If you are looking at overflowing bins and piles of new toys, here are some strategies to get started.

1. Go through everything. Decluttering is the first step to getting organized. Go through each bin, basket, and pile of toys in your home. Take each basket and dump it out on the floor. Remove any trash or broken items. Set duplicates in a different pile. Put items they not longer play with or have aged out of in a different group to sort out later. Make time to go through every single object in order to pare down the items in your home. Involve your children as you go through this process. Consider that items can be donated, sold, or recycled. 
2. Purge unneeded toys. Explain that if we aren’t using these toys, we can give them to someone else who needs them or will love them. 
3. Organize by type. As you begin to sort and declutter, begin to put items in piles or bins separated by type. You can separate Magnatiles, LEGO, baby dolls, art supplies, and more. Doing this will help you take inventory of what you have and also assess what type of containers everything will fit into when you are finished. Children are great at separating by type and can be a big help here. 
4. Rotate toys. One thing that can help is to pare down what toys children have access to. Rotating toys helps simplify choices and prevent overwhlem during playtime. Use large storage containers and put excess toys away for short periods of time. Then, in a few weeks, swap out the toys and let children play with different onces instead.
5. Make items readily available (or not). Declutter your space by setting some items out of reach. Reserve projects with lots of small pieces or messy materials for times when you ready for your children to play with them. Make some toys accessible by keeping them at eye level where children can select and get them out independently, but store items you don’t always want out on a higher shelf so children will need your permission first.
6. Create a system. Encourage responsibility by asking children to put up one toy set before getting out another. This helps children learn how to clean up after themselves, and also helps them to take care of their space. 

Related: Homeschool Room Tour and Setup Ideas and 15 Homeschool Planning and Organization Ideas for the New Year

8 best toy organization ideas for kids 

Here are some of my favorite items for organizing and storing children’s toys. 

1. Acrylic bins. Acrylic bins make toys easy to see and look cute in a kid’s room or play area.
2. Storage bins with lids. Store, stack, and tuck away bins of sorted items or things your children don’t need access to all the time in storage bins with lids.
3. Craft organizers. Organize papers, stickers, markers, and pens with a cart on wheels that can store all of your kid’s favorite art supplies. I also love a caddy to set on the table or a craft bin with a lid to keep in a closet.
4. LEGO mat and storage bin. This is a genius organizer for kids who love LEGO or other small toys. When they are finished playing, just pull the drawstring for easy cleanup.
5. Zipper pouches. Zipper pouches are perfect for storing board games or other small items. 
6. Dress up rack. Hang and display all of your children’s favorite dress up clothes on this cute clothing rack.
7. Picture ledges. Hang a shelf to display favorite children’s books or other items your children love. I love this cute scalloped shelf for kid’s spaces.
8. Shelving and storage cabinets. If you need to re-think your space, a new shelf or a storage cabinet can be a huge help. Montessori shelves are nice for displaying toys, and I love these locker cabinets for tucking things out of sight. These are items I love to thrift or find on Facebook Marketplace.

Related: Best Educational Board and Card Games for Kids and Families

View all of my favorite toy organization items on Amazon. Share your favorite tips and tricks for organizing kid’s toys in the comments below.