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Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity

ByLauren
16 Comments

How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but one day the kids’ toys will be out of your house, and you’ll miss it.

Or maybe you won’t. I dunno. I’m not you. But I know I will a little bit.

I won’t miss the clutter or the visual overwhelm of the bright multicolored plastic tossed all over our floors. But I’ll miss all it stands for: our little ones’ ages of innocence.

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

Wait a sec… playroom reality shot:

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

Okay, that’s better. 😉

(Proof those baskets don’t always stay looking perfect. Messes = little minds learning… remember that.)

Back when Olivia was just a toddler though, we started this one “toy rule” that helped a TON with cutting down on the clutter and helping her sleep better and carving out a space that encouraged peace.

And it was completely by accident.

No toys in the kids’ bedrooms.

I wouldn’t really even call it a “rule”. It’s just a way of living we’ve stuck to the past 7 years.

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

The result?

  • Because our kids don’t have any toys in their rooms, they feel less stimulated and less anxious.
  • Because our kids don’t have any toys in their rooms, it communicates that this is a place for sleep and rest during bedtime and naps.
  • Because our kids don’t have any toys in their rooms, they’re not tempted to play when what they really need is just a little time out.

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

To be fair, our kids have books in their rooms, and Olivia has a little trunk of dress-up clothes. We let them take toys to their rooms sometimes but the toys don’t “live” there, so to speak, and they end up right back in our living room toy basket or in the playroom when they’re finished.

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

I can’t even tell you how much it helps our children rest and recharge and escape from the visual “noise” and for the same reason why eliminating television in the bedroom promotes better sleep.

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

It’s what works for us, and I know it’s not for everybody.

But if your kiddo constantly seems anxious and overwhelmed or has difficulty sleeping, it is totally worth trying.

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

That’s pretty much all of the parenting tips you’ll get from this blog because we’re far from perfect and stick to the DIY/decorating. 😉

Do you do anything to make your kids’ rooms places of peace? Or have any tricks you use to cut down on the toy overwhelm?

Our Toy Rule That Saves Our Sanity | How we promote peace, encourage sleep, and decrease anxiety in our kids with one little boundary about toys + how we help keep toys organized.

Here are a few other ideas too, if it helps:

Also… I’m taking over Apartment Therapy’s Instagram Stories today to give a quick tour of our playroom! Come say hi!

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16 Comments

  2. Even though we never had a separate playroom with our four children, my husband and I followed the same nightly expectations of having a clean bedroom before going to bed. It was a routine that was established early with the first child. We had a daily schedule that the children knew. All four continue with similar schedules today. Being a former SPED teacher, children need to learn at an early age about routines and expectations. Visual clutter does impact young persons. Thank you for writing this post. Brought back precious memories.

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  3. That playroom is just amazing!! How I would have loved that as a child.
    We don’t have kids, but now that you’ve mentioned this “toy rule”, it reminded me of how we grew up.
    I guess from the time we were born, my mother never put toys in the bedroom, and as we grew into toddlers, we just knew that toys didn’t go in the bedroom. They went in the playroom. We had a basement room and all the toys lived there.
    We Had books and our favourite stuffed animal in our rooms.
    And, if we wanted to play with LEGO, or an etch a sketch, or colouring books, we could bring that one thing in the living room, but never a bunch of toys. I think if you start right at the beginning this way the kids just know that toys don’t go in the bedroom.
    Just wanted to share the perspective of growing up with way.

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  5. I needed this post! I cannot wait to try it this weekend…I have been trying to figure out what to do with our bonus room and this is IT! Thank you!

    Reply