Decluttering and Storing Toddler Toys

It's amazing the stuff you accumulate when you have a baby. We've really tried to limit the baby paraphernalia but as Max has grown I've realised it's nearly impossible. Plus when we spend a lot of time at home, it is nice to have a variety of activities and toys on hand for him to play with. If he was at daycare he'd have access to other children and activities. 

I do believe in the power of boredom to stimulate imagination and creativity but that will become more important as he gets a little older. Now, he's looking for the stimulation provided by a variety of interesting and different things to learn from. How does the world work, what happens if I throw this, what does that do, how do these things relate to each other and myself? 

While he loves to play with the kitchen utensils and find out what's in the bathroom drawers just as much as he loves to push a toy car around, I've noticed that Max is ready for more stimulation, including rules and boundaries.

If I ask him not to touch something, he will put his finger out to reach for it and look at my face to see my reaction. I'll explain to him again not to touch it, give him a reason why and an alternative activity and he seems to be satisfied to leave the item alone. At least for that moment! Honeys water bowl is too irresistible for him though!

It's time to rearrange our home a little and come up with some storage solutions. I'm going to try out a book and toy rotation system for his room. I'll need to get a little book case (I've got my eye on this one) and some boxes for his existing shelves along with some boxes for the shelves in the spare room for the toys that are 'off rotation'. 

As a minimalist I try to live by the idea that having less stuff is better than having more storage. So making the decision to increase our available storage has been one I've put off!

However, minimalism is meant to provide a flexible framework for living rather than a rigid set of principles. It's meant to feel inspiring and freeing. And having children in your home is also meant to bring joy, not anxiety and stress about keeping your home to an exacting standard to be a 'good' minimalist. 

So. Like many houses, we have multiples of the ever popular square shelving from IKEA. I have a little one in his room which currently holds his books and a large one in our spare room, which had a whole lot of old paperwork and junk we didn't have another spot for. So it will be easy to set up. 

Ive just finished going through the various paperwork, consolidating the important documents and discarding the rest of it. There are 16 spaces in the large one and now I have 10 spaces free to put some boxes in.  It's actually going to look a lot neater and more inviting anyway so it's been a cleansing process!

Once I've got it all set up, I'll do a video of how I went about it and the end result.  

Stay tuned! Rachelle x