Toys: Divide and Conquer!

My husband has been complaining lately that the kids have too many toys and that toys are everywhere.  I don't want to get rid of toys as I know that Anna will play with them as she gets older.  Since I am on "Mission Organization" at our house, I thought I would tackle all the toys.

I went to the store with everyone else on a craze to get re-organized and bought three huge bins. I was smart and got the ones with the wheels!

I put them in the basement all in a row, so that I could easily put toys in them.  I gathered all the toys from upstairs, minus the new Christmas toys and piled them in laundry baskets.  I took the laundry baskets downstairs and started dividing up the toys. 

I made sure to each child had toys to play with in each bin.  Once the laundry baskets were empty, I started tackling the playroom.  This was a chore, but I knew it would be worth it.  First, I took toys off their shelving unit.  I kept only the toys I wanted them to play with for the next month.  All the rest of the toys were divided among the bins.

I continued around the room until I had the room organized and all three bins filled.  Then I tucked away the bins in our storage area. Now the kids have a smaller selection of toys to play with for this month. 

Next month I plan to grab a new bin, empty it into the playroom and fill it with the toys they have been playing with.  Hopefully, this will keep the kids entertained with the toys they have and also make them feel like Christmas at the beginning of each month.

Our playroom isn't as cluttered and I have a happy husband who isn't overwhelmed with toys.  That makes me happy as well!

Have you tried this before?  If so, did it work well? 

In what ways are you organizing your house for the New Year?