toys, toys, everywhere!

It's day four of Keeping it Simple, Sister! and we're talking about keeping it simple with kids.  The first thing I thought about was how to keep it simple with toys.

It's hard to even imagine that they were no toys in our house at one point.  Now toys are a daily part of our lives and that means keeping them put up as well!

I feel like we have more toys in our house than I ever meant to have, but we bought nearly all of them at yard sales or consignment stores and just couldn't turn down good deals.

Most of Elijah's toys are in his room...

But I actually have toys scattered around different places in our home:

Toys are in the Living Room...

Toys are in the Kitchen...

A few toys are in our bedroom...

And there's usually one or two toys in our office.

Elijah plays for about 45 minutes by himself each morning in his room. So about every other week, I change out his toys.  They move around the house so that it keeps the appeal of them fresh!  I have read about this in several places and I think this "changing it up" approach has worked really well for us.

When Elijah has played with the same toys in his room for too long, then he gets bored and starts pulling out his clothes or getting fussy.  But when I change up his toys it's amazing how content his is to play with the "new" toys.

And, I guess I couldn't have written this post on a better day, because here is evidence of what Elijah's room looks like when I have kept the same toys in there for too long!

Keeping a certain amount of toys in each room keeps things simple for me because that only leaves so many toys to clean up in each space.  Also, it is easy for Elijah to see that there are specific places for his toys to be.  

In the toy box that is in his room, I continually change it out with hats or stuffed animals.  That way, the toys are all alike and easy for him to help clean up.  We also have a toy box that my brother-in-law made that is in our living room.  It serves as an end table for us and Elijah forgets that there are even toys in there.  

So when I'm switching around toys, I pull toys from there that he has forgotten about and he's excited to play with them!

What about you?  

How do you keep things simple for kids?  

Feel free to link up a post about keeping things simple for kids or share your comments below.  Remember, tomorrow is the last day for K.I.S.S. and we're focusing on the kitchen!