Systems designed by adults for children fail for a predictable reason, and a few adjustments make the difference between tidying happening and not.
It Has to Be One Movement
An adult will lift a lid, open a box and sort by category. A child will not.
Anything requiring more than dropping an item into an open container will be abandoned, and the toys end up on the floor regardless of what you bought.
Open baskets at floor level, sorted into broad categories, is the arrangement that survives.
The Design Points
- Open tops, no lids to lift
- At the child’s height, not an adult’s
- Light enough for the child to move
- Broad categories, not fine ones
- Pictures on labels for children who cannot read
- Fewer containers than seems right
Lightweight open bins and fabric baskets in a range of sizes, of the kind at bino.us.org, suit this better than boxes with fitted lids.
Lids Are the Safety Issue
Worth being specific about, because toy chest safety standards exist because of it.
A heavy hinged lid falling on fingers, or on the head or neck of a child leaning in, has caused serious injuries. Children have also become trapped inside storage furniture.
What to look for: a lid that stays open on its own rather than falling, or a lid that lifts off entirely, which removes the problem. Ventilation holes in case a child gets inside, and no latch that can fasten from the outside.
Lift-off lids are the safest answer.
Small Parts and Young Children
Toys with small pieces belong out of reach of younger siblings, and a rough guide is anything that fits through a toilet roll tube.
Button batteries in toys are a separate and serious hazard: swallowed, they can burn through tissue within hours. Battery compartments should be secured with a screw, and spares kept out of reach.
Small strong magnets are similarly dangerous if more than one is swallowed.
Fewer Categories
An adult sorts into twelve categories. A child manages three or four.
Blocks, vehicles, soft toys, everything else, is a realistic system. Anything finer is an adult’s system that a child will not maintain.
Rotate Rather Than Store All
A smaller selection out at once gets played with more, and putting away is quicker.
Anchor Tall Units
Toy storage is climbed, which is the exact scenario tip-over deaths involve.
Tidy Together
Rather than instructing.