little toys that come in sets...like barbie or lego

[Rhianna'sMommy]

With barbies we toss it all together in a bin. Frankly, I just in the last year stopped picking all the little pieces out and hiding them from the kids (dd1 didn't know barbies came with shoes until she was almost 5). My kids never question mixing the barbie stuff.

Legos I leave up to the kid. Dd1 will often ask to keep the set seperate for a month or so while it is still new. Eventually she will just start dumping them in the bin of legos herself. Her birthday legos she got 2 weeks ago are still seperated but everything else is all ixed together. I predict by Christmas she'll stop keeping those seperate as well.

[umphreysmommy]

Originally Posted by blossomgoat We keep them separated. We use plastic pencil boxes for small lego sets, plastic shoeboxes for bigger sets. Duplos sets go in larger tubs. The random box of duplos that came from a garage sale just tumbles in a bucket, though. For Strawberry shortcake, all the dolls go into one small bin and the little plastic do-dads that come with each set are in sandwich baggies and then in another plastic shoebox. The kids can check out all the dolls at once, but only on set of the accessories. They can also have the bigger pieces, like the cafe or dollhouse to go with it, but as far as the tiny things go, they get one set at a time so that after playing, it all goes back into its own bag. We also use a checkout system for all of the toys beyond their sleeping toys. They have a big playroom with a table, chair, toy fridge, toy stove, and doll cradle. All of the other toys are in bins and boxes in our closet and they take out one set at a time. You might think that's a bit harsh, but we found that yelling and crying over having to clean up a trashed toy room each night was worse. Cleanup never takes long now! And they can check out ANYTHING they want at any time as long as the previous toy has been put away. Works like a charm.

Wow I love that idea!!! My DD is really good about keeping clean but when her cousins come over I call them the hurricane. They just dump everything and move on and they are both older. I wouldn't mind the mess if they were actually playing but they just dump and mess up how we have everything sorted and it seems that is HOW they play. I have a large closet right next to the playroom and might set this up after the holidays. Plus I have a baby on the verge of crawling and that would remove all the tiny toys so I don't have to keep her out of the playroom.

[NYCVeg]

The Legos we just keep in a big bin, but we keep all the instruction books in the bin so that dd can use them if she wants. She generally likes to build the item according to the instructions when she first opens the set, but after that she's usually she's happier just using her imagination. We don't have any Barbies, but I think I would just dump them in a big bin as well. I've seen people use those hang-on-the-door shoe organizers for Barbies.

[BNC]

Originally Posted by blossomgoat We keep them separated. We use plastic pencil boxes for small lego sets, plastic shoeboxes for bigger sets. Duplos sets go in larger tubs. The random box of duplos that came from a garage sale just tumbles in a bucket, though. For Strawberry shortcake, all the dolls go into one small bin and the little plastic do-dads that come with each set are in sandwich baggies and then in another plastic shoebox. The kids can check out all the dolls at once, but only on set of the accessories. They can also have the bigger pieces, like the cafe or dollhouse to go with it, but as far as the tiny things go, they get one set at a time so that after playing, it all goes back into its own bag. We also use a checkout system for all of the toys beyond their sleeping toys. They have a big playroom with a table, chair, toy fridge, toy stove, and doll cradle. All of the other toys are in bins and boxes in our closet and they take out one set at a time. You might think that's a bit harsh, but we found that yelling and crying over having to clean up a trashed toy room each night was worse. Cleanup never takes long now! And they can check out ANYTHING they want at any time as long as the previous toy has been put away. Works like a charm.

We do something similar...there is a shelf along the perimeter of ther room at about 6ft. Each type of toy gets its own bucket (labeled with a picture and words)...play food in one, doll stuff in another, etc... they can each have 1 bucket at a time but have to clean up before getting another. Works like a charm!

[Leiiki]

Third for the "one bucket at a time" vote. Dolls and stuffies are free-play, but accessories and all other toys are in cloth bins and everything goes back in the bin before another bin comes out.

We have:
Doll Accessories
Doll Clothes
Dress Up Clothes
Dress Up Hats
Play Food
Lego/Duplo
Wood Building Blocks
Dinosaurs
Wild Animals
Sea Creatures
Colors and Feelings
Pokemon
LeapPad and Games
Wood Puzzles
Pretend Play Toys (doctor kits, toolbox, etc)

We also rotate toys, especially doll accessories because we have a gazillion.

For Lego, there's a whole page online devoted to every set of instructions ever made, and other sites have "lego challenge" projects. No need to hang on to the little booklets.

[momtojande]

My little brother kept his Legos so neat! I just assumed we would do the same. But DS is just not that way. Everything gets built, then slowly demolished.

I do try to keep "special" lego pieces -- doors, wheels, etc. -- separate from ordinary pieces. But DS has very little interest in keeping that up.

[Michelle_M]

When I had Barbies as a little girl, I had a little suitcase that the clothes and the dolls went in. Smaller pieces like Barbie's shoes, brushes, and other small accessories went into a container with a lid, that then got put in the suitcase with Barbie and her wardrobe. So everything was together, but the little pieces were easy to find and I didn't have to dig through all the clothes and stuff to find a pair of matching shoes.

God bless!