Life, as of Late

Some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through them. This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support the content I create. I only recommend products and services that I genuinely believe in and think will be valuable to you. Thank you for your support!

One of my resolutions this year is to get more organized. As a full-time WFH Mom of 3, my mind is in a million places at once seemingly all the time. I figure the more organized my space and routines are, the more organized my mind will be (hopefully). So, starting off strong – I decided to tackle my kids toys.

The organization of my 2 and 3-year old’s millions of toys has been pretty non-existent. They’re all thrown in a much too small bin locked away in their closet and buried beneath a pile of larger toys that won’t fit inside. In planning what a more organized system would look like, I considered the fact that separating the toys into categories and making them more accessible would be especially helpful in remaining organized. Everything should have its designated space where it belongs.

I also knew that locking the toys away in their tiny closet wasn’t helping either. There simply wasn’t enough space. I also realized that while making the toys inaccessible would certainly provide me control over when messes occurred, it made it incredibly difficult and inconvenient when it came time to cleaning them up.

To combat both of these issues, I opted for a cube storage setup with bins. This is a pretty popular system that is encouraged in Montessori learning. The idea is that by grouping similar toys together and making them visible and easily accessible to children, this organization system will encourage independence, exploration, and learning.

The great thing about cube shelves/storage is that they’re fully customizable from the number of cubes to the cube sizes. (I’d highly advise that you check and double check that the bins you purchase are compatible with your cube shelf.) There are sooo many different cubes on the market from metal baskets to collapsible bins to fabric totes so this system is fairly customizable to meet your needs.

Because my kids have several toys, but they are mostly small (magnatiles, blocks, play food, dinosaurs, etc), I opted for a 6-cube shelf with individual cubes measuring at 13″x13″X14″. I picked up a 3 heavy duty metal wire baskets for the upper cubes and collapsible fabric bins for the bottom cubes.

I was able to put the shelf together in about 30 minutes. I, then, tackled the task of going through all of my kids toys and sorting them into their respective groups. This included blocks, play food, dinosaurs, dress-up clothes and accessories, cars/trucks, and finally, a miscellaneous bin. The particular bins I purchased are rather deep and wide, providing plenty of space to accommodate all of my little ones’ toys. 11″x11″ is another common cube size that you can opt for if you feel you might not need as much space.

It took about an hour to thoroughly sift through all of my kids toys and organize them using our new storage system. This will be a massive help in clean up and facilitating chores for my two older kids. I’m excited to see how my kids interact with this new set-up and how it impacts our daily routine moving forward.

Have you implemented Montessori learning in your children’s lives? What have been some of the outcomes? Thanks for reading. xx