by Bridget Webber

Created on: January 28, 2009   Last Updated: February 11, 2009

Toy rotation has many benefits. It allows you to keep your child's toys clean and in good condition. It also allows you to keep an eye on them and to ascertain how many there actually are, as well as whether some may have been out grown. Rotating them can mean that you child begins to appreciate them more, and can become excited and pleased to see old friends as they reappear after a wash and an appraisal.

Perhaps the best way to rotate toys is to have two toy boxes. One should be in your child's bedroom, or playroom and the other should be in a laundry room, or another room where your child doesn't play. The box in your child's domain should have current toys in which are in use, and the one in your own domain should have toys in that have been removed for now.

Most children tend to have a favorite toy which gives them comfort. The removing of such a toy would leave them feeling devastated should it enter the rotation system. In such a case you can still check the toy to see if it is in need of maintenance, but there is no reason to take it away unless it is genuinely in need of cleaning or repair.

With other toys, the opposite may sometimes be true. It could be that there are certain toys that keep going from one toy box to the other, but apart from that are never seeing the light of day. When this happens it can afford parents with an opportunity to teach their child about not keeping items just for the sake of it.

More importantly it can teach a child about sharing and about how good it feels to help out others in need if they make the decision with you to donate unused toys to charity so that another child can make use of them.

With the rest of the toys in the rotation box it is a good idea to check them over. What you can look for are games that have missing pieces, toys which need sewing or fixing to restore them and those which are getting a little grimy and which will benefit from a wash.

Most soft toys can easily be cleaned by popping them into the washing machine. Those which are plastic can be most quickly, and hygienically, cleaned with medicated wet wipes.

When you return the toys, all fresh and reconditioned, your child will be delighted and will also benefit by learning that material objects need to be cared for and maintained in life. Hopefully this knowledge will stay with them and they will be able to apply it to their own lives as adults. Thus toy rotation, has far reaching benefits.

Learn more about this author, Bridget Webber.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.