One of the things that scared me most about the prospect of parenting was the eternal mess.
I am a very clean, tidy person. I like things to be organized. I like my home to be a place of minimal chaos.
Enter twins. Enter chaos.
Don’t get me wrong. I have come to love the mess, because the mess means family, it means life. I see the beauty in the chaos now. But…I still like to keep the chaos to a minimum!
Toy rotations have been absolutely the best way to let my babies be messy babies without any of us becoming overwhelmed by chaos. Rather than seeing all of our toys spread around the house at all times, there is only a small selection of toys scattered about. It is much easier for me to manage mentally while they are playing, and physically much easier for me to clean up once they are done playing!
But aside from the various benefits that implementing Montessori style toy rotations has brought me, Finn and Eli truly seem to love it as well.
Every Monday during their morning nap, I arrange a fresh toy “shelfie” for them. I leave out any toys that they have been loving, put away any toys they seem tired of, and pull out any toys I think might be interesting for them or appropriate for their development. Then I arrange my selection beautifully on their shelves and compliment it with some lovely books that match a theme or cover a certain topic.
My favorite part of the week is watching them come into their playroom after I’ve set up a fresh rotation. The way their eyes light up when they see a wonderful new shelf display is magical!
Here are some of my favorite shelf arrangements!
This shelf was so fun! It included a lot of items from our babbler box by lovevery. The boys absolutely loved the toys in this kit, especially the ball funnel which is pictured here at the far left! They also loved the bunnies in a burrow and carrot sorting box which are on the shelf on the top left. I complimented their babbler box with some books by emily winfield martin and our all around bustle town books!
This shelf featured more of our lovevery toys, as well as our mushie stacking cups., hape rainbow stackers, dinosaur blocks, and our push bike by hape toys!
shop this shelf rotation
This was our first shelf! It included our rainbow stacker, shaking eggs by haba, and our set of mini masters board books.
shop this shelf rotation
With each rotation, I try to include something to build with (which could be blocks, cups, or stackers) something to imagine with (which could be automobiles, eggs, stuffed animals, play silks) and something to read!
