• Place a laundry basket next to the highchair to catch items thrown off the tray. You can pick them up all at once, and the cycle can start again.
  • Hang a shoe bag in your child's playpen to store small toys. Putting them in and taking them out of the pockets will keep your baby amused.
  • Buy an inexpensive storage box for your child's keepsakes. Store it under the bed.
  • Attach a rope handle to a plastic laundry basket. Even a small child can easily pull it from room to room for playing and for quick pickups. (When your child is through with it, you can use it for your own purposes.)
  • Encourage the parent of a visiting playmate to bring one or two of the child's favorite toys from home. This allows for trading of toys.
  • Lay a bed sheet down on the floor to make picking up small pieces of building toys easier. When play is finished, pick up the sheet corners and pour the pieces into the container.
  • Put away some of your child's toys for a few months. When you bring them out again, they'll be like new. Put other toys away as you bring ones out.
  • Consider dividing toys among several plastic baskets and rotat­ing them daily.
  • Make putting away toys a game like "Auction." (You auction off the toys and your child puts them away.) Or say, "I see something in this room that is blue." Your child guesses the toy and then gets to put it away. Or play "Race." (You do a chore while your child puts away toys.)
  • Give your child a chance to make a decision to part with a toy on occasion. For a child who tends to hoard belongings, you'll probably have to make the decision yourself.
  • Label seven boxes or bags with names of the days of the week. Divide the toys among the boxes, and store them in a closet or other convenient place. Have your child play with the toys for the appropriate day. You'll have less to pick up, and your child will have "new" toys every day.
  • Keep a pretty basket or bowl in the kitchen for toy odds and ends found throughout the day. You can return them to their appropriate places at the end of the day, and your child will know where to look for missing parts.
  • Use fingernail polish to mark your child's toys before they're taken outside. There will be no question about which toy belongs to whom.

Toy Play Tips

  • Make a soft toy snake out of one of Dad's old ties. Stuff it and sew up the ends. Make a triangle mouth on one end, and add buttons for eyes.
  • Add a key ring with a decorative tab to your child's pull toys. It's easier to hold on to.
  • Prevent strings on pull toys from getting caught in the wheels. Draw the string through a plastic straw or plastic tubing, then knot it to hold the straw in place next to the toy.
  • Stick tape on carpet to make "roads" for toy cars. When you're finished playing, pull up the tape and discard.
  • Design a play "town" on a tight-weave, neutral carpet sample. Use permanent marker to draw roads wide enough for your child's cars. Add trees, homes, and buildings (gas station, library, grocery store, and so on).
  • Buy shower curtain rings as an inexpensive alternative to plastic play links.