Hiding the toys after the holiday

I can't stop anyone in my family from buying my son toys. This includes myself. It's fun to give gifts and see children's little faces light up with joy and wonder and happiness that they have unwrapped a toy and not a sweater.

What I need to remember, however, is something that I was good at doing when my son was a toddler, and have been less good at as he got older: Hiding the toys.

When my son was little, we did a pretty good job of rotating his toys throughout the year. We'd put away items that he had out for a while and introduce new stuff to him. This way everything seemed new again and it was fun to watch him become interested in new items to play with.

As he has gotten older, I have slacked off on this, which has (of course) resulted in my realization that we have Christmas toys on his shelf from last year that still haven't been played with.

My bad.

A small-scale study actually backs up the idea that the "fewer in sight" rule for toys works well for toddlers. I don't think a study exists yet for older children. I'm wondering if I will be able to successfully pull it off or if a few months into the rotation, he'll be complaining that I'm moving his stuff around.

I'll try to keep everyone posted.

In the meantime, I will be thankful for all the toys my son receives this year. Because it means that he has so many people in his life who love him and want to see him happy.

(But I need to clear off some shelf space now.)

Do you rotate out your child's toys so they don't get overwhelmed? Does it work? Tell me all about it in the comments.