If you have a toy collection greater than 4-6 toys, it might be time to consider a toy rotation system where you present a smaller selection of toys in their play space and store the rest in an accessible closet. As your baby loses interest in the toys currently available, you rotate items.
Rotating your baby’s toys can be an effective way to spark their interest in play while also supporting their developing skill of concentration. This is because less stuff often leads to deeper play, which activates focus.
That said, toy rotation does not mean you need to:
Buy a lot of toys to keep rotations new
Rotate weekly on a rigid schedule
Babies benefit from familiarity over novelty because they work to categorize their surroundings. If their surroundings constantly change, they may grow frustrated in not having enough time to connect to certain activities. Repetition is how they learn. When an activity hits the “just-right” challenge level, they often want to do the same one repeatedly until they’ve mastered it.
So, instead of maintaining a top-down rotation schedule, observe your baby’s lead. Rotate activities when it’s clear your baby has lost interest in them, and keep ones out that your baby continues to love.
Additional tips on rotating toys:
You don’t have to rotate everything at once. Try small swaps with individual activities as you see the need.
Make sure you spend time showing your baby how the available activities work before assuming they are not interested. It’s not enough to set up their toys; you often must connect your baby to them first.
To make toy swaps efficient, prep and store your activities in small trays or baskets as they would be presented during playtime. This makes things “grab and go,” where all you have to do is pull it out from the closet (no digging through oversized tubs needed!).