1. Something to build (wooden blocks, magna tiles, legos, etc) 2. Something/someone to move (train, truck, tractor, etc) 3. Someone to play with ( people, animals, etc) - usually has out two categories of this 4. Something to create (puzzle, painting, rainbow stuff) 5. Something to explore/love (pretend play, play kitchen, doll things) Milena’s theme in each of her toy rotations
You’re on the money Milena- don’t let anyone sway your mind. Anything that we obsess over can become an idol to us. You’re absolutely right… I’m a new creation now as of about 10 months and I am seeing now that this is so true. I used to believe that things in the Christian faith were over exaggerated but NO! They are plain and simple as Jesus says them! We should not have treasures on earth!!
Another idea is to ask for “experiences” for gifts! Like tickets to a play, concert, aquarium, movies, zoo, play group class, music lessons, etc. Something that isn’t physical, but a day of going out and spending time together 🙂 Also, photo albums with hand written letters are another beautiful gift that can be kept forever. My grandma passed when I was only 5 years old, I don’t remember any toys she bought for me, but I still have this one book she bought for me and wrote in for me ❤ I wish she would’ve written me letters to read! Just some thoughts 🥰
When you find yourself having trouble donating something that is a great item or has money invested in it but you know its time to let it go.... Try to envision the person or child that is going to get an above average item... When you get toys from donated sources its usually the typical toys you find at Walmart or the Dollar store .... But some mom that sees a great Love Every toy that she can afford is going to feel so blessed...
Yes! We found a pottery barn wooden doll house at goodwill for $20, it’s the most loved toy in my house. Whoever donated it was a blessing for my family.
This is so funny!!!! I was literally typing in the search bar of RU-vid “Milena Ciciotti toy collection, toy organization” earlier this afternoon during my kids naps trying to get ideas. And then this pops up! Lol, God knew. 😊
Would love a chart on the rotation guidelines! Thank you for this video! Reminds me of your old content. Useful insight as I’m about to have baby #2 & will have 2 under 2. I try to be really conscious about my daughter’s toys.
I feel sooooooo encouraged and inspired and motivated. Mama of 2 going on 3 here and I am feeling so overwhelmed with the toys we have and was looking for this video!!!
I’m with you about Lovevery. Honestly they’re more for me to look at then baby to play with. My mom gifted us the first year subscription. With each box my baby only ever played with maybe two of the toys. The others she didn’t care for. The play gym though, 10/10 recommend for babies under 1.
Say a grandparent (who visits your home often) gets your child a toy that you HATE, such as a battery operated toy, after you asked them not to. Do you keep it since the grandparents will notice whether it is in your home and played with? How would you gracefully handle such a situation without burning bridges?
I have been inspire with ur videos and starting to create routines and learning this things for our two lil ones we have. And still budget friendly. Thank you for your videos.. If u end up opening to donate to one of your subscribers, grateful that it could be me 🙋🏻♀️. We live in Missouri area.
I love how you steward what the Lord has given you down to your kids toys well. You’re so young and are doing a phenomenal Job in that area. Thank you Holy Spirit I’m older, and you have inspired me to do the same in my house. Thank you for your videos and you being Unashamed of the gospel, Peace to you and your family.
I have like a quarter of this amount of toys in my home 😂 mostly because I don't have a play room for my kids and we keep their toys in the living room. When it comes to gifts from family I try to make a wish list so that only what I know they need, is brought into our home. If I am asked I usually ask for things they actually need, clothes and shoes. I keep extra toys in our small backyard storage because we also don't have a garage or basement 😅
Maybe take a video or picture of the toys that you get rid of. Because my dad was like not a hoarder, but he just had like a big storage area in his house and we would periodically put stuff in boxes when we would have a big family reunion or party, and eventually there was a good collection of stuff that we had never actually pulled back out. When he passed away, it was so comforting to go into the back room and see all the toys that I had totally forgotten about, and toys his grandchildren had played with that were now graduating high school, and remember all the different eras and memories We had living with and spending time with him. And it was so healing going through them with my sisters while we were bagging up stuff to wash and thrift. Having a notebook with who wanted which stuff when our extended family went through it too. And we would just laugh and laugh and cry remembering all the different eras we had totally forgotten about just from holding different trinkets or papers or our old possessions in our hands. It was like getting to relive those times and remember things I would have forgotten. It felt like not only was I saying goodbye to my dad, but all those different ages of me got to say goodbye to him too and have one last hurrah. There are different ways to do it, like save one outfit from every age and make a quilt out of them. Or lay out the toys and take a picture of them before you donate. It could be such a blessing to your kids later. Of course if you don’t have very sentimental kids then maybe it wouldn’t mean as much but it kind of breaks my heart seeing how many minimalist parents will go through toys once a month and thank God they at least involve the kids in it and tell them and ask them questions. But those kids don’t know how much those memories could mean to them one day when they agreed to give away that thing that was once their favorite. And then they get congratulated by their parents for being giving and and after seeing how much joy it brings to their parents, they will be even more willing to part with those things that they once carried everywhere. All for for the sake of less clutter, and they don’t know that that toy or even trash-like little thing that was shoved under the bed could be a link to a memory that one day they could look back on and cherish all over again, because it was a time that they spent with you just being a kid.
I like this sentiment, also it sounds like the toys got played with by different kids and generations. However, important to note that not everyone has enough storage to keep much, or wants to take everything with them when they move repeatedly... but yes, take pictures kneecaps also while they play with them) and just keep things that are very well loved...❤
I’ve been wanting to declutter my son’s toys since receiving new toys for Christmas. Will be donating some to our local church. That’s also a great place to donate toys. The kids are always excited to love on new toys ☺️
Old grandma here. I believe musical toys are the most stimulating toys you can give a child, in a good way. The toys you chosen creates all kinds of skills in children. They will need to learn keyboards and buttons eventually because of the world they are entering into. No child under eight should be given electronics. They can learn all that so quickly. Yay you🎉
Milena, I love most of your content. I remember following you YEARS ago when I was still a teenager and was so proud to see you speak out on your view for Creationism. Since then and getting married and having a baby I think some of our Christian doctrine and theology is definitely different 😅 I love being purposeful and intentional with toys and I was raised Montessori my entire life (one of the few who was Montessori through high school) but I do wonder if you forget that yes we store our treasure in Heaven but we have a God of ABUNDANCE. He abundantly blesses us. There’s nothing wrong with owning things in this world. God created this world! He wants us to take part in His creation. This is just my postmil eschatology wanting to speak up on Gods abundance and plan for his creation. I find the sermon series on Christmas by Douglas Wilson very helpful in getting my heart right with all these material gifts. I love your toy rotation system though!! So helpful and I’m so grateful for you sharing this!!!
Just a thought on doctrine; Milena and Jordan both never share anything that is not backed by scripture. They have very strong convictions on how they live their life but they by no means leave their children lacking whatsoever so when it comes to toys and her share that our treasures are in heaven that is not saying she doesn’t get toys for her kids… which is pretty obvious.
The gifts that the Lord gives us are not materialistic. Everything on this earth passes away. I think Milena is on the money. Nothing in this life should take the place of our Savior. Kids obsess over toys and it’s their sinful nature to always want more more more- she’s teaching an excellent thing to those babies. If you aren’t content with the very minimum you have you will never be content. Also God is abundance but again- not in the way you’re saying. God didn’t create distractions satan did. Toys and materialistic things are distractions.
She never said that as Christians we need to barely have anything. She is speaking about her personal bondage & having an OVER-abundance. Her children clearly have PLENTY of toys which is still abundant. I don’t understand how you feel like she’s saying there is something wrong with owning things in the world when she clearly owns plenty of things of this world. She refers a lot to how doing this is helping her home be more functional. This is not anything to do with doctrine Or theology. If anything it’s a personal conviction.
Something that I’ve tried a few times is when I feel my toddler isn’t interested in toy, I will bring it to our church’s nursery for her to see her friends play with and then if she’s interested they can all enjoy it together, and we usually just keep it there if we feel she will not bother with it at home. Some toys a kid may only be interested in if they have a friend to share it with.
I wonder if a good space saving climbing toy would be a Swedish ladder wall gym. That would be so fun for most every age! You could even put the Pikler slide/rock wall from the lower rungs.
we have a toy subscription box here i Germany, where you send the old back, when the kid is done, and get the new box after. which I think is a good option to not collect clutter... (i never used it, as my child was already too old, when i found them)
Please do a winter capsule wardrobe!! I’m really struggling to make my dresses wintertime but I’ve really enjoyed exploring more feminine clothing!! Also just some tips to make things more modest without making them frumpy?!
Milena you are such a blessing. I know not everyone likes the transformation & refining the lord has been bringing you through but there are other women who need to see things like this because there are the ones who also DESIRE to live like this for the lord. It helps us learn & be encouraged. I’ve been around for a long time & God has grown you into such a KINGDOM WIFE & MAMA before our eyes 🔥 praise God. the ones who desire to live this humbly for the Lord, we are here for it & we are listening 🥹🥹 You’ve encouraged me to go back to my natural hair color, wear less makeup, wear more skirts & dresses. It’s not easy going against the grain. Thank you for sharing parts your life with us❤
This was helpful. After having my first i am never buying baby toys again besides a rattle or teether. My son was a whisk kid. Couldnt go anywhere without kitchen utensils but mainly whisks. Never touched a single toy until 1 or so haha
I buy toys that all go together that you can always add to them or pass them down to the next baby for example Lego duplo, magna tiles, fisher price little people sets and got rid of everything else. Plus my 3 year old has small hot wheels now. I have almost all plastic but durable plastic toys I found wood to actually not last as long in my experience and I want to keep passing all this toys down to the next baby.
The message at the end helped me because our beautiful Subaru was recently stolen and it was sentimental because we were supposed to get old with it and it had stickers from all of my children’s camping trips.
Something that I am struggling with as a mom with an 2 year old and 1 year old. My 2 year old wants to be creative and build with toys, but my 1 year old breaks everything he tries to build. I’ve tried separating them with a gate, but my 2 year old needs help building and my 1 year old doesn’t like to be separated from us. How do you allow open ended “building play” with little babies and young toddlers who wreak everything that gets assembled? This has resulted in me buying just “single purpose” toys because my 2 year old just throws blocks around the house since he can’t build with them
As a mama of 4 ranging from 10 to 2. We have been very intentional on toys and rotations. The Nugget has been more of a hit with my older kids than my younger kids. They constantly are building forts or using it to have a sleep over in each others rooms. The other thing they each love is a sensory swing!
I have love every toys, and it was the best for us, I’ve saved her baby toys & now have another child on the way and will use those toys according to ages and stages as well, it wAs also a 3 month subscription, so it was only 4 times a year & that was perfect.
I know you’re keeping the kids and their childhood private now which I adore and respect but I love your kid videos!! My kids are around the same age and I’m planning homeschool too so I’d love to see more content of that if you’re able too ❤
Something we did for our tall girl, for the play kitchen, is find one with legs, remove them and swap with longer/taller legs from Home Depot! We also anchored it to the wall because it was a little top heavy, so we wanted to make sure it was safe from tipping over.
Hi Milena =) I love your honesty with the toy subscription services...it's so true. I live in a tiny house on wheels with a covered deck, so very minimal space for toy storage for my little guy (almost 3). We do toy rotations and he has one 3 layer shelf with toys. Naturally toys are open ended and we only keep things that have multiple games that can be made from them. There's no point keeping things that don't get played with! I LOVE your basement toy storage, such a good system. Currently all my little guys toys out of rotation have to fit into a big drawer in our storage sofa.... I've found that he's very into movement toys (bikes, scooters, gardening, cars etc) so that's what we have the most of. His most loved toy by far is small matchbox cars (vintage) and road pieces, wooden blocks for making buildings and a million other things and his basket of Brio train track. Oh and his balance bike! An amazing book is Simplicity Parenting xx
My 2yo has duplo, teddies, books, train track, bigger sized vans, a pram, 2 ride on toys, a walker, plus one more, 6 bluey figures, toy tools [because he loves to join in with me], fake food, a foldable tunnel, a c board, a football, a basket ball, a tennis set, 3 puzzles, play dough, mess free and regular colouring options, a scribble board, pencils, pens and a night light. PLUS an hour of bluey a day. I WISH we didn't have so many big things at once, but hes a crasher and therefore loves it when someone else is using a big item to crash into him. I REGRET the C board, the walker [shouldve got a pram], fake food, colouring pens [get the mess free ones instead, more £ but better] and telling people to get whatever and faking enjoyment when they ask me if I like something before they buy it.
Why not just let them have their own toys in their room that they’re responsible for picking up when they’re done? You say it’s a job for you but just kids have their own room and they have their own toys in there and they’re able to pick which ones they want to play with and put them back up when they’re done!
Kids don’t need so many toys all at once, they get bored real fast. By rotating toys, it’s like experiencing a “new toy” all over again without having to actually buy a new toy. I’m sure her kids are responsible for putting away and taking care of the toys that are in rotation.
I hope this isn’t too forward, I LOVE your toy collection and would welcome any donation from the toys on probation. I have two young daughters that I am sure would enjoy some of these beautiful toys. I live in the area, so close, I always hope that I would bump into you some day! Lol In any case, great video, appreciate your thoughts on the subject. Be blessed! ❤
I loved this video! Thank you so much for this it has been so helpful I can't even begin to explain 🎉 P.s I loved the end where your child was saying 'muma', you responded and they just went silent 😂 children are so cute ❤
Would love if you could talk a little about how you keep toys at grandparents house. Something I’m currently struggling with. & we visit them frequently.
ty so much for creating this video! so helpful to moms, toys so easily pile up and overwhelm us, this is amazing advice, so grateful for this channel. id love to see a updated toy room tour, ive been trying to implement toy rotation for a few yrs now, but haent really been successful at it yet
Great video Milena. I’m decluttering my kids toys this weekend and needed to see this! I would love to see what sensory activities your kids are enjoying right now during winter. Wishing you all the best for you pregnancy and birth ❤
For the way to play road track I’ve found you have to store them flat. like stack all the straight pieces and stack all the curved pieces and put them in the box they came in or another box that they can lay flat and not have any corners being curled up.
I love your comments on Toy Subscriptions. Especially because a lot of minimalist influencers promote their subscriptions. I have always been skeptical of toy subscriptions for the reasons you spoke of and I am so glad I didn't subscribe as a new mum. I already struggle with too many toys gifted to us to begin with. LoveEvery would have been my toy nightmare hearing your comments hahaha
We got soooo many toys for our two girls between birthdays and Christmas being close together. I told my husband that next year we want “experiences” for our kids with whoever buys it. One year we did a show/musical for my daughter and it was so fun and no added clutter! Thanks for sharing
Something she didn’t mention is that your baby doesn’t even need any toys at all until they’re at least 6 months old and when they are they only need one or two!
Love this, appreciate you taking the time to show us everything, the thing you said about boundaries is so helpful, I used to be strict with the type of toys I allow into our house and things were under control but in the last year or so I allowed in all sorts of toys in and now I have to declutter and donate most of the stuff. I would appreciate it if you show how you display the toys in the playroom, and if you have any tips and getting kids to organise their toys. Thank you ❤❤
Picky does not even begin to describe me when it comes to my 3 year old’s toys, haha. I am like you in this I think, lol. People think i’m crazy. But being very intentional helps keep things minimal and less wasteful. Plus everything we have gets alot of playtime, and we know we can keep it and it will last as we add more kids. We have the same rules for toys as well. No batteries (with a few exceptions) and limited plastic. We did a toy rotation system before, but since we moved overseas and had to get rid of so much, I set his room up to where he has access to almost all of his toys just in his room. He would always ask for stuff that wasn’t out, and it was a diffucult season for us because things were always packed away since we moved so much this year. It is actually going really well because toy bins are neatly labled with pictures, and he actually really enjoys keeping things where they go because he can always find them! This may change, but for now, it works and it helps me be even more particular and intentional with the things we buy. I agree with the plastic toys! However, I have found that I (and my son) really enjoy the plastic animals, Bruder trucks (high quality ABS plastic, same plastic as legos), and anything made by Green Toys (made from recycled plastic and virtually INDESTRUCTABLE and great for bathtime and outside). We love wood toys too, but since we have moved overseas to a very humid climate, mold has been an issue. We have definitely scrubbed mold off of wooden blocks recently :( And so many good words on that last little bit. It is so easy to become attached to things. I have been asking the Lord to let me have open hands with my time and my things as we share our lives with those around us.
When our kids were little, they had 3 boxes. 1 with blocks, 1 with flip tracks (car and train track set), and 1 with animals and mcdonalds toys. We also had a tub of duplos, a stack of puzzles, lots of books, plus playdo and bubbles in the kitchen. Beyond that, we had balls and a few stuffed animals. That's plenty for them to play all day, every day! 1 regret as they got older was falling into the trap of collecting, especially action figures (star wars), breyer horses, my little pony, or wasteful things like pokemon. Just don't do it!!
Do your kids ever ask for toys? Like toys they see other kids play with or a commercial ( I know you have standards for screens so this may not apply). If so, how do you address it if it doesn’t fit your toy rules?
Also you forgot to show us what you currently have on display for your kids!! Also.. so how often do you rotate? Do you have a rule for that? Or just whenever you feel like the toys aren’t being played with? Xx
You could also have a party where the gifts are seeded somewhere. We had a donation party for my first. All gifts were donated to the Nicu at our local hospital. I’ve also heard of families doing a birthday party where you gift the child a certain amount of money usually their age)and it can go towards a bigger gift but I think what I would do is to maybe put it in a college fund for when they’re older.
To ur intro: less toys for more kids; that's sorta obvious because kids have each other to play with n spend time. Single kid wud need stuff to engage them, because adults can't engage the child for very long.
Hi Milena! I would love to know what open-ended baby toys you have kept and toys for teething! I just had my first baby 3 months ago and he’s just now starting to become interested in toys. We don’t have a lot so far, and I want to keep being intentional with our toys in that way. I’d love a video on learning baby toys for under a year old! I was happy to hear your experience with LoveEvery because I get their ads all the time and kept considering it…but now I know it might not be worth the money because I don’t have a lot of space to store toys 😂 thank you!
also, my child basically always plays with his train set (for 9 months already). so i kind of find the toy rotation hard, as the train does take up a lotof space...😅
For a kitchen…. For tall kids… you can always add wooden legs/slab of wood to the bottom w some wood. And anchor the back if needed. I really adore those pottery barn kid kitchens.
Oh my gosh right there with you with the way to play driving me bonkers. Literally was trying to set up with my son yesterday, it was driving him bonkers too falling apart every time he drove his cars over his wobble board bridge lol! Glad I'm not the only one!
Since i have two boys, i didn't want to spend money on a kitchen, but they still wanted to play. So what we did instead is use the top of the Ikea toy storage as a pretend kitchen stove, or do tents, and have campfire kitchen styles ♡
Can you make a video on how to encourage your children to want to do more open ended play? My 1 y/o & 3 y/o get bored so quickly & never want to sit & play quietly 😅
Moving into our new home tomorrow so this gave me so much information to then implement and improve our toys! We have so many and they are overrunning our home, especially after the holidays. More than half of them are just permanently upstairs bc it’s just too much!
I had to stop the lovevery toy subscription after about 3 months. It was too many toys. You did a great job reducing your toys. We now have just a large basket of toys for our 3 year old and that’s it. I don’t rotate toys, because we don’t have the storage space for that. Not to mention it’s way too much work. You are doing great! The simplicity parenting book really helped me reduce to a very small amount, and we love it.
None of my plastic toys break within a week. I like wooden but since they are made of wood they tend to be heavier versus plastic . They last just as long and I think are safer for little kids.
Please dear Milena, make a video about how u keep ur family healthy and what u do for prevent illnesses, maybe biblical or oils or habits except food and sport
How long do you old onto a toy that’s gifted before donating that just isn’t played with? I have a harder time letting those go because I don’t want to be ungrateful
Thank you for making this video and sharing your wisdom. It resonates with me so much. I currently have a 1 year old and have more toys than he can play with. Seeing all the toys really stresses me out. It’s time to declutter. 😮💨
Thank you for this video! Im not a mom yet, but im definitely taking in a lot of these recommendations. I grew up with a plethora of toys and my room was so cluttered and overwhelming... i do not want my kids to go through the same and learn to tolerate hoarding... Again, thank you!
