Do you have a limited play space? We sure do. To keep the mess at bay, we've come up with a simple solution that is both tidy and cheap - a bucket-based toy rotation.

Hang a nice looking shelf somewhere high enough that your child cannot reach it. Find some containers (we use one recycled bucket and one bucket that came with a toy set). Then communicate with your partner that the rule is that only one bucket can be off the shelf at any given time, and stick to it.

The benefits of this system are clear once you've gotten used to it. You never have a huge horrible mess of toys, because half of them are always put away. Forgotten toys in one bucket are far more exciting when they are reunited with their pint-sized owner days later - almost as if they are brand new. Teaching the art of pointing to what you want, a very important baby skill, is easy when the buckets are two different shapes, colors, or sizes.

Perhaps most importantly, your child (and you) is encouraged to learn to pick up one mess before another one is created. If you really stick to the one bucket at a time rule, soon your kid will start to help you pack up the old bucket with the desire to get to the new one. A good lesson to instill early! - Leigh G.