Ali Vaughan was at her wit's end with a new baby and a three-year-old daughter who did not play with any of a house full of toys.

Key points: A common complaint among parents is a child may have hundreds of toys, yet they follow them around or find other household items to play with

A common complaint among parents is a child may have hundreds of toys, yet they follow them around or find other household items to play with A parenting consultant says kids thrive in an area where they can find things easily as opposed to a basket with multiple things dumped in it

A parenting consultant says kids thrive in an area where they can find things easily as opposed to a basket with multiple things dumped in it After a toy cull, one mum has noticed a drop in her three-year-old's screen time and an improvement in attention span

"She was just overwhelmed and constantly asking for something to play with, even though there were so many toys," the Perth mum said.

"I just kept searching for the perfect toy, so I just kept buying more and more.

"I was looking for the one thing that was going to entertain her and we just ended up with a lot."

Ms Vaughan eventually employed an early childhood consultant to show her how to cull and organise her toy collection.

And while she conceded it might seem ridiculous to pay someone to sort out a toy box, she said she could not do it on her own.

"There were too many and I didn't know how to deal with it," she said.

"I had tried to categorise it in the past. I had decision fatigue.

"But it wasn't just about getting rid of toys, it was about how you know what a good quality toy is and what is not."

Three-year-old Meredith with her newly reorganised toy shelf. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

How kids benefit from fewer toys

Mandy Richardson, a former early childhood educator who runs a consultancy teaching parenting skills, said her work increasingly involved helping mums and dads sort out toy boxes.

It started when she reset the play areas for her own children, now aged four and seven, reducing the number of toys and placing everything within easy reach.

"I started to see how wonderful it was to see my children engaging in ways that were also very pleasant for me because we just didn't have a toy room full of boxes tipped over."

Mandy Richardson has fought her own battle against toy overload. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

The problem of excess toys usually came from a place of love, she said, with parents and grandparents keen to give children toys and foster their interests.

However, it could quickly get out of hand.

She said parents often complained that their child had hundreds of toys, yet they followed them around the house or found other household items to play with, ignoring their enormous toy collection.

"As adults, we have brains that have had longer to develop areas and management skills, but if we go into our home office and there is paperwork everywhere and there is clutter it is so much harder to be productive," Ms Richardson said.

"And that's what we are finding more and more with children.

"They actually really thrive in an area of order, where they can predict the environment and know where to find things they are looking for, as opposed to a basket with multiple things dumped in it."

The secrets of toy sorting

When she goes into homes, Ms Richardson encourages parents to discard toys with broken or missing pieces and to donate excess toys of a similar kind.

"Two or three of the same thing is fine, but usually we have 12 of the same things."

Toys should be put in open baskets that can be easily reached, Ms Richardson says. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

She then sorts the toys into eight categories, based on the main developmental schema children have:

connecting;

connecting; enclosing;

enclosing; enveloping;

enveloping; orientation;

orientation; positioning;

positioning; rotation;

rotation; transporting; and

transporting; and trajectory.

"Only one of each play schema goes on the toy shelf — one thing to satisfy all the urges we know they go through," Ms Richardson said.

The remaining toys go into storage boxes out of view and should be rotated every couple of weeks.

"I do find I haven't had the need to purchase any new toy [for my children] for a long time because of how the rotation works," she said.

"They almost feel like they are getting a new toy every few weeks, because there are things they haven't seen for a while and have forgotten about."

She suggested parents choose toys that allow children to use their imagination and do not have too many bells and whistles.

"Many toys sold as educational are crammed with multiple concepts — numbers, colours, letters, sounds. Young children don't absorb concepts through bombardment," Ms Richardson said.

Ms Richardson keeps her kids' craft area deliberately minimal. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

Fewer toys leading to less screen time

While Ms Vaughan sorted toys primarily because she was tired of dealing with the mess, she said she had noticed a change in her three-year-old's play time.

"We have had a lot less screen time," she said.

"I can deal with the baby and she can play, and there is lot less requests for the iPad.

"Her attention span is getting longer and I didn't think that was possible."

She said she didn't feel bad about being the parent who took away a lot of her child's toys.

"I did feel a bit sad about the expense that I had gone to to find the perfect toy," she said.

Before she had children, Ms Vaughan said she remembered visiting friends who were parents and wondered why they had so many toys in the house.

"Now I know — it's so that you can find something to entertain your child," she said, laughing.

"I thought I was going to be one of those parents with a beautiful minimalist home, a few tasteful toys in the corner.

"Instead, I ended up with a lot of plastic stuff.