After you’ve decluttered toys that no longer serve your family and you’ll probably have a lot more open space to play in! Just having all this clean space will already allow your children room to imagine and create.

To jump-start your child’s imaginative play even more (and get to do a little imaginative play yourself), try a few toy strews!

A toy strew is simply leaving some toys set-up, ready for play. The idea is that your children can walk into a play space and already see “invitations for play” set up.

Since kids are no longer overwhelmed by random toys scattered everywhere, they have a better place to start playing and will likely come up with something really fun! Plus, they are much less likely to come to you complaining that they’re bored.

The great thing is, play strews don’t have to be complicated! Check out my short video below:

Why should I make a play strew?

If I take the time to create a strew in the evening, the kids are much more likely to get engrossed in play when they wander into their play room the next morning than if everything was put away nice and neat (or worse, still a wreck from the day before).

Needless to say, Friday night is when I’m most motivated to make toy strews.