Can anyone shed light on this play?

My 2 three y o's favourite thing to do during free play is to get all the toys and pile them up somewhere. E.g. put all the little people in the vehicles and bring them over to the table and set them up under it. Or put all the play food on the table or inside the playhouse. The play is just the collecting and placing of the toys in the desired location as once this is done they don't really do anything with them. They are happy so I usually let it be unless it causes a problem e.g the other kids don't have any vehicles or if they have trouble cleaning them up...any thoughts? It's funny to watch them.

When the three boys I had were three they did the same but they called it a garbage pile. As long as the pile got returned I let it go as much as I could but if another child wanted a toy from their pile they were allowed to take it.

My own two children ALWAYS do this. They have done it from a really young age, well my oldest has, my youngest has just gone along with it. They call it "making piles". My oldest is actually quite obsessive about this at times, and gets really upset if anyone touches the pile. I try to discourage it during daycare hours as she literally would try to take every single toy in the room and pile it up. She doesn't do it as much any more, but when she was younger she did it pretty much every time she played. Sometimes she would pretend the piles were different things (a cake, garbage, decorations, etc).

It's normal. I've had kids from all ages do this in one form or another. Whether creating a pile or collecting stuff in purses or buckets, they don't actually play with the toys they just collect them...it's a kid thing I guess lol.

Just a quirk like what I call the "He-Man" phase where a new walker insists on carrying a large heavy toy while walking. Again they all seem to do it in some form or another - carrying a big bus or bucket of cars not just one small car in each hand.