I remember vividly when we were first married a visit from my cousin. She had two small kids under 4 years old and they came to have lunch at my house. I was so embarrassed because I literally had about 10 toys total for them to play with. I had to scrounge around through my teaching supplies to find something for them to play with.
Then, a couple of years later, we had Kyra and the nightmare began. I remember her first Christmas. Between us and the grandparents, not only did we fill her toy chests but, we overflowed her room. She had more than her hearts desire of toys.
Now, here we are 6 /12 year later and we could open up our own Toys R Us. We have more toys that you could possibly imagine. My want for my children to have fun and enjoy their youth has turned out to be a disastrous mess. Everywhere I look there are toys.
Before we finished our basement, we had a toy room and it was cute. I had several dressers and cabinets filled with toys. We had a jungle theme going on and it was fun. We have since remodeled and now that room is visible from the top of the family room stairs and I want to keep it neat and tidy so, I don't really want to turn it into another junk toy pile.
I have already packed up the majority of their toys and they are in the garage. What am I going to do! I need suggestions people! What do you do with your toys? Do you let your kids leave them in their rooms? Do they have a toy room? Do I want to dedicate a space just for toys?
Oh, I am not posting pictures on purpose. I am embarrassed of the mess :)
Then, a couple of years later, we had Kyra and the nightmare began. I remember her first Christmas. Between us and the grandparents, not only did we fill her toy chests but, we overflowed her room. She had more than her hearts desire of toys.
Now, here we are 6 /12 year later and we could open up our own Toys R Us. We have more toys that you could possibly imagine. My want for my children to have fun and enjoy their youth has turned out to be a disastrous mess. Everywhere I look there are toys.
Before we finished our basement, we had a toy room and it was cute. I had several dressers and cabinets filled with toys. We had a jungle theme going on and it was fun. We have since remodeled and now that room is visible from the top of the family room stairs and I want to keep it neat and tidy so, I don't really want to turn it into another junk toy pile.
I have already packed up the majority of their toys and they are in the garage. What am I going to do! I need suggestions people! What do you do with your toys? Do you let your kids leave them in their rooms? Do they have a toy room? Do I want to dedicate a space just for toys?
Oh, I am not posting pictures on purpose. I am embarrassed of the mess :)
.JPG)
6 comments:
I really like the idea of rotating toys. I haven't done it yet because I do not have anywhere to store the unused toys, but it sounds like a good idea. Buy totes and put the majority of the toys in the totes. Then each month box up the toys that have been out all month and get a new one out. Then the kids stay excited about their toys and there is never as much mess.
We also make Sammi choose toys that are still nice that she does not play with much to give away around Christmas time. She does a really good job of cleaning out and enjoys giving them to the DI for another kid to have. I like it because we do not become overrun with toys and she is learning to give some of what she has.
Well, if you subscribe to my parents' school of thought, once you've had enough, you box up as many toys as you can, secretly rush them off to the DI and then months or years later when we ask my mom where such and such a toy is, she tells us we must have lost it (only revealing years later that she had either thrown the toys away or given them to the DI without us knowing).
It's not perfect, but it worked.
I watched an episode of Supernanny when she gave her solution to this problem, but now I can't remember what it was. Sorry.
I am such a scrooge when it comes to toys! Because we never really had the space for a lot of them, I was very picky about what I would let our families buy for them. That has led to us not having very many of them, but always plenty of books! The sad thing is, even though they have not even a fraction of the toys that their friends have, they still do not do a good job of taking care of them or picking them up! I finally got so frustrated with this (and stepping on the random Lego) that I told them that as much as it would hurt me and them, I was going to throw away any toys I found on the floor after they went to bed. It could be there all day long for all I care, but at the end of the day, I do NOT want to see it anymore!
My kids must be really scared of me because it's been over a month and I haven't had to throw anything away.
I hear ya! We actually have a toy closet with clear bins. We also have a bring one in, get rid of one rule.
I've heard of toy rotation and think it's brilliant, but I haven't gotten around to trying it.
Our toys, in theory, are kept in the toy room. Organizing them turned out to be a huge waste of my time, so I bought three big buckets to toss them in. The buckets make clean-up very easy.
Two or three times a year, when the toys won't all fit in the buckets, I take two garbage bags down and have my boys help me choose what is garbage and what can be donated. The bags end up stuffed. I tell them that the toys we donate are going to other kids who couldn't otherwise afford to buy toys.
Children are naturally generous. They love to know they're helping other children, and I get to rid myself of two bags of clutter :)
There are a few options I can think of (not that I am even a mother yet): 1. Donate all of your unused toys to the school where I work. We can always use more! (and yes, we rotate...daily or weekly, depending on the classroom). 2. My hair dresser has a great system to maintain a clean playroom. She stores all of the toys in the closet under the stairs. The door needs a key to open it. If they want anything out, they have to bring her the toy(s) they've been playing with, have her open the closet, put the toy away, and get a new one. It may seem cumbersome, but it works really well. The kids have better attention spans because (in my opinion) they aren't flitting from toy to toy. She tells them that she won't open the closet anymore often than every 30 minutes. It also helps them with toy selection in that they only want toys that they can play with for 30+ minutes. Imaginations are up because they have to find creative ways to use the same toy when the get bored with playing with it one way. Her son is a former student of mine and he was always the best at cleaning up his area and keeping his cubby tidy. :)
Post a Comment