Ok, thanks to everyone who has commented on toy organization.
I have more specific questions now. How do you know if you have too many toys? I went and bought two large storage tubs (1 pink and 1 purple) and two smaller ones for markers and stuff. I already have a few somewhere in the house as well.
So, this is what we have:
Massive amounts of dress up stuff- jewelry, shoes, purses, hats...
Barbies-my old ones in a container already
several different types of blocks
Little People Dollhouse and Barn plus the many pieces that I find all over
Lots of books, the nice ones on shelves
kitchen set with dishes and two tea sets
magnadoodles
coloring books, crayons, markers, playdough
DOLLS!!!
Strollers-3
stuffed animals
puzzles and games (board type)
large basket of 'baby' toys
a plastic vanity
a rocking horse
chalkboard and chalk
two doll 'Heads' with hair to play with
various other random bits of stuff
I would say what they like the most is the tea sets, strollers and dolls, blocks, dress up stuff, books and anything arts/crafts. (all playdough, markers etc.) So should I stick with these categories and sort it accordingly?? Store the rest? The love getting the puzzles and games out too...But, I really, REALLY want to end the toy madness. It's everywhere I look and creates brain clutter. So, I am planning to tackle some of it after the girls wake up, which means i gotta go and finish cooking while they're asleep.
Thanks wonderful women of God!!!!
5 comments:
Hey lady! Sounds like you already have the toys grouped. I'd say one tub only out at a time. Your kids are small enough that they will play with whatever is in the tub. If they do prefer to play with different things, let them each pick a few toys to put in one tub and they can drag that out and play - but only one tub at a time. If they want the blocks tub they'll have to pick up the other stuff first. You can also schedule tubs so they get a chance to play with them all. That way the toys seem new to them. There should also be time to clean up/tidy up before bed. Nobody wants to wake up to a dirty room :(
The good thing is that as your kids get a little older, they will "specialize" and only like maybe a couple of types of toys. For my son it was stuffed animals and cars. For my daughter it was babies and Polly Pockets. The rest was safe to get rid of. Although we have kept a good supply of board games, legos and craft items. Oh, and a big animal farm set just in case Polly Pocket wants to go to the country LOL!
It was hard for me to get rid of those cute baby toys when they grew out of them, but it was also a bit of a relief.
Rotate! That's the easiest and the most fun for your kids. Put the not-used toys on the bottom of your closet with your shoes on top of them. Rotate about twice a month. When I put the boxes on the top shelf of my kids closets... I heard an enormous crash. Yep, you guessed it!
KH
I posted the pics of toy organization on my blog!
I keep tabs on your blog and love organization so I couldn't help but comment. I have 3yr old and 1yr old girls. We have a craft area by our kitchen table ( a wide three drawer sterilite container) where we keep anything crafty (playdoh, coloring books,crayons, markers, scissors, homeschool dry erase marker books, beads for beading, you get the idea). The craft drawers are absolutely off limits unless they have my permission (this does require follow through as my girls love crafts), and I supervise them when they're playing with something potentially messy (ie playdoh, paints, etc). If one girl is crafting, the other one is there too. The more I can keep them doing the same thing, the less mess! It's worked well for us.
As far as the toy madness goes, my biggest suggestion is give away a lot. Kids don't need 1000 toys to be happy. I talked to my 3 year old before our last toy purge and explained the situation to her. "There are a lot of little kids that don't have toys and you have too many. We're going to go through all your toys and you can decide what we're going to keep, and the rest we'll give to the little kids." I was a little worried going into it, but she made really wise decisions. Talk to your girls about what they like and want to keep as well. Include them, it's a huge lesson they can learn. There is a book called Berenstain Bears and the messy room. It's not Christian, but you can include those themes as you read it.
Last thought, as this is a loooong comment. As you clean out and organize, instead of looking at a pile of stuff as "what can I get rid of" look and it and say "what here is a treasure or a gem that I really want to keep." Worked wonders for me. Good luck and God Bless You!
Thank you so much for all the help. I am liking the idea of 'rotating toy tubs' and have started to implement it. I am lucky in that this house has two very large floor to ceiling cupboards by the kitchen table. I've been using the lower ones for craft items with a lock on the door. I moved a bunch of it to the playroom, but am planning to move it back to the kitchen so they can use it while I'm in there too.
It's so much harder with three little ones wanting playdoh and markers though...
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