My question isn’t how to get organized; it’s how to stay organized?
Jer and I stayed up last night to clean our basement/playroom/bomb shelter/ distructo area. I wanted to organized the toy mess a little and was surprise when Jer stayed up to help (thanks, hun.) We went crazy dumbing everything out on to the floor and chucking anything broken, riped, mangled or nasty.
A while ago I bought this from Ikea with high hopes of keeping toys in their place. I envisioned little pictures on each bin so the kids would know where to put each toy. Well, that never happened and even though I did organized the toys… they sure didn’t stay like that! By the end of the day everything is always dumped out and we just start violently shoving things back wherever just so we can see the carpet again.
So last night we ended up with this…
I guess labels aren’t as great as pictures might have been but what can I say-I’m lazy. Emma is pretty excited about the system because she is beginning to read and can (almost) tell me what every bin says. Isaac on the other had is going to be a different matter. Lets just say my hopes are not very high for him keeping things tidy.
So the bin with “random” on it… yea, I hate it. I should have written “misc.” instead of “random” but that is how by brain thinks. It’s the bin with all those stupid kid meal toys. I want to just chuck them as far as I possible can but was forced convinced to keep them.
Isaac wanted to pose after Emma did… Yes, he is holding a piece of my staircase. Yes, he is slightly destructive. (No, he does not hit anyone with that dangerous piece of house.) Yes, I love him a lot.
So my questions to you is… Have you found a toy system that works for you and your wee ones? Do you have a fool proof way to keep toy chaos down to a minimum? Please share, I’m sure so many of us could use advice.
My name is Manda and I love creating 
We found a great system. We literally threw almost everything away (well…gave away what we could). Really kids only play with a few key things. We kept trains, kitchen stuff and dolls (a few other things too). Upstairs toys have to stay upstairs and downstairs toys have to stay downstairs. It has been working for over a month now.
Yeah…move 9 times in your childs life. Then they don’t have any toys. Connor and Abi have 4 toys sitting on the floor in Connor’s bedroom. I’m sure the pile will grow now that we won’t be moving to such distant places. I kind of like them not having a lot of toys. Their imaginations make me laugh every day. Did I tell you about the time Connor used a piece of fire wood as a whale? Like Ash, the toys have to stay in their particular area (some days that’s easier said than done).
I’m chuckling over Isaac holding that stair railing. He is SO funny.
I throw away all Kids Meal Toys after they’ve played with them for a few days. But I have a friend who keeps hers all in a basket in the car and they can ONLY be in the car, no taking them into stores or anything. I thought that was a good idea.
You’re far better off than I am with an actual playroom. Maybe someday we’ll get that basement finished (sigh!)