At some point last week, my children took every single toy out of our toy bins. I don't know when it happened, or who was the ring leader, because I was drunk and unable to process those kind of details.
Kidding. Kind of. I wasn't drunk (Relax!), but the mess did go unnoticed for a few days, as it occurred somewhere near the weekend, and I DO NOT CLEAN on the weekends, even if someone takes a big, juicy poop on our floors. Kidding, I would clean that, but not much else. Also, on top of the "NO Cleaning" rule, I have assumed that this particular toy bin is a portal to the earth's unending supply of plastic crap, and tend to ignore what it vomits onto my floors every day.
It's been years since I saw the bottom of that bin. YEARS. And it appeared to be covered in small McDonald's toys, crumbs and pieces of wicker? To my great shock, no rancid, cheese-filled sippy cups were discovered. But. It is clear that our toy inventory can be separated into the following categories: Crap, crap with dead batteries, crap with broken or missing parts, baby crap, small rubber balls and small purses/bags/backpacks.
Seriously.
Case in point: This little beauty (pictured below), has been hanging out in the toy bin. It's that Fisher-Price stacking star toy that plays music and lights up. NONE of the stars are to be found. And let's say my children have outgrown this thing by, at least....3.5 years.
So. I have weeded. I have separated. I have organized (you're right, not really.). I have thrown lots of stuff down in the basement. But at the end of the day, I need some sort of genius system for keeping it all neat 'n tidy. Any tips for beating toys into submission?My problem here is...well, a lot. I own EVERY size of plastic bin that exists. But when you have 25 of them hanging out in your living room, it's fugly. Neat, but fugly.
There are cute options at Pottery Barn, and Target, and pretty much everywhere, but they are too small! Or too kid-like, or too impractical. Or a ga-zillion dollars. I think I need to find a cheap bookcase that I can paint a funky color and fill with baskets--but it's possible a bookcase might not be deep enough for the size of basket I would need. Though, I will also say that I am strictly against bookshelves for books, as they end up everywhere and I find it a pain to keep it nice looking. We throw our books in a slide out drawer...nicer copies and bigger books are on a mommy-daddy only shelf.
Oh my God, did you laugh out loud when I said I like to keep my bookshelves "nice looking"? I did! Because my house looks like the place where cheap plastic gets wasted and all kinds of nasty. We are the Vegas of crap, and what happens here stays here and multiplies like rabbits. Let's not fool ourselves by saying anything in here is "nice looking". Just keepin' it real.
I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for. Mostly because, I don't have a good eye for assessing what I have, and then finding a solution that will contain it. And I'm pretty sure that Target would frown upon me carrying my crap pile into their store for measuring purposes.
So. I'm interested in suggestions and advice from all of you who seem to have toys that are well kept and showered and groomed. And if I have ever been to your house, that means I am talking to you.
Help me.
11 comments:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40047675
hmmm. or, you could just be like me and trash or donate most of it :) i regularly go through my kids stuff and get rid of ALL JUNK (meaning: happy meal crap, chuck e. cheese junk, and any other small plastic toy we've acquired via a fast-food meal) along with anything i don't see them play with regularly. they never seem to miss anything :)
wow. this brings back memories. 2 thoughts:
1.whatever method you pick, have a "missing parts" bin, for WHATEVER odd part turns up, and you don't know where the rest of it is at the moment.
2.institute a "blitz", where kids + mom run around FAST for five minutes (use a timer), and put away crap.... :)
Expedit cabinet from IKEA. It's awesome. http://hannahandlayla.blogspot.com/2009/05/im-in-love.html
I keep almost every single toy on open shelves so I have to see them. It forces me and the kids to keep things clean. And I have all kinds of random baskets/bins/tubs/etc but they are all fairly small (except the ones for dress-ups, wood blocks and doctor toys) but everything fits fine. I am kind of intense on organizing b/c I HATE having crap all over the place! This helped me a lot... we have a SPACE, not a bin, for everything. So in our playroom there is a kitchen area, a dress-ups area, book area (and I have trained the kids to put them neatly back on the shelf!), a "people" area (for Little People, doll house, Polly Pockets, etc)... and then we have turned our dining room into the art room so that all of that kind of crap has a place too. I have only one random area and it's the bottom shelves of our living room bookcase but it has doors and the "random" is all things with batteries like Leapsters, their laptop, etc. For me, I throw stuff away all the time! And my kids think McDonald's workers are total idiots b/c 99% of the time I tell them they forgot the toy! :) I don't keep anything that doesn't already have a place! But now my kids know where everything goes and I can ask them to clean up by themselves and THEY DO IT! :) Totally liberating!
All that being said... I LOVE to organize and will come over to help with ideas if you want! Sometimes it just takes new eyes to see what you need, you know?
AND all that said, I've been to your ADORABLE house and I bet it's not as big of a problem as you think! :)
I found these gianormous baskets at Pottery barn (not kids) and then i had dale make a bench to fit the baskets. it's in front of a window- it's also a sitting bench- functional on many levels. I also found cute white baskets with liners (at PBK) and he built a 5 tier shelf to hold them. So I guess I'm saying I'm lucky that dale builds things to hold all our crap.... :)
sounds like a fun project for a Saturday morning... you should redo the room just for fun!! I'll help:)
As I was reading your post, I was wondering what I'd use when the time comes that we have to put the toys somewhere and I thought about our IKEA thing that Wayne bought for the study. I looked up the Ikea Expedite that 2 of your commenters mentioned, and that's it. But, I'd buy some bins to go in the squares. Looks annoying w/ toys all visable.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/childrens_ikea/12018/
We have something from this collection, with several different sized bins for different toys. Large bin for instruments, small bin for plastic crap, medium bin for animal toys, etc. But I only have one, and the bins often overflow and need to be re-evaluated.
The bins slide in and out and are all within in reach, and my two year old has no problem putting his toys away in them.
Basically everyone who comes to me house is in awe of the dang thing. We want more. :)
I LOVE Homegoods or Gordmans for neat looking trunks you can throw all your toys in. I would say I've never spent over 35.00 and they last a long time.
Look for trunks, not baskets. If I used baskets, I would need like 50 of them :)
HAHAHA I can't stop laughing!!!
You are so funny! Oh geez. Okay, first, choose a few entire groups of toys and get rid of them. We got rid of all the Polly Pockets and it improved my life a great deal.
What Michele said about Happy Meal/cheap crap.
What Anonymous said about the spare parts bin.
We have an electronics bin, for Leapsters and chargers and whatnot.
We tried using cloth bins on shelves, and that sucked. Too small.
We've tried having one (who am I kidding, we had several) large toy chest for everything, and that sucked.
Here's the current set-up:
-Large bin for dress-up clothes
-Wheeled plastic bin from Target with fold-down handles for the boys' tools
-Two more of these for Athena's Barbie crap and her Zhu-Zhu pets crap
-Small canvas bin for Dora's family and furniture
-Play food in their kitchen or in the shopping cart
-The boys' action figures in stacking plastic drawer bins in their room
-Helena's family of baby dolls in her closet-house and stroller
-Games and puzzles in an armoire in our living room.
-Legos in a plastic bin with a lid in the boys' room
-Plastic bin of magnet building toys in the playroom
But they don't use any of that stuff because they are either watching tv or playing video games all day.
Kidding!
Anyway, we don't have any other toys. I think narrowing down the types of toys is key, because then it is easier to decide what to get them as gifts, and easier to tell when you're getting too much -- if Barbies overflow the Barbie bin, someone has to move out. I am about to remove a couple other subsets listed above, because I am mean and I feel like it.
I just recently put all the kids' books on a bookshelf in our hallway upstairs. It is handy for bedtime stories, doesn't get pulled apart 20x/day like it would downstairs, and is hidden from public view!
Oh, also, I find it helps to cut myself a break because I am providing toys for both genders and three developmental levels. I have a friend with three boys ages 5-8, and she has a lot fewer toys than we do, but then she doesn't have to deal with baby dolls and Barbie crap at all. You're in the same boat, except even more challenging since your twins are b/g. You're going to have a lot of crap around.
Post a Comment