I’ve made a decision. Toys are now banned from the birthday and Christmas wish list. Or at least I need to set up an exchange program because clearly, things have gone too far.
If I can’t walk through my child’s bedroom without nearly breaking my neck we’ve got a problem. You see, having two little ones to care for with no help during the day means I’ve have to corral one to clean the other. I thought for sure Kaydee’s bedroom would be the ideal place for her to hang out for 10 minutes while I gave Emmaleigh a bath. Boy was I wrong!
I finished getting baby girl all freshened up and smelling good to open my toddler’s bedroom door and find this little disaster…
and this disaster behind the door…
and this one in the closet.
Can anyone tell me how a beautiful room can turn into such a horrendous mess in a matter of 10 minutes? I’ll tell you how…too many toys! She’s got way too many options and just can’t focus on the one in her hand when there’s 5 more just begging to be be played with, and 5 more after that.
So this weekend my mission is this…to declutter my toddlers room! We’ll be donating any toys that are still in working condition to whomever is willing to take them off our hands and creating a policy for the holidays. For every new toy, they have to give away 3 old ones. And aside from getting rid of old toys, I really need to figure out a way to organize her room. Soon we’ll have our youngest crawling and I can’t have small toys like this scattered everywhere every other day.
About Cat Davis
Oh I feel you girl. We got double the presents this past weekend as both my boys had their birthdays. We need a play room badly. I can’t leave my oldest in his room or that would happen. I have to watch him like a hawk lol.
We tried this rule too. We ended up just getting rid of toys to get toys. If the kids want toys for bdays or xmas they have to part with toys first.
We moved most of the toys into our garage. I got sick of cleaning up the mess.
I was just thinking this morning about how toys are taking over all the floors again! I got rid of toys (86 the broken ones, donate the good ones) just a few weeks ago…I’m going to have to go through all these again. I did but a small square container for our master br and thats kept the toys off our floor, maybe I’ll have to pick up some more for each area of the house.
Both boys just love getting the toys everywhere, it seems like that’s where the fun lies. Then again, I don’t think they’re actually playing with each toy when they’re busy spilling them all over.
we just cleaned out three garbage bags full, took them to the goodwill. We only keep toys with special meaning. Now we have two 18gal storage box full of stuff & his big toys. It is still too much and scattered everywhere when he gets a chance.
I can’t wait to have a playroom so the toys can be concentrated in one place instead of all over our living room, kitchen and bedrooms. I don’t even know how they got all these toys since we rarely buy any.
I’m glad I dont have girls.. they have even more stuff than boys! LOL
I tried the “nothing bigger than said child recieving the gift”… that didnt work =\
I never thought I’d turn into a toy hating adult as a kid, but I feel your pain.. BADLY! They drive me bonkers!
How about also making it a service-oriented activity? and sharing toys with children who are sick or needy? Then it also involves a caring concern for others and the kids will (hopefully) feel really good about themselves
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LOL That’s how my daughters room looks EVERYDAY ugh…1 kid, too many toys and 1 Mom running on coffee see the picture
We just donated bunch of toys (like 4 huge bags)back in March,but still there is way too many left LOL
My boys have done that so many times. I make them clean up their rooms, with them of course. I do need to get rid of a LOT of toys.
LOL I feel your pain! Just last week I went through my kids’ playroom and I’m getting rid of about 1/3 of what they have. It’s crazy how many toys you accumulate over 8 years! Garage sale time!
We tried to donate toys to the Goodwill, but they said due to federal regulations they could no longer accept them. We will donate them to places the the womens’ shelters or City Missions. Good Luck in getting her to part with any!
I used to keep stuff in totes…Not any more…We would forget they had a certain toy already and end up repurchasing them…YUCK..Use CLEAR totes for storage if you do!!
What we do is have a toy rotation…kids get sick of toys so quickly, but it makes no sense to keep on buying more…so what we do is we have some put away in a closet in my room (for special times — vacation days, sick, etc.), regular toys 1/2 out to play with, and 1/2 in the basement storage…every few months or so, we swap the stored ones with a good amount of the ones out and it’s like they have new ones all over again
I am in the same boat as you. My youngest is almost about to crawl and I am terrified at the toys my older daughter leaves sitting around. We have too many toys! I recently went through their rooms and donated a lot of stuff. My daughter’s birthday is coming up and when we put the new toys away, she will have to donate more!
I have the same problem with my boys. We’re in the process of setting up a toy closet. All toys go in the closet in labeled bins/drawers etc. If a child wants to play with something – they get permission and are allowed to play with one “genre” at a time. No other bins are allowed out until the previous one has been returned to it’s rightful place. It’s saving my sanity already and we’re only halfway through their toys!
We have that problem a lot. I have learned to pass down the “better toys” like educational or electronic to friends with younger children, but we take a lot to the women’s shelters too. I prefer them to goodwill as ours actually just give them to children leaving abusive homes versus selling them.
btw…love the new design. I found a theme I want to customize for mine that I haven’t see anywhere else. Just have to decide if I’m ready to take the plunge and the time to make it me. I’ll probably wait until summer vacation to do it.
We have the same issues at my house! I now have a closet downstairs that is dedicated to toy rotation – and every month or so we trade out the toys that are cluttering our house for new toys to clutter our house. The kids do play with them like they are new again, which is nice, and we don’t have SO many things all over the place.
When we had our second, we finished off the basement and made it into a playroom. Guess what? It doesn’t matter, kids just love having toys everywhere. I tell them, it’s time to get rid of the old ones but my oldest says he plays with them all ( which is so true! )
So I made the same rule as you. I told family and friends that toys are only allowed Christmas time, but birthdays its either clothing or gift cards. Plus my boys birthdays are only 2 days apart and I have one party, so thats twice as many in 1 day!!
Wish me luck, its next month, I can only imagine, who is not following my rules…..