Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Transform Tuesday -- Kid's Toys Reorg.

I did this post about a year ago, but I'm reposting it because I need to go through our toys again and I'm hoping this will give me the motivation to do it.  :)

If you have kids, then you have toys. If you are anything like us, you have more toys than your kids could possibly play with in a day.  When we moved here 2ish years ago, we were one of the younger families at church.  We moved from a town home into a single family home and all of our stuff could fill about 1/3 of our house.  Several of the families at church took pity on us :) and gave us tons of clothes, toys, furniture, dishes, etc.  Before long our house actually had stuff in each of the rooms.  We also had more toys than we knew what to do with!

My husband and I both grew up in large families...8 children in his and 7 children in mine.  Both families were middle class, but fell closer to "lower income" than "upper income".  We were given hand-me-downs all the time.  I remember it being like Christmas whenever someone gave us something they didn't need anymore.  I also remember hating to throw perfectly good stuff away.

It has taken a good bit of effort to be okay with getting rid of things we don't need or use.  I know that sounds silly, but I'm sure some of you out there know what I mean.  So, what does this have to do with organizing your toy room?  Well, I had to sit down and go through everything.  I had several tubs and some bins to sort things into as well as some trash bags and boxes.  First I pulled out everything that was ratty and/or broken and put it in the trash.  Then I went through and pulled out all of the toys that I didn't really think we needed and they either went in the trash or in a box for Goodwill.  At this point there were still a LOT of toys left so I went through all of them again and only pulled out the things that my kids have played with more than once in the last month.  Everything else, no matter what it was went into a box for Goodwill.

As I went through them the final time, I sorted them into tubs and bins and labeled them all.  I think I cut our toys in half, but I know that everything in there are things that are in good shape and that my kids like to play with.  Now it will be much easier to clean up each time because the containers are labeled and because there aren't as many toys to clean up.  It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

**One word of caution:  This job is much easier to do when your kids are not home or are in bed.  If they are around, they will want to "help" you by pulling out toys and moving them into different containers.  Also, don't load up what is going to the garbage or Goodwill with them right there.  It will most likely cause crying and temper tantrums.**

By the way, this picture is just to show you how many toys there are left and how they are organized into tubs.  We don't keep them stacked up like this in the play room.

What have you transformed?  Link it up!

Here are the rules:

1.  Use the link to your actual blog post, not your general blog address.
2.  Grab a button and post it on your blog somewhere.








3.  Check out what everyone has done and leave them some comment love!


4 comments:

Emily said...

There isn't much that makes me more giddy than looking at a clean organized space, especially my kids playroom (probably due to the large amount of stuff there is in there, it's a feat to even look at it, let alone organize it). That's why I took pictures of it, that way, when he goes in like a tornado I can go look at pictures and know what it used to look like...you know, when I could actually see the floor. lol

Handy Man, Crafty Woman said...

Great job! I agree, much easier to do when they are asleep or our of the house, lol.

Ami Allison said...

I've had to do that I think 3 times already. Alie is only 2!!! Thanks for hosting again! :)

Leanne said...

Such great ideas and so true to never do it with your kids. I love things organized in totes and bins. Thanks for linking to We're Organized Wednesday.