The Holidays are over
After the weekend I had, I had to go back to work yesterday to get some rest.
The play kitchen in our den is now in the garage waiting to be taken to a consignment shop, and where it was located is now filled with bookshelves. Three bookshelves, one with doors, and two with half doors. Behind the doors are bins filled with toys, and in the open bookshelf section are baskets filled with toys as well as a ton of books. All books on these shelves belong to the girls, with a section for TT and another section for GG. Oh, and all of the games came out of the closet in the spare bedroom and they are on the top shelf of two of the bookshelves.
Every toy in the house was sorted through over the weekend. I bought two large boxes of gallon sized ziplock bags (the kind with the zipper thing, not the squeeze them closed kind), and every toy that has small parts has the small parts in a ziplock bag beside it. So, tucked into the barn is a ziplock bag with barnyard animals. (Not recommended for younger kids, of course, plastic bags can be dangerous for younger kids.) There is a small bin with nothing but toy cars and trucks and airplanes and earth movers. There is also a bin with nothing but barbies, and a bin with nothing but barbie clothes (the accessories like shoes and purses are in smaller ziplocks in that bin). There is a larger bin with nothing but small electronic toys (Leapster song thing, Vtech write and learn pad, etc). There is a bin for the potato head family and all of the potato head parts. You get the idea.
And there are two shelves in the laundry room now set aside for the larger toys (like the barbie house, and the play airport).
Also, all toys that have been taken away have been returned. About four months ago I gave warning that they should clean up the toys in the den, and that if I had to clean it up myself that I would confiscate any toys not put away. They didn’t, I did, and I ended up with a decent sized box of toys that went out to the garage. Since then, when I’ve given that warning, they’ve cleaned up. So I relented and gave them the confiscated toys back. And they were soooo happy to get the items back, going through the box was almost like Christmas all over again.
Seeing the kitchen go was hard. I remember when GG first got it. She couldn’t even turn on the little light over the sink. Now she towers over it and has been using the very top of it to put things she didn’t want TT to reach. And TT has been using the refrigerator as a place to store her matchbook cars. Like I said, it was time for it to go. But it was still hard. It’s like one phase of our life is over or something. The bookshelves look so grown up over there compared to the kitchen and the plastic bin things that were over there.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:06 am
We did the smae thing this weekend. Cleaned out both storage areas and went through all the toys and books. It was amazing the junk we have blindly moved from one house to another without ever opening the boxes. Our trash pile is huge and I dropped a trunk load of donations at GoodWill yesterday. Feels good to be even more clutter free!
January 6th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Same concept but a safer idea for younger kids to keep small parts close and organized are the zipper mesh bags used to wash your delicates in the washig machine. You can usually find them in the laundry section at walmart.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I’ll be doing that kind of organizing this week. We traveled last week, so I’m just getting the Christmas decorations down today. I love the mesh bag idea. We have little ones, and I was trying to come up with a good alternative to ziplocs.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:28 am
…RQ…Must be the time of year…but I have done some serious “pitching” and it feels good…maybe it is the “nesting” instinct that is setting in prior to referral….any which way it looks good to get rid of “stuff” that no longer is needed….I hate clutter….
January 6th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Oh we so need to do this! We’ve been talking about it forever and I know that it would leave our basement and the playroom a much cleaner, clutter free place. However, we’re having a very hard time giving away the kitchens (she has three) and all of those special toys that she has collected since day one. Our daughter just turned 5 in November and we have never given away one toy that she has collected since she was 10 months old! Talking about a cluttered house! Maybe I should take a picture of everything and then send it off to GoodWill? Oh, how to let go…..
January 6th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
We regularly take photos of the things we give away. It is a great idea. I also had a hard time letting go of toys that were in her room ready for a little girl even before she arrived. My thought now is that the economy is so terrible so many people can make better use of clean, gently used toys so off they go to a new home.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I’ve noticed a similar pattern to our household. After Christmas, I sort through all of “the boss’s” toys; pick out the ones that have not been played with for more than 6 months, re-organize the closet and toy storage. It is a necessity as more toy inventory has arrived via the merry guy from the north pole and relatives. If I don’t do it, there will be stacks of stuff all over the house. And stacks of stuff all over the house makes me crazy.
On a different toy thread, one of the discipline options in our household is “the black hole”. If “the boss” does something he should not or fails to do something which he should, then one of our punishment options is to put a toy in the black hole.
For us, the black hole is the top shelf of mom & dad’s closet.
If it is a big infraction that requires him to really pay attention, we take a favorite toy. For something not so important, but for which you still need to re-enforce the message, I pick a moderately favorite toy or one that I’m pretty sure he won’t miss that much, like that gianourmous Rescue Heroes Command Center which went into the garage.
“The Boss” can get toys out of the black hole by earning them back. “Earning a trip” to the black hole has changed over the years as he has gotten older, but it is still a behavior motivator, especially if there is a favorite toy in there. At the ancient age of 7, the boss can get something out of the black hole if he tries a new food, eats dinner with reasonable table manners(sitting in the chair, using fork and spoon, conversing, not verbal diahrea), puts toys away without lots of nagging, harping or yelling from the parents.
One of the side effects of the black hole is that it helps me know which toys the boss has outgrown. If a toy stays in the black hole more than 6 months, it is probably time to give it a new home somewhere else. OnlyChina2, don’t think of it as getting rid of toys, think of it as finding a new home with someone who will enjoy and appriate it.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
You all might want to take a look at the thread that is discussing the “no used clothes” anymore due to the new, badly written, overly broad legislation (CPSIA) that requires any toys or clothing sold for children under 12 to be tested for lead… the consignment stores won’t be around much longer if this isn’t amended fast – we just lost a great one in my town. Goodwill, Salvation Army, and yard sales are included… yes, this includes toys/clothing made before the CPSIA start date of February 10th, and yes, it also includes handmade toys from small toy manufacturers/family businesses/ETSY craftspeople.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
RQ,
You are so good and organized! Thanks for the inspiration. DD is 2 and is currently using her kitchen to store individual goldfish crackers in the refrigerator (she thinks I don’t know they are in there) and the little microwave holds one of the dog’s chew toys. She puts her hairbows in the sink when she is tired of wearing them so she can find them again when I ask about them. I think we will be doing some organizing this weekend!
January 6th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
In our house, I have divided up all the toys by collections. Pirates in one plastic bin, TMNT in another, Mr Potato Head in another and so on. Each collection has their very own bin and they stack nice in the closet. Then my son only takes out one toy at a time and then puts it away to choose something else.
Makes it so much more cleaner..
January 6th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
We have also used the bin idea for quite some time and it works very well. I also require my 3 boys to fill a bin (or so) of items to donate to our church’s nursery and preschool department each year a few weeks before Christmas…this helps open up some space for the new items to come. I tell them that unless we get rid of some stuff, we won’t be able to accept the new stuff!
January 8th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I too have been cleaning and reorganizing my house. I have taken lots of items to the consignment shop and thrift store. I also like to shop at these stores sometimes. Has anyone heard of the new law that will keep stores from resaling children items? I just heard about it and was wondering if I could get someone else’s take on it. Here is a link:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thrift2-2009jan02,0,2083247.story