So, this is my boys room. Yup, while doing lessons with my eldest, my adventurous, imaginative boys dumped out all the buckets carrying their “small” toys, right into the middle of the room.
This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. But, it will probably be the last {at least for a while}.
Monday I cleaned out my daughter’s room, taking all the toys out and allowing her to keep 5 in her room. Her room is now clean, tidy, and a pleasant room to be in. Her toys? Downstairs {waiting to be sorted and stored properly by me}. Our downstairs is like a second living area with many of the kids toys (namely the ones that are loud and make a ton of noise).
Many of the boys toys will face the same fate today.
I’m putting the kids toys on a rotation, with the opportunity to go downstairs and play with them as well.
The problem I keep running into is that for some reason beyond my understanding, my kids feel the need to pull out every toy they own. Whether they drug them out into the living room or trashed their bedrooms, toys were taking over our house!
For too long I justified the act, claiming they were “just using their imaginations.” And I’m sure they were, but how much more will they have the opportunity to use their imaginations with less toys?!
On top of it being overrun with toys, the kids would fight a lot, too. (More on that next week, so stay tuned)!
The moral of the story? Less is more.
Kids do not need as many toys as we think they need.
Come back later for an “after” picture! You can follow me on Twitter so you can get the announcement to come back and see!
**Update** Due to my two babies (2 years & 10 months old) being sick w/fevers today, the “after” pictures will have to wait. I got most of the room finished, but can no longer work in there today. My little ones are in need of their mama staying close by them. Thank you all for understanding! I hope to get them up tomorrow.
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June 4, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Yep – that looks like my girls’ play room. And parts of other rooms of the house. I’ve already been weeding many of them out and they haven’t missed ANY of them. We’re having a major giveaway in a couple of weeks to Goodwill cuz the chaos is pretty bad.
June 4, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Ugh! That looks like MY boys room. Toys have always been a constant thorn in my side. I’ve tried everything but we don’t have ANY storage in this house to place and hide and rotate. I just give the ones away that haven’t been played with in awhile.
Hugs.
Kim
June 4, 2009 at 4:09 pm
LOL…I remember those days!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s true though..they do not need all the toys they have!
It’s so funny because my kids hardly have any toys! The only ones we have are the little action guys that Daniel still plays with, but they all go in a box when he’s done. Besides that, they have their DS’s, and my girls have their Littlest Pet Shop toys! But, they always keep those in their room anyway..lol.
But, gir..I sooooo remember having two big buckets in the rooms and everything would be dumped out everyday!!!!!! Finally, we got rid of it all and they didn’t even care! That was a long, long time ago!
June 4, 2009 at 5:58 pm
I’ve done the toy rotation thing for awhile now, sometimes though it seems like there are just too many toys up in our garage, so every now and then I’ll go through those toys and give a bunch away. I do agree that less is more, sometimes I think that too many toy choices for a child is not a good idea.
I can’t wait to see your ‘after’ picture!!
Julianne
June 5, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Yep, less is better! This is what my four boys’ room looked like recently as well. I did the same thing! It’s much better now, and easier for them to keep clean!