Organizing Toys...

I vaguelly recall a time when I had no toys scattered about my home. At one point I actually went to the store and bought some tinker things for my babies to play with. And once they were finished I would place them into a basket and neatly tuck it away beside my living room couch. Then Christmas came, and birthdays and a couple more kids. Toys quickly invaded my home like zombies invade shopping malls.

There is no true solution to the toy problem. In the beginning I would include "The only gift we request is your presence" on every birthday invitation, but it was always ignored. In my situation we generally get duplicates of everything. I have 3 daughters so of course they need 3 of the same exact barbie doll. My son, he gets the Incredible Hulk, who gets to marry Barbie. So our house can be overcome with toys, unless I take control first.

A couple of years ago I saw a Super Nanny episode (I'm not a fan) in which the Nanny helped to organize a family's living room's toy problem by investing in about 20 big blue tupperware tubs and tossing the toys in each. Maybe she even seperated them according to color, but I was astounded. This very idea is exactly why our homes turn into a tornado invaded toy store within a matter of minutes. When a kid is looking for something to do, something to play with, they are overwhelmed with sooo many things. And when everything is tossed into bins they have to start digging and tossing and dumping just to find what they want, only to realize that they don't want any of what's in *that* bin. So they carry on to the next.

I would be lying if I said that I had the solution years ago. In fact, only about a year ago did I finally figure out what is the best way to handle the toy factor.

First thing to do is to watch an episode of Clean Sweep. This is always motivational for getting rid of that half chewed up stuffed animal (from the dog, not the teething infant). Get a couple of bags, one for trash and one for Goodwill, and go to town.

I have a large toy room, with 2 closets. I probably have more toys in the closets than in the actual toy room. The closets are secured like Fort Knox, with the idea that if the toy room is clean then they may check out a favorite toy. Things like Lincoln Logs and Lego's are locked away.

I'm not terribly cruel. We have many other toys that they have access to as well. Now is a good time to let me introduce you to my BFF: The Cubbie!

The majority of our toy collection is now located within the safety of these colorful little boxes. We have labels for each, including Kitchen Toys, Boy Toys, Girl Toys, Tools & Building Supplies, Doctor Equipment, Notebooks & Workbooks & Coloring Books, Arts & Crafts, Playhouse Toys, etc. This is also helpful for teaching sitewords. My 4 year old son can read several of these and those he can not he knows the color.

Another benefit of this is clean up time. When the kids go into destructive mode and choose to dump everything out, which is infrequent now that they know the consequences, I simply designate specific cubbies they are responsible for refilling.

Now we can take it a little further for those who are feeling a bit sassy. My other bestfriend is the quart sized zip lock bag.

For those collections that you just can't figure out why you have, such as Mr. Potatoe Head's playdough thingamagigits, put it in a bag before you put it in a cubbie. The note I have to this particular cubbie says "Toys In Bags Warning, if it is not in a bag do not put it in here, go find the bag it belongs in and then return." This works well as long as one particular child is not completely alone in the toy room, at which time they will just blame the mess on someone else.

As for those big blue tupperware tubs, keep one. For everything big, and for those days that you just can't stand looking at the mess anymore. Toss everything into it and give the kids a couple of days to find a place for their toys before you create an eBay auction. Sit on the couch, kick your feet up and laugh.