Another Toy Storage and Management Solution

Seriously! I explained a few months ago how we started this new system with a bin of toys that the children could choose from to play with... well, it worked... for a time.

What I found was, the toys were still not centralized and they "got out" and still poor mommy was picking up too many toys. It occured to me, "too many toys"... "hum, too many toys is exactly the problem."

Additionally, we are moving Cora into Addie's room to make it the "Girl's Room" and as it is, it is not a do-able thing with all the clutter and smaller toys.

So in a stroke of genius, or insanity, I decided to put all the toys back in the bins, in ONE CLOSET... now, the toy closet. Seriously! ALL toys are in the toy closet, with the exception of dolls, (which are in Addie's closet) and the toy ark, which always stays on the train table.

Not only that, but we faced our fears and brought ALL the toys to the middle of the living room and sorted them together. We had a pile for "TRASH", one for "SELL" and one for "KEEP". I am proud to say our "keep" and "sell" piles were nearly the same size. We also put up some good baby toys for later use... we hope. :-)

Now the plan to manage toys is as follows...

1. All toys MUST be kept in the "toy closet".

2. Each child can have one stuffed animal/lovie that is always in their care.

3. If a child wants a toy they must get permission and it MUST be returned to the closet by NO later than 5 pm (prior to dinner) if they are over 5, and NO later than 2 pm (prior to nap) if they are under 5.

4. Exceptions on on-going games, or projects will be made, but no other toys may be checked out until the first toy is put away and returned.

5. Any one that abuses these rules will have to play with the Ark or the Dolls for a day and then they get a new try.

Now, half of me feels like a controlling monster mom, but another half of me thinks, "this is how life works and I need to teach my child to be content with less, responsibility and to work together."

I think they will learn that they can share, use other things (like imagination) and they will learn self-control/discipline.

Plus, we are SO fortunate! We have a ridiculous amount of toys (even after purging). In fact, the pile of "sell" items makes me nausious, it is so large! And I doubt they will miss ONE thing in it!

So that got me to thinking... what are we down to... here are the toys we have... our basic best toys!

Legos (big and small)

Dolls and dolly things

Trains and tracks - the wood type

Noah's Ark - This was seriously THE best toy my children have ever received, Addie still plays with it daily! This all so includes those cool hard plastic animals.

Dress Up - A boy bin that includes capes, swords, tools, treasure chest and guns (yeah totally toys guns!) A girl bin with sparkly pink things! Nuf said.

Puppets - However, this one is one the fence... we might sell these too.

Kitchen toys - food, tea set, cooking tools

Dress up dolls - We don't do Barbies (they gross me out, even the disney princess ones) So we do these great "Only Hearts Dolls" They look like real girls.

Doll House - and dolls, etc...

That is it!

I'll let you know if my new plan doesn't work...

I'm humble, this might be a flop too, but I can hope!