Isn’t it amazing how one day all of the kids toys are “special” and so they creep into their bedrooms where nobody else can find them? Ava has a toy hammock in her room where we store stuffed animals and dolls. Today I took a big bag of stuffed
animals from my daughter’s room and put them in the daycare area. I also put her smaller toys in the bottom drawer of her dresser. It’s easily accessible AND off her floor. This is just a temporary solution until I clean out her closet and then decide on a toy box or other idea to store her special items in one space but also to keep it minimized. I also have my eye on one or two of the Ikea spice racks for putting books that are at her reading level. This will take them off her desk and make it more ready for her to choose to read before bed. I’m still working on ideas of the other toys.
I did organize Travis’s toys but it seems there may still be too many. The kids go in there and it becomes a disaster. There is currently a low but wide bookshelf in his closet that I am considering moving to the play room to store larger toys. With that gone I’d like to move his toy containers in there so I can just shut the door when they are not in use. I think this will help calm him before bed too. I always feel calmer with an empty room. Does that work for children too?
The good thing about starting from the top of the house and moving down is that all of the items that I don’t know what to do with or that are overflow are going into one spot (the basement). This will make it much better to take a true inventory of what is in excess and to declutter it. This is specifically evident with the daycare toys. It’s hard not to jump ahead to the basement but I know that it will all work itself out and that I need to be patient – we didn’t clutter the house in one day (more like over one Christmas and one winter birthday with one more to come!).
I finally got the 2.5 foot Christmas trees taken down from the kids rooms and their bathroom. We put them up late so I thought I’d leave them up a little later. It’s ONLY February 2nd! They are still sitting at the top of the landing waiting to be brought to the basement though. And then I still need to collect small Christmas art from the kids and go through all the Christmas bins. It seems it keeps getting more and more each year. As each holiday happens this year I’ll go through those bins and hopefully have one bin for all “other” holidays plus a few for Christmas. I don’t even know how many we have right now for Christmas but I would like it to be three if I can.
I am further motivated by a challenge the Diabetes Association has set. I get their calls for home pick-ups of unwanted items. They are coming next Wednesday, February 8th. They told me that if I donate three large bags or boxes then my family will be entered in to win a Disney family vacation. They had me at “donate 3 large bags or boxes”! It’s nice to have a goal even if it has left me feeling a wee bit panicked to get it all together in time.
Oh, and I have Ava’s 2006 baby keepsake book done plus I have a second book of keepsakes up until 2010 for her. I also purchased a baby book to do for Travis (2008) and I’ve organized his keepsakes to present to start on after that. It is nice to see the bin where I had stored all these “what do I do with them keepsakes” get emptier and emptier.
How is your home organizing coming this year?
