I was at my wit’s end. I felt like I was always organizing toys and putting them back where they belonged. But it would not stay that way.
You see, my boys are the worst at cleaning up! they can destroy the house in 7 minutes flat, and i’ll be stepping on their toys forever.
Well, I said no more.
And After watching the KonMari method, I was so very tempted to throw all of my kids toys away. They definitely did not bring me happiness! neither, might I add, did they bring my boys all that much happiness either. They don’t like playing in cluttered, messy places. so they take some of their toys to my clean areas and dirty them up!
You Don’t Have To Throw The Toys Away.
The biggest problem with just throwing them all away, is that I paid for these toys, and individually I know that my boys appreciate them. So I went through and put in boxes every single toy/item in their room. All of it. Except for their legos and clothes. That’s it.
Then I hid all the boxes in my bedroom closet and I told my son if he could keep his room clean for 2 weeks, he’d get another box.
Funny to say, he never got another box.
And you know what?? They were perfectly happy with the legos.
They played so much more in their room, because there was always space. even if/when all the legos were dumped out, and all the bagged clothes were out of the drawers (why???) (check out my ziploc plan for boys) they still had enough empty space on their floor that they could play without bringing their toys into my clean living space. . . or semi clean living space.
Switching Out The Toys, But Keeping Them Organized:
After about a month. My 3 year old came up to me really excited. “Toys mom, in the bathroom!” “Oh cool, he wants to show me some of his bath toys he had forgotten”
Nope!
He brought me to my bathroom closet where the packed and organized toys were. I didn’t have the heart to tell him no. So he got to play with a small box. This reminded my older son about the hidden toys, and he asked if he could get the extra box.
A genius thought came into my head.
“No, but you can switch. pack up all your legos, and i’ll give you another box.”
He agreed, and in no time the legos were put up, and the action figures were down. And they boys loved it. It brought a renewed vigor to their game play.
This actually made me really happy, because they have a lot of legos, and I was tired of picking up such small pieces.
Continuing The Rotating Play:
A couple of weeks after that, the action figures went up, and the cars came down. But only when they asked and got everything back into their boxes. Easy!
Here is how I separated their toys:
Legos
Trains
Cars
Action Figures
Balls
Dress up
Toy Guns/Weapons.
Bey Blades
Stuffed Animals
Big Blocks
Toddler Toys (that’s the box my little boy saw)
Extras that are not played with:
Any random toy that didn’t have a place, got thrown away during my first purge and organizing of toys. They’ll never miss them.
My boys may never ask for some of the boxes in the closet. And that is ok. after a while, i’ll quietly get rid of the toys they don’t think are worth playing with.
Sometimes we are afraid that our children will be missing out on joy if we limit their toys.
I found that is was just the opposite. They find greater joy with being able to play with what they have, and a renewed joy with (not buying new) exchanging for a new set of toys.
Give it a try, have a cleaner home, and happier boys. . . And girls. I’m sure it would work with girls too. But I only can only vouch for boys.
I’m pretty sure i’m not the only one who came up with this idea. So let me know how organizing toys works in your family!
