1. Â My children have developed a love for books.
2. Â Without being connected to toys, my children connect with each other.
3. Â Kids really don’t need toys to entertain themselves. Â
4. Â My children don’t seem near as materialistic as they used to be.
5. Â My children play with more purpose and engross themselves completely in the “task” at hand.
6. Â Less toys and mess, means more everything else!
7. Â I am more pro-active and involved with what my kids play with.
8. Â My children have more interest in the world outside.
9. Â I have a cleaner house.
10. Â Less yelling and arguing.
11. Â I’ve saved my sanity.
12. Â Reason’s 1-11 has helped us all grow closer together.
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My grandson would loves this
Sometimes, a choice we made has a much larger ripple effect than* we are prepared for.
Thank you for the info. Very helpful!
I just have to tell you that I am enjoying your blog so much. I just recently started blogging myself, and love it in the evening when I can wind down and read others’ blogs. I came across yours last night, and went from watercolor pillows, to the girls’ bedrooms (I love the personal touches you give each one ), to the dining room, and now this post. I love this idea! I am currently in the process of redoing my kids’ playroom, and although I thought when I first moved into this home I’d be okay with the playroom being messy, some days even trashed, I’m really not. I’m already a bin-freak, labeled and all, so clean up should be easy, but my little one wants to drag out one bin after another. Come clean up time, and he’s super overwhelmed. I like the idea of adding a lock to the playroom closet! My ten year old will probably flip his lid, but my sanity may be worth it. I look forward to reading more posts. You have a natural way of talking to your readers.
P.S. I really like the faux brick wall in your dining room. I saw on another blog where someone added spackle to their bricks to make them more realistic, and I thought that was cool. I have tried to convince my Hubby that a brick wall would look awesome in our family room, but he’s skeptical (he lacks vision sometimes, poor guy). I haven’t ruled it out, but I like him to be on board first.
Kelly Hedlund recently posted…Project Playroom: Part 1
Ok I guess we do it different somehow. My granddaughter is 18 months old. She is allowed to take out as many toys as she wants.
When its time to get ready to go we tell her its time to pick up the toys. That’s that, she will put them in toy box and off we go.
I don’t think she is unusual.
We had seven kids when I was at home and we all learned to clean up after ourselves.
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Love this idea! Cute little boy by the way! What do you do with his toys? Does he have different rules because he is so little? I’m sorry if I missed it in the post!
Thank you! I think he is pretty cute too 😉 He does have different rules at this point. He is still too little to get his own toys out and drag them around, so I keep them in that toy box in the living room and hand them to him. The older kids will occasionally drag those around as well (sigh) but they are a easy clean up. I know, once he is moving around, I’ll do the same thing. Rotating the toys is a good idea in general. Otherwise they get so bored of seeing the same ones they don’t even play with them. Thanks for stopping by!
Talk about a great idea
Why, thank you very much!
We have 6 kids ages 2-14 and I too sometimes feel like I;m drowning in clutter and toys! I love your idea! I think kids can get overwhelmed when they have too many toys and it seems like they tend to dump everything out in one pile and then not really play with anything. Only having one at a time would let them concentrate on that particular toy. We are actually re-configuring the bedroom that 3 of the boys share tomorrow so it would be a great time to put this into effect!
This is pure genius! I only have two children, boys 12 and 4, so my situation is a bit different, but I can totally identify with having toy clutter spread from one corner of the house the other! I cannot function either when my house is a disaster. Definitely keeping this in mind!
I love this idea. And sometimes being the mean parent in the end teaches great lessons. Growing up we had toys galore. They were everywhere. Now when we go and visit my parents I have anxiety that my kids are going to leave a big mess. I really wish my mom would get rid of stuff. It would help her have a clean and tidy house.
We, as parents, have really tried to give the kids toys that help them. It is so hard when my kids have 3 grandmas that insist that they each get them something for Christmas or birthdays. Way too much stuff in my house. But we have taught the kids that each Christmas they have to get rid of 3 toys, at least, before they get to put the new toys away. Which has kept our house cleaner. Not perfect but better.
I love your ideas. I might implement a few, but unfortunately I don’t have a closet to lock all the toys in. Yet. 🙂
I so agree with everything you said! Christmas and Birthdays can be so overwhelming. We too have tried to teach our kids that we need to “make room” for new toys at those certain celebrations. The more kids you have, the more overwhelming it all gets. And yes, not everyone has an empty closet, but I think there are definitely ways you can implement these ideas without actually LOCKING everything up.
I have a question. So, each child gets to pick one bin of toys to play with at a time? If you have three kids are there three different choices until lunchtime and then they can swap after? Or do all of the kids have to agree on the same one bin of toys to play with at a time?
Great question! I thought about addressing that, but worried I was getting too wordy and detailed in the post 😉 So here is what we do in our house. Some of the toys are in smaller totes or even drawstring bags, like you saw in my pictures. A box for musical instruments, dolls, puzzles, fine motor activities (beads and such). I grouped those toys together in smaller boxes. Then we have larger totes that hold collections of Little People toys, Mega blocks, Dress-up clothes, Stuffed animals – larger stuff like that. I tell my kids (well, the 3 that are old enough to walk anyway) that if they want to each pick their own, they have to grab one of the smaller boxes. Then they can either trade with each other (whenever they are ready to in my opinion) until we have to put them away. If they decide they want one of the larger boxes (and they are all home at the time), I allow 1 of those at a time – and they have to plan together and decide, which is another benefit. My oldest girl did figure out how to get the key, and she proceeded to push the limits one day and grabbed more than one of the big boxes. She quickly learned her lesson when she realized that the huge mess was now her responsibility to clean up. I thought it was a great natural consequence, and she asks from now on. But truly, I think you could adapt this idea to work however would work best for your family. Thanks for reading!
I love this. I have a dream of making my kids share a room so one of the bedrooms can be a play room. I want to be able to keep all the toys in one place instead of all over the house! Having kids “check out” a toy bin makes it more purposeful than just dumping out a box and complaining of being boooooorrrred.
I think that is a great idea to put them in the same room, no toys – and then a room for toys. That would be so helpful! Great solution if you don’t have a closet with a reverse lock 😉
This is amazing! I think I am going to do this. Even though Hadley is only 2 its good to start early. I get so frustrated with clean up and half the time she doesn’t even care about fthe toys. I didn’t have a lot of toys when I was little and I used my imagination. I want my kids to be more like that.
I think 2 year olds need control more than any! The just drag and drop wherever they please. And yes – if I recall – you always did have a vivid imagination 🙂
I have been thinking about doing this for months now but have been dragging my feet. I’m so glad to see that it worked for you. This is next on my to-do list. I have always felt that my kids would have MORE fun and appreciate what they have, when they have less at a time. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting, and it was so good to hear from you! Doing this was on the back burner of my list for awhile – until I decided to move it up. So glad I did. I hope it helps your cute little family as well. Toys can just become more “noise” so easy.