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Wahoo! Task #25 is here! Getting our homes organized on our busy schedules with these daily task goals has been very helpful for our own home and we hope that this has been the same for you as you work little-by-little to make it happen!
Well, enough of that, let’s get on with today’s challenge!
Day #25 Challenge – Organize Toys
We are now to the dreaded toys. Toys are fun and are a blessing at times, but other times, they just simply take up room and make messes.
We have a playroom in our unfinished basement – a faux finished room with non-permanent carpet and some furnishings (as we are saving cash for a full basement refinish one day) and this room is home to many of the toys. The girls side has a gorgeous doll house that my grandparents made for me when I was a little girl that has been passed down to our girls. Plus, they have regular doll stuff down there.
The boys have a wooden, handmade car garage that was also made by my grandparents – two very special toys! So the boys have their car collections down there. Then we rotate the other toys. They are sorted in bins and marked and rotated through.
Rotating toys works well for us and from talking to many families, this is a method that many parents prefer. It means not all of the toys out at the same time, the toys get rotated, which adds to the excitement of the toys for the kids and leads to less messes. When we pull a bin out, it is also the storage bin and theoretically, when it is time to “clean-up” the lids all go back on and are all closed and in order. It helps to keep this in order – if it is actually done (and not toys not in a pile left on the floor!).
So I explained all of that, but that was too much for me to re-organize for the small task challenges. After the full 30-day challenge, I am planning to spend a few minutes each day for a full week just re-organizing, donating and clearing out the toy room again – especially before Christmas (and the 3 kids birthday’s we have 3 weeks around Christmas). But I also want to say this to you as well, if you have a toy room and it is too overwhelming for a day’s job, consider adding it on right after and continue your organizing momentum and break the toy room down.
I am not the biggest fan of toys in the bedroom because it is too distracting for my kids during reading and sleeping time. So that is why nearly all are in the faux finished basement room.
So, what am I going to organize? Well, we do allow toys in our family room because I can keep and eye on the younger kids and it is more practical on a day to day level.
We allow our kids to pick their toys for the family room bins – it’s primarily our 5-year old daughter and 3-year old son that want/need toys in the main living area.
So they each have a bin – the boy’s bin and the girl’s bin. They are allowed to put whatever toys they want as long as they fit in the bucket with the lid on! We also have a couple of bigger toys and the Mega Bloks Bucket – these are the best toys for littles – boy or girl – they all love them. We have a lot of little kids come over from visits with friends, and the Mega Bloks are the favorite. So they are up here too.
Well, as you can see, it did get a little out of hand and the lids no longer fit on top.
Family room toy area before
So, they needed to be re-organized, some thrown away and some donated, sorted by girls and boys toys and covered again!
Family toy area buckets sorted for the girls and boys
That’s what we did. My kids helped with this one again.
I have already warned them that the main playroom is getting it’s annual clean-out in a couple of weeks (and we also do it again right before the Christmas season).
Anyway, but now that the family room toys are back in order, it is more functional and much easier to pull out the 3-year old’s bucket, and have him pick it all up again while I am busy working and watching him.
Family room toy area organized after
We will all have a different toy situation – so you may not need the longer over-haul I do. Complete the task however this makes sense to you in your home’s situation! Those that don’t have toys anymore, take this day to catch up or hit a craft spot or hobby spot.
How is your challenge going?
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