Organize. Purge. Repeat

I’ve been on this mission. See I need to explain the madness of our mess. I will confess, I am a toy hoarder. My mother was a toy hoarder. She passed down to me almost ALL of my sister and my toys.

I’m not talking a few boxes. I mean FULL sets. ALL my Barbie's, the two 3 story houses my dad built. The bunk beds for our baby dolls, Tinker Toys, MY matchbox cars, Star Wars characters, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Bright, Light Bright, Glow Worms, Playground Kids, Precious Places (this is a town that fills a 2x8 dresser top) O’Jenny town (same as Precious Places) and those are just all the big ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I’m excited to share my awesome toys with Mia and Alex. But of coarse it doesn’t stop there. My children are only Grandchildren. Both of our parents will only see Grandchildren through Ed and myself. This leaves them to be super spoiled loved.

At first I was frustrated, and didn’t want all the spoiled toys here. It was just too much. They couldn’t enjoy them if there was SO damn many of them.

But I was sitting in the over stuffed, unorganized attic a few weeks ago and thought to myself. “What would my mom do?” She’d organize the shit out of all these toys. That’s what she’d do. So I channeled my inner mom. And went to work.

Step 1
Attic.
Funny thing is I wanted to clean out the basement toy room but to do that I had to clean out the attic, and both kids rooms first.
So I sorted. Purged. And organized the attic. A HUGE bin to the garbage, two more to donate (set on curb with free sign)
Now I’ve got the space. Next is to go to Target. Get bins. I found the Sterelite bins. 5 for $6, I have 20 of those. Also bought 5 more big storage bins. (it’s a start)

Step 2.
Bedrooms.
I caught some slack on facebook for this. Since all I kept posting was that I was cleaning my kids rooms. It was probably worded so it looked like all I do is clean their rooms, and they are mess monsters. It’s not what it was.
I was taking all the toys that were in their rooms and moving them to the attic. This was a 2 week process (with regular life in the way) moving it all to the attic. Finding space for it all. Sorting every.single.little.piece. I mean LaLaLoopsy shoes, to Polly Pocket shoes, and Barbie shoes. Every different character or themed toy has a bin. Phew. THAT was a lot of work. And the kids? Right by my side. Mia enjoyed the organizing process. And it taught her how we will be from now on.

Step 3.
Attic Again.
Now back to the attic, we are putting bins where they go. Finding a place for EVERY toy.

Step 4.
Toy Room.
YES there is a WHOLE room just for their toys to be played in. Our basement has one half finished as a toy room. Also known as a room with a t.v. and futon. Tables for toy set up. And their art desks are there.
Issue down there was simple. I trusted that if I let them have a good majority of their toys down there, that they’d put them away. Sigh… not possible. Even if I had the rule “Nothing On The Floor” it didn’t last long, and it being the basement, it was overlooked.
Our two cats life 99% of their life down there. Long story short. After the messes they’ve made on the first and second floor (destruction of a whole sectional couch due to confusion thinking it was a litter box) they should be happy they still have a home here. I can’t get rid of them. They are 8 and 9 years old. No one would take them. So I put up with them in the basement rooms.
SO. That is where I’m at now.

Step 5.
Attic. Toy Room. Repeat.
Toys from the basement toy room to the attic storage space. Scrub the basement floor. Set up all pretty.

Now for the rules.
1. Toys live in the attic.
2. You may have ONE toy in your bed room.
3. You may have ONE toy in the basement Toy Room.

It’s not as strict as it reads to be. ONE toy may be Star Wars. Well this includes ALL the Star Wars bins, so you could just throw yourself a damn good time. Or Disney Princess, well we have about 15 different houses and two boxes of people/accessories. Again, a damn good time for a kid.

This will be overall a great thing for our house hold. Wish I would have thought of this years ago. But I wasn’t there mentally. I was fighting myself, and the best I could do was just shove it all into the basement toy room and call it a day.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m washing the basement toy room floor today, in hopes to be done in that room today!

Happy Tuesday,

 

JCat McGack