Thursday, January 15, 2015

Organized Home: Toy Solutions

We are currently living with my mother-in-law until we get our house and things are a little hectic. Clothing for all four of us is in one room, Maddie sleeps in the same room as me and hubs and Brayden is sleeping in a bed that's not his and surrounded by stuff that isn't his. Oh and all six of us living in this house share just one bathroom. Call us crazy but it really hasn't been too bad, however, one part of this whole situation is really getting me the most. Toys.

We kept at least half of the kids' toys in storage and we brought the other stuff here. The problem is, I don't have an organized way of dealing with it all. In our old apartment, I had bookshelves and bins and everything had a place. Here we have a huge toy box, a smaller toy box, and then a bunch of crap piled on top. All the Christmas presents they got didn't help the situation either.

So to keep myself thinking positive, I have been thinking and researching ways to organize everything when we get into our house (hopefully very soon!). Here are a few ideas I have in mind (with links to where I found the info).

1) Toy Rotation. I think the kids do so much better when they only have a few things to play with at a time. They aren't overwhelmed and they actually play with the toys rather than just making a mess with everything. I am thinking something like this : http://mothersniche.com/toy-rotation-saving-time-money-and-simplifying-your-life/

I love that she rotates toys from several different areas of the home depending on how often they are used. She also links to a few other blog posts with toy rotation ideas. 

2) Everything has a home. This one is really important for me because I absolutely hate clutter but I need the kids to be able to clean up after themselves. The only way they can do this is if they know where things go. And I don't mean just throw everything in a huge toy box. That doesn't work for me. I despise toy boxes. I already use clear bins that are labeled for sets of Brayden's toys (Cars, Toy Story, Mickey Mouse, and regular cars) and I plan on getting a little more organized with more clear bins. This blog post has great ideas! A mom of NINE that homeschools her kids shows how they stay organized in just 1100 sqft. Really great ideas that would work in any home. 



They aren't cute or fancy so they would work best in a closet but I like that the bags and bins are clear so the kids can see what they are getting. They don't have to open it and dig through the whole container to find what they are looking for. That is also diminished when "like" items are put together.

3) Book storage. Yikes!! Books are a huge problem for us mostly because we have so many. I am not willing to get rid of books only because I think they are so valuable and I love to see my kids just pick up a book. We read to the kids every night and I want to make sure they are book-lovers. One important thing is that they are accessible but our system right now (on a bookshlef) doesn't work because they all come down at the same time. I am hoping that with using the Ikea spice racks, the front covers will be visible and only the books they want will be taken down. We will see how it all works out  but anything has to be better than what we have going on right now. And they are adorable!

She painted her's grey so I like that we could personalize them for each room. I think we could also do another set even higher that are books I don't necessarily want them taking down on their own. Maddie has a problem with ripping out pages so that would be the place for books that she needs supervision with or books that we only read at night.

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So those are my ideas for our toy storage organization for when we get our own house. I can't wait to be organized again and I think it will help keep all of us sane. Brayden has been watching too much TV lately and I know that is partially because of weather but it's also because all the toys are a mess. He can't decide what to play with because so much is out at the same time. 

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