Organizing the Toys

As any family with children knows, your house can be taken over by toys in a minute.  It didn't matter how many times we picked up toys during the day, our living room and Rylie's room often looked like Toys R' Us threw up.

I tried using one of those shelves with bins to organize all the toys in Rylie's room.  Little did I know the bins would become little push cars that Rylie would push Liam around in and there we still toys everywhere with the bins adding to the mess.  I was tired of the living room looking like a toy tornado, and the kids were old enough that they could clean up their own toys, so I had a new idea.

I wanted all the toys for the most part out of the living room, and I wanted a simple way for the kids to be able to pick up their toys to be kept in their own rooms.  I found these huge bins at Target for about $6, one pink for Rylie and one blue for Liam.  I went through the toys they no longer played with and bagged them up for donation.  I then separated their toys into the two bins so they each had their own toys in its own bin.  Each child had their own bin of toys in their own room. 

So now instead of having toys spread out all over the place, Rylie and Liam have their toys in their rooms.  It is also easier to keep them picked up, because when they are done playing, they understand "put all your toys in your bin" instead of  "put all the toys away."  The toys now have a place(not all over the floor) and they are better at putting them up.  I just have to get one more bin to separate Liam's toys from Eric's baby toys, it is an improvement from our toy situation before.

I also learned that it's important to go through my kid's toys periodically to donate the stuff they don't play with to keep the toy pile contained.  Also a lot of Liam's baby toys like his activity table are still in perfect condition for Eric to use, and there is nothing wrong with passing toys down as long as they are intact and safe.  This keeps from getting new toys that aren't needed, and as far as Eric is concerned they are new toys because they are new to him!!!