As I was sitting on the couch chatting with my husband while he was in the kitchen, he turns from me, and all I hear is, "Ow!" as I see arms straight up in the air as he goes down...my eyes were huge..
Once I didn't hear a huge thud and his face reappeared, I busted out laughing. "What happened?!" "I stepped on one of the girls' play earrings" he said.
My favorite story however is when the girls were about two. I had just bought the girls this little red wagon from a friends garage sale. At this time they were still in their cribs...
I walked into their room, without flipping the light switch on. I instantly went sailing across the hardwood in that little red wagon. Arms flailing, trying to stop myself, catch my balance, hoping to not break a bone. I sailed straight into a crib.
Here I was sitting on the floor with the little red wagon, heart racing, replaying what had just happened in my mind. I'm sure it would have been a real sight for someone to witness. All I could do was try to get up off the floor!
Let's just say I wanted so badly to throw that wagon in the trash! I was so sore the next day from my little excursion I went on. I made a mental note: always look before you enter a room!
We still have that little red wagon. As much as I wanted to toss it out in that moment of embarrassment, I did not.
Anyways, back to matter at hand.
My children have WAAAAAAYY to much stuff! I'm really unsure of what to do about this. Right now they have a whole bedroom dedicated to their toys and books. These lucky little girls will be losing that playroom when we start making room for the new baby.
We want to finish our basement so we can have a family/playroom down there, but that may not be feasible. We have 6 months.
The girls also have their 4th birthday party next month, and I'm sure they will get more fun stuff to play with. But how much stuff do 4 year olds need? I'm mean really, they don't NEED all this stuff.
Do they play with it all, probably...at some point. I absolutely love buying for them, but I do not however buy them stuff every time we go to Walmart or Target. What they do have is from birthdays and Christmas. There is two of them afterall! It adds up fast.
I would love to hear what others do to contain the toys. Do you only allow a certain amount of toys at a time? Do you keep toys put away and alternate every so often? Do you donate or sell toys that aren't being used, or do you store them for another child?
I am just really tired of all the "stuff". We all have "stuff", but I don't want to spend my days organizing and keeping everything in proper order. I love for things to be in their place and neat and tidy, but that's not a reality everyday.
Maybe we need to do a purge! It's just kind of hard. We think, "we may need this!" In 4 years, but we MAY need it. Haha!
Come on friends, tell me how you handle toy/stuff overload!
I rotate toys every month or so for Karyn because she plays with them better. Another thing I do is hide away some of the presents that she gets for Christmas and her birthday and bring them out for her later. She gets way to much and certainly does not all of those new things at once. It works great now, but I am sure there will be a point when she will insist on having them all :)
ReplyDeleteLivi is only 16 months and we are over run with toys too :). Don't have much advice on parting down, but have one for their bday- what about asking folks to bring books and have a book themed party? Books are smaller than other toys. Good luck and if you gone up with a good, god honoring solution please post it :)
ReplyDeleteWe purge often, removing the "younger" kid toys and donating them to their younger cousin. Then the remaining toys we've split up into 4- 71qt? clear totes. Each Sunday we box up that weeks toys and they get to pick another tote out for the week. So rotating them has become sort of a reward or treat for them. And the toys all get played with, but we don't have to deal with the 2 year old dumping every.single.toy.they.own. on the floor and us having to walk on them. Legos however, those are STILL the herpes of the toy world. :/
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