I have been telling my kids that they should be appreciative of the things they have, especially toys. I love letting my girls play with toys and use their imaginations to play. And they are very good at getting toys out and getting them all over the house. They are not, however, good at picking them up. It’s a sea of toys in my living room, playroom and even sometimes in the kitchen. It is also a struggle to get them to clean up. As they pick up toys, they feel the desire to play with it again. Well, earlier this week, they didn’t pick up their toys and during quite time I picked them up for them. Then I proceeded to put the toys that were all over the floor, including their favorite toys, in my closet without saying anything about it. Later that afternoon Nathan put all those confiscated toys in the attic.
That was Monday. It’s now Thursday and that haven’t asked about the missing toys. Including their favorite ones. I didn’t take away all their toys, therefore, they have been playing with the ones I had left. But this showed me they had too many toys to begin with. I don’t mind the playing with toys as much now because even if they make a mess, there aren’t as many toys to pick up. It’s more manageable for them to pick up and for me to handle the mess. Sigh of relief.
» Tell me… How do you manage all your children’s toys and prevent them from getting everywhere? Do you feel like your children have too many toys too?
We rotate toys in storage and I sort them every 6 mths to get rid of those junky ‘dollarstore’ pieces that tend to add up. I also have a rule “no toys in the kitchen” that my 3 and 1 yr old follow pretty well.
Toys only in bedroom, we were having this problem- not wanting to pick up toys so I packed up half. They haven’t been missed either so I going to get the dr kit out and get rid of the rest. Child # 4 is 12 years younger than the middle child so she has lots of books! I separated them according to seasons so I can rotate the books seasonally, it’s actually quite fun.
My little boy has to help tidy his toys away even if he is only packing away 1 or 2 things. I want him to realise that I am not there to pick up after him constantly. And before dragging out more toys he has to pack away some of the toys he’s finished playing with. However, if he’s playing in his bedroom I let him have fun – the mess doesn’t bother me when I’m not tripping over it! x
We do pretty much what Jen does. We rotate every other week. My son picks what he wants to trade. It’s like getting “new” toys every so often. Now that we’ve got the toys corralled, we need to work on the growing piles of art. Everything seems to be a masterpiece to him.