I’m always down for a fun organization project. Yes, I consider organization fun. It’s one of my favorite things to do and I really need to figure out how to make it my job. That would be a dream for me – helping other people organize the spaces in their homes. Ahh, maybe one day! Anyway, since we’re still practicing social distancing around here, I decided to continue on with the home projects and this one in our playroom was so overdue. Here’s the thing.. I am really good at purging most areas of our home. I’m totally on board with the “does it sparks joy” idea. For some reason, though, I am really REALLY bad at purging the kids’ toys. I have most of the toys from when my oldest, who is now 6, was an infant. The good news is we’ve kept really good care of everything, but do we really need all of it? My answer has always been yes. I mean, we have gone on to have more kids who have gotten lots of use out of it all, so I guess it’s been a good thing. Three kids later and we have accumulated quite a bit of stuff. After a little self reflection, I found that I was justifying every single toy. It went something like, “So and so gave us this for a birthday gift” or “This was her favorite toy when she was two” and so on and so on. You get the idea.
I recently decided, after much frustration with keeping the kids’ rooms clean, that we were going to turn an extra room downstairs into a playroom. ALL the toys from everyone’s rooms would live there. No more toys coming downstairs everyday, then ending up all over the living room, then sitting on the stairs until someone decided to carry them all back up. I know this season of life is just messy and cluttered, but I cannot function with stuff everywhere. Everything in our house has a home, so at the end of the day, everything needs to find it’s home. It’s just the way I am. Not apologizing for it, haha. Well this playroom idea worked great. I encouraged the kids to clean the playroom when they were done in there. What really ended up happening was I would end up cleaning it at the end of the day because there was just so much stuff in there, that the kids didn’t even know where to start. They really did try and some days would surprise me with a clear floor. In order to do that, thought, they were shoving things under tables, mixing all the toys and then the next day, they didn’t know where anything was. Something had to change. Some toys had to go. It reminded me of Toy Story and how the toys were sent to the Sunny Side Daycare.
I spent about half my day going through every single toy and ended up getting rid of over three full trash bags of toys. It’s so hard to believe because even now after the purge, I feel like we still have way too many toys. We’ve made great progress, though. There is actually space for them to play in the middle of the room. The best part, they are actually playing more and fighting less. I never thought that was a real thing, even though there are so many studies on it. It sounds counterintuitive, but fewer toys encourage more creative and imaginative play. I am here to tell you, first hand, it’s true! I think they appreciate the space and what they have even more, too! The ridiculous amount of toys we had was such a distraction, the kids were constantly moving from one toy to the next. Now the space is more relaxed and clutter free, so they are able to focus for longer and engage in their play longer. Their little imaginations are the best!
After I had gone through all of their toys and made cuts on who stays and who’s got to go, I placed an online drive-up order from Target, I picked up these clear tubs and a few more bigger bins. I already had these 6 cube shelves in this room, so I used them with the tubs and bins. I’d still like to go through and label at least the plastic tubs to help the kids out with cleaning up and also get a little reading practice, too. This room feels so much more manageable now. The kids (and I as well) don’t even remember what was purged. We don’t miss it, that’s for sure.
I only photographed one side of the room for this post, but there is a dollhouse, firehouse, train table and a few bigger toy cars, trucks, etc on the other side of the room. I saved some of our toddler toys for the new baby and put them away upstairs until he is ready for them. I am also going to get some acrylic shelves and keep some of the kids’ books in the playroom, too. I hope this post encourages or motivates someone out there to do a toy purge. I’m telling you, it feels great. You can do it!
For fun, here is the before.. and this was AFTER they had started cleaning it up. Less is more. For so many reasons.
