I have met my Mount Everest! It is the spot I did not want to try to purge because it is an absolute disaster. What is is?
TOYS!
Before I had kids, everything had a place. Everything was organized. Dishes stacked up perfectly; towels were folded neatly in the closets; papers were filed. EVERYTHING.
Then I had children.
When I had one, I still maintained the organization. Then number two came along and I was just happy that number one would pick stuff up. When number three joined us, I just let the other two clean up the way they knew how. {Which is not my way, but I didn’t have time to fuss.}
As children multiplied, so did the toys. Here is the result:
I know you organizational peeps might be having a mild heart attack right about now. Believe me, I do not go into our basement much because I don’t want to see this mess. Multiple times I have gone through this stash and organized, but it usually ends up in a pile after a few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I like things to be neat and organized, but I learned long ago to pick my battles. This is one battle I am not going to fight every.single.day.
I want my kids to have fun when they play. When I ask them to clean the basement. They do. They will remove all the toys and put them in the guest room and close the door. They have done what I asked {sort of} and I choose to be proud of the fact that they followed my instructions. I won’t reprimand or correct them because they did not do it the way I would have done it. I usually start teaching them organization with smaller spaces, like their rooms.
Yesterday, I went through and started sorting all the toys. I am determined to decrease the amount to a more manageable size. It was a little difficult because my 3 year old thought it was Christmas as he rediscovered toys he had forgotten. I will admit that it is hard to let things go. I think the former eBayer in me knows the price I could fetch for all the Little People I have collected. Or the fact that I have American Girl Doll supplies. I have got to just move on and get it out of my house without thinking of the cash I could get for it.
That is difficult for a frugal person like me.
That is why my husband will be running the garage sale and not me. I would probably overprice things and then it would just end up back in our basement. Well, I only have 2 more days to get ready. Wish me luck. Say a prayer. I will beat this Mount Everest if it’s the last thing I do…I hope.
My house is where all the toys go to party and it never ends! I’ve been trying to get a handle on it but it’s a losing battle. Hope you have better luck than me’
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on April 19, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Tell me about it! I was getting to the point today where I wanted to toss it all!
Anna recently posted..30 Days of Spring Cleaning ~ My Mount Everest
Not sure if this will make it easier or harder on you 🙂 When my brothers were babies mom and I sorted the toys we thought we should keep into two piles, one pile went back in the toy room and the other pile went into two large tubs and got put up. Then in March, when the Christmas toys are boring and it was still to cold to go outside we brought the tub down and switched out the toys. It made the mess so much easier to deal with and it kept the boys well occupied for a week or so:)
Any way, Happy cleaning, just getting all the sets together can be a pain.
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Cleaning and organizing toys is like the worst job ever!
When my brothers were little, mom and I divided the toys we wanted to keep into 2 piles, one pile went back into the toy room and the other pile got packed into tubs. Then in late February we brought down the tubs and switched out the toys, it was less mess and the boys had so much fun rediscovering their new/old toys.
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Twitter: mydebtfreeroad
on April 21, 2012 at 9:13 pm
I have needed to do that pack away and then rotate for a while. Just got rid of a bunch and have some put away. Phew!