Pretty much my reaction to the toy explosion today.
One of my biggest pet peeves as a parent are the amount of toys my child has collected. Between birthday bashes, Christmas, random gifts from family… it’s just overwhelming. I had a system set up about 6 months ago where she had a bunch of small-ish bins in the closet filled with different toys that I would rotate out. It worked well for about a week before Lorelai got into the closet one day and pulled everything out. Since then, it has been non-stop damage control in her room, and it only got worse after Christmas.
Today I walked in her room to put some laundry away and I couldn’t even make it two feet into the room. It was a toy explosion, and I was fed up. I backed out, closed the door, and left it alone so that I could deal with it with some backup. We gave the option to Lorelai to clean her room several times, but she kept saying she didn’t know how (oh, puh-LEASE!) and that she just didn’t want to. So we took 90% of her toys, stuck them into 4 large storage bins, and then put them in my closet and barricaded it. She screamed bloody murder during the entire thing, but she really has to learn somehow.
So we told her that her toys were on a time out and that she would just have to play with the ones left behind – some stuffed animals that are up in the net, her tent/tunnel, her dollhouse (which we weren’t about to move), some barbies, and her water table outside. Everything else will be staying in the closet until I get the motivation to go through and sort everything. We really need to purge a lot anyway, and as I failed the attempt to do it a few weeks ago, the time is upon us.
Anyway, that’s my little mommy ramble for the month. I hate toys!
I feel the same way about toys some days. I’m thankful that lately Abby has been so helpful with cleaning them up that it doesn’t seem so bad. I’ve also put about 1/2 the stuffed animals away in the closet (the ones I can’t get rid of for one reason or another) I need some sort of storage/shelves to go in her room though instead of a couple buckets on her floor.
This is SO Chris. His room is always super messy with all the toys scattered all over the floor. (only child thing maybe??) His party is this weekend so we’ll be having company and that room is going to get the treatment you gave Lore’s!
At that age it is hard for them to know how to just clean their room. They need more directive. Like if you have a specific box for stuffed animals. “Put the stuffed animals away in that bin” etc. At least that is what I have been told by many ECFE teachers. Hope that helps. 🙂