Ok- This comes from a teacher point of view as well as someone who has a degree in child development. You can take it for what it is worth: In Classrooms (like daycares and preschools and K room) kids are required to pick up at least two sometimes three times a day. The reasoning being that a. other kids play with the toys and the deserve to start fresh too b. kids can't think in clutter very well and neither can teachers. c. safety in that you can't walk without tripping etc. also is part of the reasoning here. I carry this into my house to some degree. I have three kids 5, 3, and 1+. Two boys and a girl. I let them play with what they want and they can play with how they want provided they are not taking away from each other-- playing nice. And now my home and my theory in practice--- We pick up daily - once before nap I expect everything to be picked up and once in the evening before their father gets home. If everything is picked up and if their father is not home yet, they can watch a video. This works great for my son who is a tvholic. The exceptions to picking up completely are this: 1. if they have some creation before nap- a tent house, a train world, polly pocket home whatever they can leave it out until dinner time, as long as it's out of the way. Not on their bed at nap time for example. At dinner time though, things are picked up. 2. If it is on the train table. We bought a big train table with the buckets at the end of the table. I rotate toys including what is in the train table buckets. - blocks, legos, little people, etc at any given time are in the train table buckets. IF they set up this elaborate train set or a great lego building, as long as it is on the train table, they can leave it there. The train table toys are usually building toys that typically get moved and torn down and rebuilt daily so those change pretty quickly and get put up to make room for other buildings. As for sorting out toys into the right bins daily- I don't do that. We have a big toy box in the front room where they play. Some toys are behind the couch in the plastic shoe boxes. Polly Pockets, etc - those things with small pieces. Those are the toys that they typially pull out from behind the couch, open the box and play with them in their room or on their bed- the little pieces typically get put back into the right box. But I don't worry about it. When we pick up, whatever is on the floor get thrown into the toy box. The kids help me pick up and if they want I do let them put the small pieces in the right bin, but if I'm helping I grab and toss. And because I rotate toys- once a week or every two weeks I dump everything out and the kids and put toys up, resort as needed, exchange toys. This is when the polly pocket shoe that got thrown in the toy box gets put back with it's mate in the right bin. Etc. I have also gotten rid of many toys. As I write this however I can think of train things I need to get rid of because my kids have never really played with it. Sigh. I kept it thinking one of the other kids would like it but so far- no luck. It really is that simple and really that complicated. I just make the time to rotate toys. Everything centers around that. When we rotate toys everything gets sorted out perfectly. Because we rotate toys not everything is out at once and that makes it easier to a. clean house b. pick up every day c. control how many toys are out with small pieces d. organize and make sure everything is in the right bin. As for your daughter dragging things out of the house - we take things out to the car but they stay in the car. When we go in the store- the toys stay in the car. As for all of her flat type creations- I also bought an art portfolio. IT's like a big envelope. I let my son keep all of his papers in there. He keeps every paper he touches. They all go in there. It sits at the end of his bed. When it is stuffed I go through it- sometimes alone, sometimes with him. It works for us. Big papers and small papers go in here. But only paper. We have also done some things like I sat down and whipped up some bags for toys. My two older kids love to fill things with things. A small bin may have five cars, three dinosaurs, four crayons and sixteen pieces of paper. They love to just stuff things in things. I made some bags. I whipped up bags and this makes it easy to carry things around. If my boy's snowbear needs crayons for the day (becaue my boy is like your daughter with an animal whose needs change) - then snowbear puts the crayons in the snowbear bag and off we go. I have probably 10 bags designated for things- blocks, small dolls, etc. I have maybe another 10 bags with drawstrings for anything. They just get thrown in their toybox empty at the start of two weeks and stay filled until it's time to rotate toys. So- based on my usual long winded response here are my thoughts for you: 1. Can you designate a place as a compromise- train table creations are ok, otherwise they go down? Can you set a time that they have to pick up? Daily? I do it when their dad comes home so they know exactly what their schedule is. Can you do it on a set day? Every other day everything is totally picked up? I lean to a daily pick up at a set time so it is routine. I agree that it is the process at this age - the process of making the creation is important not the creation itself. 3. Can you provide your daughter some place for her creations? This ties into question one but also for her small books for blueberry? for the small things he has to have? A bag? An oatmeal box with a string tied to it? an art portfolio? 4. Do you have to have all of their toys out all of the time? And after having said all of that- I think what you are really looking for is not the organizing help but more of the parenting help. Do you allow your children to make creations and leave them? And How do you tackle this as a mother? I'm not sure I helped at all. What I would say to you as a teacher if you came to me is Go for it- encourage the creativity. When you see them no longer playing with a toy or creation show them how to take it down and put the components up. Or if they can no longer play wiht a type of toy because all the pieces are spread apart and put in wrong places, help them sort them out. You are the mother and you know best. Ginger

I've felt the way that many of you feel. We've been managing our donations also. We don't like to subsidize greed, entitlement, or laziness. Dh went to pick up an Angel Tree request a few years back and he couldn't find one that was acceptable. The requests from those kids weren't things like coats, clothes, or board games. They were all electronic toys and brand name items that were way more expensive than what we buy our kids. When we donate, we donate at the level or quality of what we would buy for our children. We decided those kids must not have enough need if they didn't need clothes or some other basic item. Dh and I want to teach our child kindness and generosity so we've been focusing more on helping others around us in our daily lives. We've started donating more to the local schools our kids attend. The school is always in need of educational equipment and materials. Dh's employer will match monetary contributions up to a certain amount. The school gets double bang for the buck and we get to designate specifically where we want the money spent. It helps more people. We also like to give the teachers money for supplies too. They spend a lot out of their pockets that we never know about. I don't know if this is considered a true 'charity', but we've donated a few times to the organizations sending items overseas for our soldiers. These men and women are putting their lives on the line for us and it's a small way to make their day brighter or easier. They like toys too. :) It's okay to send bouncy balls, card games and other tiny, but fun surprises. People who have been in the military tell us it's wonderful to get a surprise that smells like home. I've put usable household goods on the curb with a free sign for the neighbors to have. It saves me a trip to the thrift store, but it also helps others around me. I've put out beds, shelves, picnic tables, chairs, etc. Several people told me they were 'extra' things they wanted or needed, but were hesitant to buy because of cost. My other favorite donation place is the food bank. I see it as a way to help the people who are willing to work, but may have lost their jobs or just aren't able to make enough money in their jobs to make ends meet. These people may not qualify for food stamps or other welfare because they have assets like a house or income. Again, I like to donate through the school because some of those donations go to feed my children's classmates. I know the Christmas before last, there was a family in my child's school where the family had lost their job and the school sent them a form to ask what they needed. Their only request was food.

We have two IKEA Hopen units in our playroom now. Each unit has four sliding wire drawers (that hold a TON of toys) with three shelves above to hold bigger toys and baskets of toys. I love this system because the wire baskets pull out so I can remove a single basket (say one full of wooden blocks) and place it on the floor for the kids. When they're done they load the blocks back in the basket and it gets tucked back into the unit and behind closed doors. In our last home, we also used some wardrobe/pantry type units that we found at Lowe's. They were huge and afforded a lot of storage. My preference is always for storage that is hidden because I don't like looking at the visual clutter. If that doesn't bother you the shoebox size toy bin shelves (available at Target) are good options too. I've included one of the favorite systems I found when I was looking for playroom inspiration. The IKEA cabinets pictured though have since been discontinued. If you run your mouse over the second pic you can even see how the items are organized in each cabinet! Here is a link that might be useful: Playroom Cabinet Pictures

Really!!! A sidesplit is a split-level home configuration where the multiple levels are visible from the front elevation. Typically, the garage is on one side of the house and there is a floor above the garage housing the bedrooms. IMO the pics will help a lot I like low storage for toys if they must be in the LR with the T.V hung on the wall above. All the huge toys need to have a new home like in your childs bedroom if they do not fit into the storage.