Lego organization?
Olychick
8 years ago
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cleaning woes (rant/cry for help)
Comments (16)Coming into this late, but I feel your pain. I'm currently a SAHM with two kids (three and seven) and I'm drowning. But this is what I've learned in the past 8 years with two kids and a DH who didn't know the right end of a vacuum when I married him... Decrease your clutter. I know that this is terribly hard to do, but decrease it. Get what you can, OUT of your house. Bags, boxes, you name it...pack and it and dump it. Goodwill, friends, wherever. As long as it's OUT! Now is the perfect time to weed toys before Christmas. Get a couple of big boxes and have the kids at the same time, put in there things that they do not want. Do not watch them do this. AFTER they go to bed, then YOU go through it, bagging the truly unwanted stuff, and salvaging the precious "I'm saving this for you when you're grown" stuff. Put the latter in a box and stick it in an attic or garage, LABELED. Do not wait or it will turn into another annoying pile. Be tough with yourself about that part. Something from each kid, if ykwim? The rest GOES! Load it into the back of the car, van or truck. Get it immediately out of your house. The next time you pass Goodwill, dump it. Better yet, stick it in your DH's car and make him dump it on his way home from work. He's more likely to do it to get that annoying stuff out of his vehicle. Do this in each room of your house. The kitchen pans you never use. The crap in the garage that has been there for years. Keep dumping. If you are like me, you can fill a box yourself in about 20 minutes. The point of it is, the less you have in your home, the less that you hvae to clean, pick up, wash, dust, clean or pick up. Get large and small stackable plastic bins from Home Depot or wherever. Big ones for the trains...medium ones for the Barbies...are you with me? For frequently used toys used by preschoolers and younger, Home Depot has these big round rubbermaid buckets with white rope handles stick at least one in every room of your home. This is for the little people dumping. A three year old cannot put things away in bins...But a three year old can follow the dirction "grab all of your little trucks and throw them into the big blue bucket in the corner". It's also good for big items like that play weedwhacker, the stick pony, balls, dressup crap that never has a home (unless you have an estate). I can dejunk a floor in that matter (exluding things like board games and other stuff that actualy have to be put back together) in about 10 minutes. Even if it's a large room and trashed. I have a big home. I have three of them near my kitchen, two in the living room, four in the upstiars loft and one in every bedroom, even mine. (Their crap gets in my room too). If you get the kids to dump stuff into the buckets, you can follow behind with the vacuum. Once I figured this out, I had a lot less crap sticking to my feet. When it takes you all day to pick up, you run out of time to do the floors. And then you call Merry Maids or some other service and have them do a ONE TIME deep cleaning. Yes, spend the money. Have them knock the cobwebs, scrub your toilets, strip your beds. Kill the soap scum. While they do this, bang the dirty sheets in the laundry. In about 2 hours YOUR ENTIRE HOUSE WILL BE CLEAN! A clean house is easier to keep relatively clean then the depressing sight of a completely trashed home where you don't know where to start and you don't want to think about how long it's going to take for you to do it. If you really fall in love with this, have them do it every two weeks and maintain it yourself. And get your DH involved. One of the best presents that my DH can do for me at the end of a terrible day is wash my kitchen floor. I hate floors with a total passion. If he does it after I go to bed, I don't even have to watch! LOL And there is nothing better than to wake up to a clean floor...c'mon, you know how cool that would be? Forget roses, scrub something baby! If you really can't swing the Merry Maids, then do the decluttering and have it timed to be finished by Friday. Have your DH take ALL of the kids out for most of the day. I'm talking out to breakfast..then to a discovery museum..then out to lunch...then on errands. Keep them gone as long as possible. The pour the coffee and start banging. This is what I do, because I can't swing the MMs right now. But as soon as our budget will allow it again, I'm going for it. I, too, was raised by one of those 'do it all mothers', but the truth be told, we didn't have a third of the crap back then as our kids and families have now. We used to run the neighborhood because it was safe to do so. Spend most of the day toodling around town on bikes or at the public pool. We didn't have playdates or classes or whatever. We were out having a blast and Mom was ALONE banging the house all day. I had a Barbie and a Ken and a few items of clothing that fit in one tiny box. She drove a Kleenex box, not a covertible. My dd's BarbieS (all zillion of them) has a bus, a car, and a dreamhouse. Are you wtih me? So cut yourself some slack here. She was also powered on two pots of coffee, two packs of cigarettes and hardly slept. She got it done, but beat the everloving out of herself. Hardly a personal goal, if ykwim? So dump the stuff, enlist some help. Get the older kids to take out the garbage, pick up the nitpicky toys or entertain the little ones. Start dumping, and I will tell you a secret....dumping becomes addictive. Eventually you will get frustrated when there is nothing left to dump. And keep up with the Flylady. I'm doing it myslef with varying degress of success. Start from where you are, kwim? And don't have perfect be your everyday goal. You can be perfect or spend time with your children. You can't do both. Better some toys on teh floor and a Mommy that just played dressup, then a Mommy that never has the time. JMO, but words I live by....See MoreOrganizing Toys
Comments (15)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...See MoreRequesting pictures of your toy organization!
Comments (7)We bought toy containers for some. The balls all went into a football and a basketball plastic toy holder. The toy kitchen stuff, I just sold off. Kept some special ones and cleaned out a bottom drawer in MY kitchen and in they went. Bought outdoor containers that you can sit on, and put sand toys in one and pool in the other. They are on the deck. Changing table received stuff toys on top shelf. I bought baskets from Michaels Craft store on put misc toys in them on put those on the other two shelves. Was planning on selling the changing table, but it HOLDs a ton of toys. I went out and bought a cheap tall 5 drawer chest. It holds toys in the bedroom. Family room - main level : t Bed Bath and Beyond, I used my 20% coupon and bought the tall chests with wicker drawers, a narrow one and a longer one. They hid toys well, and are furniture. I also bought a wicker chest set that sit as coffee tables for stuff to toss in at the last minute, even kids' blankets. Just get creative. I was a storage footstool for our 'coffee table' for there once I find one. I also bought brand new tall garbage containers and have stuff stored in them. two I turned into tables with tablecloths on them....See MoreI'm Back! and Organizing! Need Accountability
Comments (11)Alright. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I'm looking for my neighbors key mostly. That is the main goal! Of course it's not in the hall craft closet, but there was a good chance it was dropped in the bathrooms or in the utility room. I have completely cleaned those three areas (two bathrooms, one utility room). I have also completely cleaned my boy's room. I have pretty much personally touched everything, looked under everything, moved everything. And no key. No ipods. I have also completely cleaned out my van. Looked under seats, cleaned out jocky boxes, put my hand between seat bottom and backs. You get the idea. I have cleaned out kitchen drawers thinking the key might have been sitting on the counter and fell into the drawers. Nope! So all those areas look nice as does under the kitchen sink. And now I"m wondering- What next?...See Morejlc712
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