The first area we tackled this year was kid's clothes and toys. I usually keep on top of Kieran's clothing, so I had no real need to tackle that part, but the toy situation was out of control. Kieran was sick for most of last week though, so I wasn't able to do as much as I hoped. But I knew I had to tackle the major toy hot spot: the living room
BEFORE
It was seriously out of control. When we moved in we decided not to have a lot of toys in the living room, and he has quite a bit upstairs in his room, but then Christmas happened, as well as some other random toy giving episodes (not pre-approved by this Mummy) and we ended up with what you see above. I forgot to take a photo of inside the toy box, but it was filled with a number of smaller random toys that he hardly touched anymore.
While Kieran napped on Saturday afternoon (first time in eight months! He really was feeling poorly) I attacked. I emptied the toy box and filled a bag with the things he doesn't use anymore, like his first set of plastic cars, his V-Tech book and a few other random items. At that point I decided that I would put all the large vehicles in the toy box, as they were the main source of my irritiation.
I also separated out all the outdoor type toys, and will eventually get a storage chest for them outside once Spring is well and truly here.
I tidied up the shelf that held the train sets, crayons and markers, activity books and papers for art, and found a plastic box to use to coral his dinette sets and other loose toys. The rocking horse is also gone as he is no longer obsessed by it as he once was. Here's the result.
AFTER
A closer look in the toy box
And on the shelf
Ahhhhh. Much better! I can look across the room without getting all twitchy. I'd like to eventually get rid of the random plastic boxes and find a more unified storage solution though. I'll be keeping my eye out at flea markets and garage sales for unique vintage storage options!
Are you working on Project Simplify this year? How do you keep your toy clutter down?
