I recently read Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and found it life-changing (duh!)
We happened to be in the middle of a move to a bigger house so the “wisdom” was to bring everything to the new place and discard as I unpacked. Mmm no thanks. So after about 8 trash bags and 4 big boxes and some miscelaneous large items all dropped off to the Salvation Army, I moved the rest of the stuff. Aaaaaand it was a lot of stuff…
As I was putting the girls books away, my daughter pulled out all the Christmas books and wanted to read them (and wanted it to be Christmas already….) so I decided the “holiday” books should be weeded out… Well then I decided I should just make a toy bin for each month. They could keep any special toys out (like favorite doll) but the majority had to go back in the bin at the end of the month.
It was a bit difficult getting my 3yo on board but my 1yo had no clue 😉 Once the 3yo realized we weren’t getting rid of the toys but only storing them, she was much more ready to say “see ya later” to her items. We used mis-matched bins we had from moving and labeled the outside. I grouped toys in categories like building (legos/blocks/magnatiles), plush, puzzles, music and electronic. Then used a few toys from each group to put in each bin (one bin- 20 legos, 1 electronic toy, 1 puzzle, 3 stuffed animals, 10+ books)
When we finally got the bins into the garage and out of the living room, peace and sanity returned. My girls decided to keep the bin in their room and only bring a toy to the living room when they wanted to play with it. My living room is a LIVING room again. Where we can sit and enjoy each other. I can actually invite people over!
Seriously it’s a miracle. Look at the before and after of my living room. MIR-A-CLE.
It’s now my happy place instead of my personal hell. 😉
What toy strategies/rules do you have? Comment with your methods in case my girls can’t take it LOL
5minMommy 
