By Amy L. Hatch
Part of purging my house of stuff we no longer use is organizing all the items we decide to keep, and this week as part of my pledge to live with less in 2010 we set about doing some serious sorting and getting some new storage solutions.
Part of the clutter that was driving me crazy was a toy-storage table that was conscripted into use as a computer-hardware area when our son, Henry, was born in 2008. His birth meant that our home office needed to be converted to a nursery, and we needed a spot to stash the printer, router and old desk-top iMac that our daughter used.
For 17 months that table drove me mad.
It collected dust like no-body’s business and looking at the mass of wires and power strips made me feel like scratching my own eyes out with a miniature Barbie brush.
Monday The Cable-Service Provider That Shall Remain Namless came and put a hook-up in our basement: Bye-bye table filled with crap!
We sorted the toys still inside the bins that sat under the table (and whoever invented Polly Pockets must have really, really hated their mother … oh, the tiny shoes!) and tossed yet another metric ton of Happy Meal toys.
My husband and our friend put the table in the basement … and finally, I could breathe again. We took stock of the space/toys/storage ratio and made a Target run, where we bought these:
We sorted the toys in categories — oh! my! god! the toy cars filled up the entire trunk — and when we were done it looked like the family room had lost 20 pounds. Living with less doesn’t mean living without, but it does mean living with a lot less mess.
How do you organize your child’s play space?
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When the kids were born, we put their toys in the family room with us because I needed them to play where I could see them and also make dinner, etc. But now they are 5 and 7 and we really want our space back. SO, we decided to get rid of our guest room, move our computer/storage/Kindermusik/scrapbook/catch-all room up to our old guest room and make that old room into the “KIDS’ DEN.” It’s wonderful! We did get rid of some toys in the process too – BONUS! We have the kids’ toys stored in small, 2 shelf bookcases (so they can reach everything in them) and we use baskets we got from Target to store their stuff. It really helps them to look clean (when everything is put away at least).
Here are the bins I use (in colors appropriate for my daughter and my son) – $10 at Target:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41tSGNghBLL._AA260_.jpg
Here’s the bookshelves – $15 at Walmart:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11061207
I can SO relate to this, Amy! Thanks for the sense of humor (as always).
We like to store lots of toys (like those dreadful Polly Pockets) in bins in the basement, and then pull them out for fun on a rainy Saturday. It makes them much more exciting than they would be if they were accessible all the time.
My biggest recent feat was organizing my girls’ craft supplies. I used to keep lots of random craft stuff in a huge bin, where it all got jumbled and lost, or in whatever plastic bag we brought it home in from JoAnn Fabrics (which meant we could never find what they were looking for). I bought smaller bins that stack, and the girls helped me sort: ribbon, rickrack and embroidery thread in one, fabric scraps and felt in another, etc. Much better!
We just got a 2-door, 2-shelf cabinet from Target for 30 bucks (I can’t find it on the site, sorry) to store toys in. Previously, we’d been storing toys in an old changing table that was about to fall apart. The new thing goes with our furniture better – I really wanted something I could close the doors on, and something that didn’t scream “Toy storage!”. This thing fit the bill. Right now our living room is the toy room, but we hope to buy a bigger house this year so we can have more space for the kids to play in.
Sounds like your doing a good job, but it also sounds like you are throwing a lot of things in a landfill. Maybe, I just read it wrong but some of these things you put on the curb could go to charity organizations. Even if they can’t sell a peice of clothing I believe the Goodwill and Salvation Army get money per pound for the cloth to make into felt. The Humane Society uses things for animals to snuggle with, play with, and bathing. They also have the once a year giant garage sale which,same thing goes, if they can’t sell it they go for recycling and they get the money. And most of all if you just want to give it away many people use Freecycle to post items someone might be able to fix and put to use.
Also, next year why don’t you let the Christmas gift givers know that you aree really not in need of anything and would love it if they gave some of that money they spent to a charity. Maybe your kids could pick they’re favorite ones! Then just say you can give them anything that fits in their stocking.