Thursday, March 15, 2007

Organization.... or, the Whole House is Under Construction

My kids rooms are big, wall to wall, every available surface covered in toys messes. And it really isn't their fault. Well, for the most part. They just don't have a system in place. No homes for the toys means no toys get put away.

I saw that this is only going to get worse as time goes on if I don't do something, so I tried to assess the problems and find suitable solutions. Hmmm.

Problem: Too many toys.

Solution: There is now a donation box next to the front door. Whenever they clean their rooms, if they come across something they don't play with anymore they offer it to their siblings. Whatever goes unclaimed gets donated. One huge box has gone to F.I.S.H. already. But I'm not seeing a huge dent in the mess.

Problem: They don't know where they should put the toys.

Solution: I started with myriad cardboard boxes for each type of toy so I could see what exactly needed to be stored, and figure out the best way to store it, keeping in mind that I want the kids to be able to continue on their own with whatever system I devise. Still working on the second part. I'm thinking lots of shelves, at their level, and containers on the shelves for smaller stuff. What do you think? Will it work?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When our children were small, we had plastic containers with wheels so that it could go under the bed. The containers were large and not very tall so the toys were easy to see and pick out what they wanted. At night, all the toys back in the box, back under the bed. Maybe something like that would work for you too.

Vida said...

Maybe! Where can I find them? I haven't seen anything quite like that at Walmart or Kmart, and that's the extent of choices on shopping for about a 400 mile radius- give or take 50.

Anonymous said...

I would try on line shopping at Bed and Bath, Target or ebay since you don't have a lot of choices near you. I shop at Target a lot and they have lots of good storage goods. Also try Lowes/Home Depot. Good luck. It's been a while since our children were small but I think that they would still work. If nothing else, you could take a box, add either wheels or a skate board under it and use that. Maybe even Creg's list?