Organizing Clutter...

I'm trying to organize kids toys as well as general household clutter...

I came across the idea of getting little plastic boxes and then taping pictures of the toys (ie..legos) on the top of the box....and that sounds like a reasonable idea....does anyone else have some good clutter-busting solutions?

Kris

My kids are the only grandchildren on both sides of the family. In other words they are spoiled rotten when it comes to toys and clothes (but that's been kind on OUR budget!). I recently took care of the mountainous mess that was my children's rooms. I have made it a point in the past to have containers for each toy "groups" (legos, blocks, buildable robot pieces, stuffed animals, etc.). So, I went through and all toys that did not belong in a boxed group of some sort were set aside. Next, I set aside all of the toys that I knew they did not play with, were broken, or were too young for them. The toys that were too young I stuck up at the top of a closet (all the toddler stuff). Those toys will be wrapped as Christmas presents and recycled in the next two years for Sophia (the baby coming). All other toys were placed into two huge garbage sacks for a garage sale we'll be having in the spring. Their rooms are SO MUCH neater and easier for THEM to clean every evening!!! I have carefully shown them which boxes hold which toys (this has really helped with their "grouping" skills btw ) and I make sure they stack the boxes back into the closet at night. Now that the other toys are gone and the toys that they do have are easier to get to and find, they have had a lot more fun with what they have. It is amazing to me that by actually getting rid of a third of their toys they are having more fun with the rest of the toys! I'm glad I did it - especially before Christmas (re: more toys!).

Jennifer

[Phoebe]

Jennifer- What a good idea to recycle the toys and give them as Christmas gifts to Sophia. I like this idea! I will do that for our next, except we first have to get some toys for Avery!

Jennifer

Thanks! "Recycling" the baby toys works especially well since the baby really doesn't understand much of what is going on anyway (at least not for the first couple of Christmases - after that they catch on pretty darn quick ). I just thought, "Why buy more baby stuff when I already have an enormous amount of toys in perfect condition left from my other three children?" I'll just have to hide these "old" toys while the older kids forget about them and so they don't start saying, "Hey, that's MY toy!" next Christmas!

Jennifer

LOL!!

Jennifer, we do the same thing! We have most of Wesley's nice toys from years ago and now we give them to Jonah... and Jonah thinks we are just these great parents because of all these toys he gets!!! LOL!! In the meantime, we are saving a great deal of money!!

Christy

[Phoebe]

I plan on doing this as well. I am now wishing I would have been more careful about some of Avery's clothes (avoiding spit up and drool on the shirts) so we could save them for the next baby. I better not tell Ron about this because last he knew we weren't having anymore kids until he could stop calling me a housewife!

Jennifer

I heard that!!!

I already have the baby bug again... I just dread the infertility crap I have to endure... Errrr!!! Jennifer, tell me when your pregnant again!!! LOL!!

Christy