I thought I’d post a quick follow up to my recent blog You’re A Mean One Mommy Grinch: Making Room For New Toys and let you know how my clean out went. Much like the Grinch’s soul according to Boris Karloff, my toy clean out task turned involved ‘an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable’. Okay, maybe I embellish, but we definitely had a lot of junk and I would be remiss not to mention the cheerios, crusty milk stains and petrified m&m I found in some of the toy receptacles.
I do a good job of hiding the mess, so a ‘before’ picture was not really in order. Inside the toy storage is where it got ugly. I will share some of my ‘after’ toy storage photos for those of you who might be wanting to hide your toys as well. Our kids have a few toys in their rooms, but 95% of the toys in the house are in our living room since we don’t have a play room. For this reason, I try to hide them from site when not being used as much as possible so the adults can use the room as well without being overrun.
First, here are the casualties — all the toys I was able to weed out to go. Not a ton, but considerable since I did a toy clean out 3-4 months ago.
Photo By Susan Maccarelli
And here are ALL the remaining toys. The majority are either in our ottoman (possibly the hardest working piece of furniture we own) or the toy bin (the same thing from target that most of us probably own).
Photo By Susan Maccarelli
Photo By: SUSAN MACCARELLI of peckedtodeathbychickens.com
Here is an after peek inside of each post toy clean out. First is the Ottoman. My husband and I are very strategic when it comes to ottoman toy location. Here is a sample conversation:
Husband (calls to me in kitchen from living room): “Where are the linking letter monkeys?”
Me: “Quadrant 3”
Husband: “From Where”
Me: “The couch is 6 o’clock”
Linking letter monkeys located. Thanks ottoman. Quadrant 1 = puzzles, Quadrant 2 = kid games and babaloo drum, Quadrant 3 = miscellaneous, Quadrant 4 = grown up games.
Photo By: SUSAN MACCARELLI of peckedtodeathbychickens.com
The toy bin shelf contains themed drawers because I am type A and want to give my kids a complex too. Bin 1 = clifford blanket and remote controls, Bin 2 = instruments, Bin 3 = building toys, Bin 4 = balls, Bin 5 = animal figures, Bin 6 = miscellaneous (I hate this drawer and happy meal toys will survive here for about a month before I make them disappear), Bin 7 = used as book shelf, Bin 8 = play food/kitchen toys, Bin 9 = toy cars.
Photo By: SUSAN MACCARELLI of peckedtodeathbychickens.com
Their other toys are big things that I have tucked into 2 corners.
Photo By: SUSAN MACCARELLI of peckedtodeathbychickens.com
Photo By: SUSAN MACCARELLI of peckedtodeathbychickens.com
So here is the clean room. It’s okay, I want you to hate me. Bins and ottoman ready to receive more toys from Santa. Bring it on! (says the toy eliminating Grinch Mommy).
Photo By: SUSAN MACCARELLI of peckedtodeathbychickens.com