Tuesday's Tip-Toy Control

Have you ever awoke in the middle of the night to comfort your crying child, only to step on a piece of Lego in the dark? Ouch, right? I have done that so many times, I finally got to the point I had had enough. So what is a mother to do? Give away all of their toys? Now that would be drastic, but I was almost to that point.

We have a good sized house and so the toys were everywhere. One day I decided something had to be done, so I sat the girls down and had a talk with them. I told them that some of their toys had to go. They had way too many and they needed to share with kids who didn't have any toys. I had great timing too, because Brian was going on a missions trip to Haiti, so he could take them with him and give them to the kids at the orphanage where he would be staying. This was a perfect time to teach them about giving.

We got a big trash bag and started going through their toys. I seriously couldn't believe how much they had. Then I went a step further. I went to Target and bought a box for each of their rooms. Upstairs we have our bedrooms and a little playroom and I got rid of all the toys upstairs and they were only allowed to keep what would fit in their box. It has been 3 months and it has worked perfectly. I can't tell you how great it is not to get up and walk through a minefield.


Clean up is easy at night too. They know where their toys go. The playroom is no longer cluttered with tons of toys. It's a nice relaxing place for us to hang out and be together as a family. The rest of the toys that were not donated went downstairs to the basement. That gives the girls 2 rooms where they can play with their toys. It's nice because it keeps the main floor clean and clutter free and keeps me sane.

It will be that time again to go through the toys to see what else we can donate. Christmas is around the corner and I know they will get a few more toys, although I am trying to keep that at a minimum. We're doing a cool thing with the girls that I will share a little later on in another post. It's a great way to teach them how to save, give and invest their money.

In case you are wondering, I got the boxes at Target. They are on sale right now for $7.99 until 10/23. That's a good deal for how big they are. They hold a lot of toys. Hopefully this is a practical tip you can try in your home.