I’m in a place in my life that I need to do some deep searching to figure out what is driving me to provide every toy under the sun for my kids. We have so many toys – ever since my oldest has been a baby I have provided a list to anyone who was interested in buying him a gift. He and his brothers have gotten so many toys over the years. When we moved from OH most of the stuff I kept was their toys. Currently in my daughters room there is a crib for her but she is surrounded by toys. I have two tall shoe racks to store shoe box size boxes with toys. I have a variety of sizes of bins to store my kids toys.
I’m currently sitting in the living room where we have it set up for the kids. The thing is they barely play in this room. I was given a kitchen set that you would find in a preschool/kindergarten classroom. I worked at a daycare for four years and I loved the layout of the rooms. We had a science center, a home-living center, reading center, music center, art center, quiet center, block center, writing center, math center, and maybe a special center depending on the interest of the children. I wanted to set up this type of environment for my kids. The issue that I have found is that they have freedom to move from the living room to other rooms in the house. This was causing me a lot of stress because I was having to deal with toys all over the house. Currently I have downsized what they have access to for this time because of the arrival of twins and I’m tired of dealing with toys EVERYWHERE!
Now I should share that I am very protective of my kids toys and I keep them organized. You would think that as a mom of four young kids I wouldn’t remember which toys go where and what is missing but I typically do. The reason is because it matters to me and I used to have a really good memory. My oldest has inherited that memory and he can tell you about toys at his Mamaw house. He may not think about them all the time but he will say we have this toy and/or he has asked me about certain toys. I sort the toys into bins so I can switch them out over time to keep them interested. The issues is I have not been able to do that and I know that it’s due to the season we are currently in.
Two family members love giving the kids toys for birthdays and Christmas. It getting to a point that I don’t know what I should tell them anymore. One family member has gotten to a point of giving me the money so I can pick something out. The other family member has decided they will no longer use the Amazon list I provide as a guidance because I put to many educational toys on the list. The thing is and this is going to sound bad but if I don’t put it on the list there is a good chance it will go away. I’m the one that has to maintain it so I get to decide what stays and goes. The latest thing is they want to buy toys that are commercial toys and you would think the boys would be into it but I am learning that isn’t the case. We currently have out the cars from the Cars movies, dinosaurs, Paw Patrol toys, and “baby” type toys for Y. The younger boys are really into the cars and that’s all they pay with most of the time. My oldest wants to watch TV all day but when he does play he typically play with the dinosaurs. There are few odds and ends but it’s simple.
I am looking forward to sorting the toys and downsizing but it may take me months to get to it. As long as we aren’t moving then I have over a year to get rid of stuff.
Thriving in Chaos 
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