Mud Pies & Minivans: Avoiding WW3 In Your Playroom

I have been wanting to say this for a long time, so here it goes....I despise toy boxes! There, I said it & I feel so much better. Many people turn to toy boxes because they don't take up a lot of space & you can just throw everything into them in a snap & all appears clean. In the short run it seems like an easy solution for all your kiddos toys, but is it really? As your kids get older & the toys get more detailed with smaller pieces, just throwing them into a box is going to just get items that go together separated & potentially broken or lost. Also, having your kids just throw everything together without any real rhyme or reason is causing you to miss out on teaching them how to truly clean, stay organized & be a good steward over their things by taking the time to put each thing back into its proper spot before taking out something else. Having everything thrown into a toy chest can also be frustrating to a child. Maybe they just want to play with 1 toy in particular & to get to just that 1 toy they are going to have to dump out their whole collection of toys to find it. Not too fun & I know it would definitely frustrate me.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this topic of course & sometimes their just isn't very much room for another toy solution, but I truly believe that if you can avoid them-do! There are so many more efficient & fun ways to organize your "Minis" toys that will teach them about being responsible & being good stewards over their things.

I will never forget when I first walked into the childcare facility at the air force base before I officially began my job there. The organization of that place was at a whole new level! They had shelves, bins, & boxes for absolutely everything. Every item had a place & there were labels & pictures to make sure everyone could remember just where each thing was supposed to be. It did not matter if a kid had been coming to that facility for years or even just for a day, clean up time became something that was so simple for everyone involved because everything's "place" was so obvious.

In our house, we have labels & pictures in most of our rooms with toys except the big playroom downstairs. In that room I try to rotate the toys every few months (we store some in the garage) to keep it interesting & not too crowded so labeling things would be pointless. Instead, we have shelves with bins. In each bin we put alike items. Maybe 1 has all of the girls' princess accessories, another has all our cars, 1 has action figures, another has baby doll accessories, there is a bin for only doctor stuff, & so forth. It is pretty straight forward where things go & with the bins on the shelves it is very easy not to get too messy because we teach our children to play with only 1 bin at a time. For some of our toys that have a lot more pieces we do use big bins, but again it is only filled with similar items so it doesn't get too crazy. Toy kitchen food & plastic tableware have their own bin in our house (our most popular thing to play I think). These toys do take a little more time to clean sometimes because there is a lot more stuff involved, but with the rule in place that you only play with 1 category of toys at a time (for example "play food" "Barbies" or "blocks") & you must clean it all up before moving on to something new, things really don't get too bad. We have a lot of kids in our house & a rule as simple as this has saved of from having too crazy of messes in at house.

Let me end with talking about stewardship, this is something we begin teaching our children very very early on. They were never allowed to throw their toys, step on them, or climb on them in inappropriate ways. Even at 1 1/2 & 2 years old we explained to them about having gentle hands & being nice, they would even apologize to their toys if they treated them badly lol. Coloring on their things, putting stickers on them, playing rough, spreading toys all over the house, & breaking things have never been acceptable in our family. I understand accidents happen sometimes & things break or kids get a lil' carried away & may forget the rules, but as their parents we know their heart & what their intentions were. Our kiddos know that if they begin to not treat their things with respect & care, then we will need to give them away to someone who will appreciate them & treat them properly.

Avoiding WW3 with your toys also can be prevented by having a semi annual or annual toy cleanse the kids participate in with us. We tend to do one right before fall (birthday season for us). Our kids get blessed with so many wonderful things throughout the year & I want them to learn to also be blessings to others & pay it forward. I don't want them to take all that they have for granted. I want them to understand that not every child out there is as fortunate & we need to show them Jesus & love them. I also don't want things to "have them". Life is not all about stuff, its about people & experiences/memories! Of course I don't make them get rid of those absolute favorite things they continue to play with & have sentimental value to them, but they also don't need everything. If something is broken or not up to par, it gets tossed!

Well, hopefully some of these steps help you. I have 5 kiddos & while our house is not always catalog perfect, it is pretty organized & neat considering (& loved & lived in). I am telling you, even my husband can power through their playrooms in 20 minutes for a quick clean up because everything has a clear spot!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend (A2Zteam pics at the bottom)

-M&M Momma