Toyland!

Toyland, toyland
Little girl and boy land
When you dwell within it
You are ever happy there!

Childhood toyland
Mystical merry toyland
Once you pass it's borders
You can never return

These are the lyrics to Toyland.  I gotta agree, that it seems like once you have kids, you pass the borders from sophisticated sanctuary house for adults, into Toyland, seemingly never to return.   I am grateful for the toys I trip over, for it means I've got healthy bouncing kiddos around the house, whom I know will be off to college before I can blink, so I am savoring these moments.  This Christmas Santa & his helpers were very generous, especially to my toddler son.  We gazed in amazement as we watched him cheerfully rip open packages & also wondered at the same time, where are we gonna put all this stuff!?  Even after designating a few things to go to Grandma & Grandpa's house, I knew we had to come up with some kind of plan to organize the current & new toys. 

The holidays are a great time of year to purge toys your kids are done with - whether you sell or donate them. Donating toys especially teaches them a lot about generosity & giving to those in need.  I can't get rid of my toddler's baby toys at this point because his baby sister is 19 months behind him & will be using them.  My house is just under 1400 sq.ft. & we do not have the luxury of a playroom, so we had to get creative.  The nursery had a great shelving unit from Ikea in it, which I figured would better serve in our dining/family area to store toys, so we moved it there.  It covers up a big portion of our custom painted mural of the Greek Isles, which reminds me & my DH of our engagement in Greece & our love for the days in which we used to travel.  However, I figure it's also protecting the mural from potentially sticky & grimy kiddo fingers.  Baskets allow me to categorize stuff.  Yeah, yeah I know stuff is not going to remain categorized, so the baskets also provide a great way to just quickly throw in the toys at clean up time. 

Upon arrival of baby #1, while kid proofing my house, I got rid of all knick knacks & tchotsky's in my living room.  This leaves a lot of open space in my TV stand (also from Ikea - can you tell we're big Ikea fans?) which I have now designated for books.  we also have a big bookshelf for my husband & I in the living room, so this serves nicely to encourage reading activities here.  I'm using the toybox on the side to store some bigger cars, pull toys & balls.

Here's a picture of the storage unit we have in our son's room - I have designated bins for blocks, puzzles, etc.  The hanging blue mesh unit holds stuffed animals - yet another great find from Ikea.

All of these storage spaces & units are now our limits for toys.  If there's not space in these units or in the kids rooms for the toys without creating a cluttered situation, then it's time to purge.  When kids are old enough, I will let the kids decide what they want to keep & what they want to donate.

Oh - it's also great to designate "parking spots" for larger items like these ride on toys:

Now I can start the new year & not feel overwhelmed by toys seemingly taking over my house!  :)