One of my goals for The Simplicity Project (TSP) was to reduce the chaos in our only family common area. Today we officially started a Bin-A-Week approach to toy storage in the living room.
3 weeks and 2 days ago Neat Pete and I sorted the living room toys with a fine tooth comb. Some toys went to the garage sale others went to the trash can. We split all the remaining toys among four 36 gallon plastic storage bins. Then we sent ‘em packing to the garage without child permission.
Ryan did not notice.
Okay, did you catch that? Yes, for 3 weeks and 2 days our family was missing 144 gallons of toys with no more than one comment. Two days after the original purge Ry inquired about his pirate ship. To his request I said
The ship is not here right now. Use the couch for ship instead.
Pirate Ryan losing his first mate Molly to the depths of the seas. She tipped over as soon as I snapped the photo.
Our goal is to create a rotating Bin-A-Week toy schedule to keep the mystery alive for otherwise ignored toys. Each bin contains a variety of battery toys, books, small manipulatives and theme sets like animals, doctor and music.
Today Ryan fell back in love with Duplos. Molly with her purse.
It is like Christmas. TSP is underway!
2 Comments
I so love how they didn’t even notice that so many toys were missing. I can’t believe we didn’t do this so much earlier!
If you want a little more rotation, Prior Lake attic can store some bins for you if you’d like. Or long term, if it’s a just can’t part with, but not being used toy.
Grammy Lu and Papa Den
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