Play Time

This week we are going to try and sort out the playroom, or if you don’t have one of those, just sorting out their toys.

20 years’ worth of toys!

Over the years I have collected tons of toys and books.  I have 4 children but instead of getting rid of the toys as they grew older, we just added to the collection. My clutter is now so bad in certain rooms that I had to call in expert help.

I read an article a few years ago about getting the children to help you sort their toys and books, so I tried it. Not a winner at all. They kept finding things they wanted to keep.  At that stage my girls were still pre-teens and they would find stuff and then run off and play with their new find. My son was a lot better.

I gave up then but now it is time to begin again.  They are all teenagers now, so the baby doll without the eyes and the one with the blue face (my middle daughter wanted to do CPR so she painted the face blue) can all be tossed.  All the Noddy books, pre-school books and ABC books are being donated to charities and schools which need them.

Everything in its’ place

There is a lot of work to do. If you have the space to create a playroom, then do so.  There is nothing better than being able to close the door on the mess, especially when you have already cleaned the area 2 or 3 times that day.

Depending on how old your children are, you will need to create either a play area or a study area and sometimes both.

Book shelves are great for this as you can put nice baskets or boxes on the lower shelves for toys and reading books and school books on higher shelves.

Boxes also work for toys but children then tend to pull everything out and play in the box!

Where to start?

Are you finished having children? How old are they?  These are just two of the questions you need to ask yourself.

Any books that your children have out grown pack up and donate!  There are so many places that need them. Broken books should be placed in recycling bins/bags for disposal.

Next the toys!  One bag is for tossing and one bag is for donating. If it is broken in any way, it gets tossed! If your children no longer play with it, sell it, swap it or donate it.

Whatever you do, don’t make my mistake! Make sure you get it out of your house immediately it is sorted.  My first attempt made it into boxes which never left the house, so it actually looked worse than before!

With my family being older, we have what was a very tiny playroom that is a guest/TV room, which is now used as the ironing room, still full of all the toys that I haven’t got rid of yet!

How do you organise your children’s play area?  Share some ideas or even pictures!