my daughter's toys have taken over!!!!!

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 10:18 am

how do y'all do it with small apartments? we live in an apartment where the living room and dining room is all one big space and that is where we have couches, dinning table, book cases and ALL of my daughter's toys (there is nowhere else to keep them). how do you manage, having a tornado of toys all over the place and that is also where you fold the laundry, do the dishes and do some work at the dinning room table? it makes me want to run out and make lots of money so that we can buy a bigger apartment or house so that the toys are not ALL over the place.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 10:37 am

Marion wrote:

Having a bigger place doesn't help...we have toys in the living room, toys in the bedroom, and toys in the spare/guest bedroom (though I keep trying to get them out of there). And toys (theoretically in storage) in our bedroom.

Sigh.

but interestingly enough, you did not mention the kitchen or dinning room. those rooms that you mentioned would be fine with me. its just that they are everywhere that is our space at the moment. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

slushiemom

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 10:44 am

when I lived in a place that shared the living/dining room AND all the toys- we kind of made a corner with the couch and the wall and threw all the toys back there. there wasnt enough space to have them organized, and this way at the end of the day it was really easy to clean up, we just zipped around the room (and the toys that spilled into the kitchen) and threw them all in the corner.

Good luck!

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 10:46 am

flowerpower wrote:

I make sure not to have a ton of silly toys, just the basic good ones that most kids can enjoy.Also, anything big doesn't enter my house, I hate clutter. How about a nice toy shelf in the corner of the room with bins?

we have a pretty big box that has a lot of stuffed animals that either were mine or my husband's from younger days and some that were gifts to our daughter. that is the biggest box. her other toys dont really go in boxes, they are a bag of blocks, a train with blocks inside and a little truck thing (in israel called a bimba) and a little table that is her height that has books on it, so its not like she has a gazillion toys, its just that when she plays with anything, lets say the dolls or blocks for example, the place is strewn with toys and I feel sometimes that my own space is taken over. boxes would not help at all.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 10:47 am

slushiemom wrote:

we cant do that. no room for that.
clean up is not a problem at all, she loves to clean up her toys and she knows wher they go, its the space while she is playing.....

acccdac

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 10:49 am

I dont know the age of your child but dennis prager was just talking about this how he doesnt like how parents have allowed their kids to take over the adult space (not debating this here just giving a source its credit)

we have a large room but one room taht is our living room, dinning, office, breakfast room. there is a fireplace in the middle that kind of divides it all but its one large room. I've set up the room right now so the toys are in shelves behind the couches so when I'm sitting on the couch reading I dont have to see all their stuff. I also bought those material bin/boxes (I refused to have plastic furniture - only have one rolling drawers for the millions of trains and tracks that we have because it is really the only good storage system for it) from target and put the toys in there so my shelves look nice and not colorful and mix-matched and childish.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ.....img=1

also the next thing is key, but it depends on the age of your child.......only one toy at a time, and when you're finished you put it away. The only time we dont stick to that rule is when its for our benefit, like shabbos morning half of the toys come out but that means we get another hour to hour and a half of sleep without interruption. However, before we even make it to shul I have the kids clean it up with my direction because it is too much of a mess for them to tackle on their own.

oh and like someone else said, get rid of toys! They really dont need so many toys. Put the toys they grew out of in a storage case and stick it under a bed or in a closet. But we all seem to buy our kids more toys than they need.

ora_43

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 12:09 pm

We have one of those five-drawer plastic keter things for toys. The kids can take out one drawer at a time. That way it's either legos or blocks or art stuff strewn around the living/dining/work room, and not everything at once.

Also, they play in one part of the room. So if the blocks are all over the "living/work" room side of the room, I can fold clothes near the table, if the blocks are on the other side, I can fold clothes on the "work" side.

I sometimes look at the room on those rare occasions when it's clean and think "wow, why can't it look like this more often?" But then I remember how much easier it is when the kids are playing in the main room and I can do work while keeping an eye on them, and I decide again that it's better this way.

Marion

Tue, Dec 22 2009, 12:45 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Marion wrote:

I'm in an Israeli apartment. My living room IS my dining room (or rather, the dining table is in the opposite corner of the room from where the couches are). And I don't have toys in the kitchen, per se, but that doesn't mean I don't trip over a bimba or a doll (yes I have boys) or a stroller every morning during breakfast as the kids drop them and make a mad dash for the table!

louche

Wed, Dec 23 2009, 1:57 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

how do y'all do it with small apartments? ...it makes me want to run out and make lots of money so that we can buy a bigger apartment or house so that the toys are not ALL over the place.

don't bother: possessions expand to fill the space allotted (though there's nothing wong with going out and making lots of money Wink

).

Rule # 1 is Have Less Stuff.
Rule #2 is Designate a place for the stuff you have.
Rule #3 is Take advantage of items with multiple purposes

Rule #1: Your dd doesn't need all those toys. Give at least half of them away, or at least pack them in boxes in a closet and rotate them. Have no more than 6 playthings out and visible at any one time; when dd gets bored with those, pack those away and bring out something else. Get rid of toys that she looks at once and drops immediately. A local nursery, daycare or preschool will be very happy to get them.

Ask people to put money in a giftrust account for dd or buy her clothes in a larger size rather than giving her toys and more toys.

If they insist on toys, at least ask for big items that are one piece,like a toy kitchen or pedal car, rather than those with multiple pieces. They take up more space but are easier to manage clutter-wise.

Rule #2: The "real estate method" of managing toy clutter is to designate a spot and volume for toys and to keep only what fits in that space. The one-in, one-out rule is then applied: for every new item that comes in, an old item must go out to make room for it, just as when you own an apartment building, an existing tenant must vacate an apartment before a new tenant can be admitted. Try to fit two families in a space designated for one and you have problems.

The amount of space dedicated to toys is up to you: it can be a closet, a toy chest, half a shelf in a bookcase or one milk crate, but it should be less than you think dd "needs".

Rule #3: Use regular household objects as toys. Your real pots and pans, plastic tableware, linens, crushable hats and shoes, grocery boxes and so on, make excellent playthings and won't take up any additional space. They also encourage creativity more than toys that do everything for the child.

Tamiri

Wed, Dec 23 2009, 2:25 pm

Cat, you have hit upon the reason that people's living space has increased so much over the past half decade or so (U.S. and Israel): STUFF!!!!! People realize that there is no where to put their stuff, so they go out and buy a house to match. And fill up with more stuff. I kid you not. Don't you know anyone living in 3000 sq. feet of space who say they don't have anywhere to put stuff? I sure do!
Get rid of most of the stuff (machsan, boidem) and rotate. Too much isn't good for the kids, anyway. It's hard to focus, hard to clean up and then nothing is ever enough.

shabbatiscoming

Wed, Dec 23 2009, 2:46 pm

Tamiri wrote:

first of all, it was me, shabbat, not cat who started this thread Smile

and second, I do agree with you about the more stuff in more space.

also, we do not have a machsan or a boidem, so there is no place to put stuff that my daughter would not see it and play with it. the only place to put the stuff is in the living room where it is.
our mamad is already so full of other things that if we also put her other toys there there would be no room to move (and it is the computer room and guest room too, so it has to have a pathway every now and then Smile

)