One word:
Plasticbins.
I opted to completely ignore “style” and “non-affronts to your eyeballs” for our basement playroom, but I did go and get myself some mighty lofty ideas about organization.
Bins. Plastic bins. One for each type of toy. Puzzles, books, stuffed animals, blocks, musical instruments all have their own bin. Trucks are parked in a single cubby, balls are collected in a basket, obnoxious battery-operated toys go in the bin with the sort-of busted rail that doesn’t pull out very easily, or at all.
Everything has its place, just so.
You know where this is going. Five minutes later:
KABLOOM!
Here’s the thing: I know I should be happy if I can just coax my son into putting some of the toys back into the bins. Which he does! Admirably at times! Other times, not so very much!
But he doesn’t put the toys into the RIGHT bin, and sometimes I go back down there and re-sort everything back into the proper bin.
I confessed this particular strain of OCD to a friend recently, who suggested that I would get over this as soon as we have another baby. I brightened at this thought (Better Living Through Babies!), but then pondered the alternative: What if I don’t get over it? What if it gets worse? What if we have over-two puzzles mixed up with under-two puzzles and Barbie dolls and Tonka trucks mingling together IN THE SAME BIN?
What then, Internet?
*twitches*
I’ll get over it. I just KNOW I’ll get over it.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Ha! We have one of the big bin systems from one of the preschool stores that has 25 clear bins. DD1 is a true first-born and is very anal about putting things in the right bin. One suggestion: use the Google image search to find some good clipart of what goes in each bin, then use packing tape or contact paper to affix the “labels” on the outside of each bin so that your kiddo can easily see what goes where. Works like a charm for us, anyway.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Um, are those pictures flipped? Hate to be OCD or anything, but…
You know, the same KABLOOM! happens in my house. Step out of the room to stir a pot on the stove and come back to find the DVDs scattered all over the floor. The basket of plush animals overturned, the bin of musical instruments scattered everywhere, and yeah, they never go back in the right bin here either.
Carrie, awesome suggestion for helping little ones identify what goes where.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I had the same type of toy storage until number 2 came along. He’s much more into dumping than the oldest was so I bought all new bins (much to my husbands dismay) with snap on lids. Now neither boy can get them open without my help. Not all the toys are in these bins but a lot of them are so it helps with how much they can dump out. There bedrooms are a different story though.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:23 am
oh, and you won’t get over it when number 2 comes along. You just learn to deal better.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Toys in the incorrect bin would make me twitch too.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:01 am
every year, my mother would take all of the bins and empty them into a pile in the middle of the room, and moaning and yelling about how we make such a mess, she’s sort everything back into the “correct” bin. When I was a child, I thought she was NUTS, because SHE was the one who had emptied everything into the pile in the middle of the room. I realized as an adult, that she was moaning because we had made such a mess of the bin organization in the first place.
October 25th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Your messy toy area is a million times neater than my “tidy” toy area. So unfair.