Daily Dose of Mama: Too Much

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Too Much

My kid has too many toys. It's actually embarrassing how much of an understatement that is. There are toys in every single room of our house....baskets and boxes filled with toys. I've already gone through and purged our toys twice, resulting in two larges boxes and one large bag full of toys he has outgrown.

Still, the toys seem to consume us.

This worries me for a variety of reasons (the least of which being my toy-strewn home). I'm frustrated that Little Bug can't really focus on one toy because he has so many. Yet, each time I purge I leave some toys out that he never plays with, the blocks and puzzles and plush animals. Things that he should be playing with, but doesn't because the pieces fall to the bottom of the basket and, let's face it, because puzzles are lame.

In fact, with a few notable exceptions, Little Bug would be happiest with kitchen utensils and our cell phones as his play things.

So, what do I do? Do I keep just a small amount of toys out....like a VERY small amount? What do I do with the boxes filled with all the other toys? Do I donate boxes of toys knowing full well a second child is coming? We're talking about a serious amount of toys here. Do I try to figure out some fancy organization system? I feel like Little Bug's generous amount of toys is actually limiting his ability to enjoy any toys at all.

It's just too much, and I am not sure how to dig out.

4 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 14, 2010 at 1:19 PM
This is a BIG problem in my house too. What we did (but not very successfully) is a rotation system. We put those boxes of toys they outgrew (plus many they still played with) into a storage area. The idea was to 'rotate' toys every month or so... Our mistake was that we forgot about the storage toys (until one day daddy decided to take the kids into the storage area and they found the toys - you can imagine what happened afterwards!).
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KrisFebruary 14, 2010 at 1:56 PM
Our system is similar to Audrey's. I store toys that X has outgrown upstairs (until #2 arrives) and I have 4 large rubbermaid bins that hold the rest of his toys.

One night I laid out all of his toys and sorted them into groups (pounding toys, plush toys, musical, cars, farm sets, etc). I put the toys into the rubbermaid bins, so that each bin would have a nice variety.

We have one bin out at a time. I rotate about every month, or sooner if he gets bored. If we have play dates at the house I pull out some extra toys, but we try to keep it to one bin most days.
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JoJoFebruary 15, 2010 at 6:56 AM
I hear ya...
I try to do the rotation, but never ever actually get to the 'rotating' part. I like Kris' idea.
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kellyFebruary 17, 2010 at 1:53 PM
OK, first of all - puzzles are NOT lame :)

But I hear ya on the too much stuff front. I don't even have a kid yet and I've already thought about this becoming a problem. I've seen it with friends and their kids. Anyway, I think Kris has a GREAT system that I will likely be implementing some day... Thanks Kris!
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Everyday Mama

I'm a 32-year-old everyday mama. My husband (Appa) and I adopted our first son Little Bug (at 10 months old) from Korea in September 2008. We adopted our second son, Little Bro, from Korea in April 2011 at age 21 months. We adopted our third son,Little Moon, at age 3 in November 2013. I've wanted to be a mama for a long time, but I'm still trying to figure out the reality of it all and take time to enjoy the delicate beauty of the highs and the lows.

I worked full time as an editor, which I loved; but I made the bittersweet decision to stay home with my children after Little Bro came home. I'm now clumsily finding my footing in a new world of housekeeping, menu planning, budgeting, cooking, cleaning, and rainy-day activities, as well as navigating the world of IEPs, parent advocacy, and special needs education (spoiler: I suck at house work). My husband is hot and smart and quiet and loyal, and I think (know) my sons are the cutest, happiest little boys in the world.

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