Originally Posted by MaritimeMummy:
I'm not really sure what to do here. I have the toys organized. I even have them stored in a way that doesn't really look like we have many toys...when they're picked up and put away. But the problem I have is keeping up. There are SO many toys and the kids just have no regard for keeping things organized that I am just losing my marbles. Like, for example one will be playing with a toy phone. Spots something else. Literally TOSSES the phone behind them on the floor and runs for the new toy. Now multiply this times 5 and you have yourself one messy living room.
No, I don't have a separate day care space, and I never will.
I am just so exhausted at the end of the day that the toys are not even touched and picked up until I get up the next morning to start the new day.
I want so badly to downsize. There are so many toys my own kids don't even touch anymore. How many toys is too many? How many is not enough?
One family I used to babysit for all of there toys were mostly in their living room and the kids (ages 2 and 4) would always take out all of the toys at once but during transition times (right before lunch/school time/nap time) I tought them to clean up when it is "clean up time" and they would put things away really fast and mostly in the right spots (only a few things were in specific boxes like legos) and I would clean up with them (modeling behavior) but didn't put too much energy into it so they would do most of the cleaning- I mostly did more detailed organizing (like books) and they would finish in less than 2 minutes. And I didn't let them move on to the next activity until clean up was done.
Maybe having lables on the storage bins. or maybe having a curtain/sheet over the shelves and letting them pick 1 or 2 things at a time- sometimes all of those toys out in their view make it more likely that they will want a chance to play with everything on the shelves or get bored and lose intrest in their current toy and forget to put it away