Our play room has been a battleground at times. I love it because it’s so spacious and the boys have tons of room to do whatever they want. They can build train tracks, forts, race tracks, obstacle courses and rocket ships. They have full access to whatever is within reach. We bought shelves and boxes to organize the assortment of different toys in there. We have been faithful to purge and throw out things in order that all the toys will always fit in the system we created. It works. For me.
Little boys, however, like to have access to their toys but when it’s time to clean up they want to just throw it all in a pile and be done with it.
I have a problem with that.
When things don’t stay organized, Transformers in the Transformer box, Legos in the Lego box, etc., they don’t play well. They can’t find the pieces they want, they feel discouraged before they get started and they just end up hanging around me while I try to blog. Hee hee.
They are very capable, and can organize their toys in the correct boxes, but it is harder when all the boxes look the same.
So…on Saturday while Kris was gone on a rafting trip with our Sunday school class (I couldn’t go because my back was still hurting) the boys and I drove around, made many, many stops and finally found a way to attach pictured labels to our toy boxes. If you know me, you know how much I hate that sort of errand, but the boys were working with me and understood the goal of the day and that actually did make it easier.
By Saturday afternoon we had this:
I couldn’t print because I was out of toner in my printer. So…I used that to my advantage by putting all my labels on my handy-dandy purple thumb drive and we took it to FedEx Office where they printed it, cut it, and laminated each one individually for $9.31. Then we looked all over for some sort of clip to attach them to the boxes. I don’t want anything too permanent so it was a little difficult to find something that didn’t require me to punch holes or stitch or glue somehow. I was hoping for some alligator clamps that I could hang the labels from and attach them to the handle/flap on the boxes. No one…and I mean no one had them. Hobby Lobby had something similar for hair, but it was curved and there was nothing to attach the label with. Pep Boys had them but they were too big.
I ended up getting these clips from Office Depot. They aren’t as secure as what I was hoping for, but they are small, out of the way, inexpensive ($3.00 for a box of 60) and colorful. The boys loved helping me affix the labels to the boxes and we are all put together now.
They have done much better about putting their toys away since Saturday. They enjoy the fact that they helped do this and they have a confidence in the task since there is now a very obvious place for everything. I used pictures so that even Aron has no trouble identifying the appropriate boxes.
So glad it’s done.
Though I may still look online for the alligator clips I am thinking of. Maybe I’m not done. It’s hard being idealistic.
That is a thing of beauty!
That’s a fantastic idea. We have bins too but I’ve never labeled them. Somehow the girls know which one is which and they correct me when I’m putting something in the wrong bin. Maybe it’s a girl thing. Or maybe it’s that we only have 4 bins. That’s probably it.
“It’s hard being idealistic”. I run into that ALL the time! 🙂
Well done, though. This is certainly on my To Do list now that the kids are in school. Our playroom just needs to all be thrown away. I don’t know if I’m joking or not- they just don’t play with toys much anymore. Yeah, I might not be joking… only time will tell.
I agree Tisra. Throwing out is near on the horizon. Not truly throwing out because selling or donating are better options, but I’m jealous of Amy’s “only…4 bins.” I’m seeing Owen’s interests change and the other two follow swiftly. I don’t think we’ll need this many toys for much longer. Legos and other building toys will stay and books will take over the other shelves in the not too distant future.
Well, we’d have more bins but that’s all we have room for. I think we’ve pared down as much as we can…without just throwing the toy box away. And I’m not ruling it out 😀
I can see that Amy…I wondered though if Halle is at all likely to play with fewer toys as Chloe grows out of them. I definitely see Aron “skipping over” toys that his brothers liked just because they don’t play with them anymore. Halle may be a little more of an individualist than Aron though.
I think it looks fantastic! I love labels and matching boxes 🙂 But I am worse than my own children when it comes to putting things away. I can set up a great system, but maintaining it is another story!
Transformers, Legos and books have been the lasting toys in my boy’s life. We *still* make plenty of room for those things.