Toy ARE Us!

Honestly, this is what it usually looks like unless we know company is coming!


With another birthday fast approaching, I look at our toy room and dread the abundance of toys we are about to add to the chaos. I'm not sure how I feel about all these toys my kids have. Truth is, we really do not buy them a whole lot of these toys, although I am guilty of buying toys for good behavior, kinda like hush money for them hushing up at the store. They are the only kids on both sides of our family and just accumulate toys and toys and more toys.

Here are the pros and cons to having a playroom.

Pro: I get some free time while they are in there playing. I know if I was in there monitoring the toy situation there wouldn't be such a mess, but then I wouldn't get on some "me" time.
Con: Keeping all these toys in order is a full-time job. They playroom is always in a state of disarray. Often times when company comes, I am rushing to put them all in their spot. All that free time I just listed in the "Pro" section gets eaten up when it takes me two hours to clean it.

Pro: I have established a place for every toy. Every toy has a home and when it is all picked up it looks awesome in there.
Con: If my kids need something at the bottom of the bin, the whole bin gets dumped out, creating the mess.

Pro: My kids are loved
Con: I don't want my kids to get the wrong idea about toys and take all of this for granted. When I was young I had one doll and I cherished that doll. Leah has about 15 and I'm not sure she cares as much for any one of them, as I did for mine.

Pro: The toys, for the most part stay in there and out of the living room. Clean up for me at night is super easy as I just throw any toy back in the dungeon.
Con: Instead of putting them back where they belong, I add to the mess in there by tossing them at the door.

Pro: It is super fun in there, when you can walk in...
Con: Maybe it is a little overwhelming with all that stuff....

Basically, I love the toy room and now that we have one I'm not sure if I could ever live without one. It is so convenient to have all the toys in one spot. I just worry about the effect all the toys will have on the kids. Could too many toys be bad?

I am not sold on the fact that is it bad or I would get rid of some. Everyone makes suggestions. Put some toys up and bring out later for play. Give them away as the kids outgrow them. Monitor their play so they can't pull more than one thing out at a time.

My questions to these suggestions are what toys do I put up? And where is up? There is no more room to designate to toys. Give them away... I understand and have given quite a few away. But then when babies come over they use the baby toys and it is nice when my friends come with younger ones, they have something to stay occupied. Monitor play. This is a big No!! This is not only the few minutes I get to take a shower, but I feel it may limit their imagination if I make them play with the cars just as cars. Bryce has such a wild imagination and will tie cars to toy people and hang them off the banister to create a movie scene. I don't want to damper that.

I guess if our only problem is a big toy mess, we really don't have a problem. I have implemented a sticker chart for good behavior and the kids only get a toy at the store when they fill a whole line. That seems to be working well. I plan on giving away some toys before the birthday hits to make room for the new toys. Oh well, we will just be the mini Toys R Us!