The pre-Christmas toy purge

I'm just picking up where I left off... hope you don't mind :D

There comes a time in the life of every mom when she wants to start shouting "ENOUGH WITH THE TOYS ALREADY" and bulldozer everything into a dumpster. I've been fighting this urge a number of ways.

First I removed all the toys from the living room. There can be toys in Deuce's room, and toys in the family room, bu toy storage in the living room too was just pushing it a little. That really helped because at least I can open the front door without kicking Mr. Potato Head aside.

Then I was rotating the toys, half in the basement, half in the family room at about 2 week intervals. That lasted about 1 rotation before Deuce figured me out and would just come downstairs and get what he wanted, tossing everything else over his shoulder throughout the basement.


Over the summer I set up some baskets and boxes with pictures on them to help Deuce sort his toys - trucks, music, play food, blocks... and I got to thinking about when I bought this one enormous basket we have and I thought (so sweetly naive) "I'll keep all Deuce's toys in here." Ha. We're up to 3 baskets, a toy shopping cart, the blocks wagon and 3 diaper boxes. And then there are the free standing toys.

While packing for our Thanksgiving trip to the ILs, I approached the toy pile to choose some things to take with us. I vetoed anything with 100 small parts immediately (toy food, megablocks, Potato Head), grabbed some books and art stuff, and then... what does Deuce play with? Some trucks. Um... Yeah. That's about it. He's outgrown most everything he has. He uses the toys still, mostly to cram the parts into other toys, or throw things into boxes like free throw practice.

I spent some time this morning boxing things up and putting them away. I doubt he'll miss any of it. But putting away the stacking rings and the linkados I feel like I'm packing up his toddlerhood. For Christmas he's getting a train set (the brio one, not even the Geotrax), art stuff, sports stuff, games... not so much primary colored plastic as in past years.

I hear him moving upstairs, time to get him up. Let's see if he notices half his toys are gone!