I was recently asked by a fellow homeschool mom how I keep my girl's room organized. She too keeps 2 daughters in one room and didn't feel her 'system' was working well. I sympathize. This plea was exactly mine a year ago. My older 2 share a room and for the life of me I couldn't stomach the mess! While I am not the cleanest housewife, I hate clutter! I am already famous for purging multiple times a year but between b-days, Christmas, and generous relatives the toys stack up! Here are some tips for how I run my humbled ship and made some changes:
Step #1. It has to be a mind change. NO CHILD NEEDS THAT MUCH CRAPP! The more toys they have the less they play with all of them bc it's impossible to put your hands on a million toys at once! :) I have asked all relatives to purchase "education worthy/homeschoolish" gifts like puzzles, books, games, science kits, learning DVDs, etc so it's not just one more toy that needs batteries. Plus, it helps me spend less on my homeschool supply budget :)
Step #2. Acknowledge that your girls LOVE their stuff, but limit their toys to 3 or 4 categories.
For instance, my girls have all their barbies in THIS. If it doesn't fit in there, we purge. It slides right under their bunk bed and out of site! We also have one of THESE in their room. 3 cubes are used for books, the other 3 have those pull out buckets in them that hold random little toys (one has polly pockets in it, the other 1 has a few random figurines, and the 3rd is empty.... told you I purge a lot!) And lastly, they have 2 Rubbermaid containers in their closet: 1 for dress up clothes and 1 for baby dolls and accessories.
**Barbies, polly pockets, dress up and baby dolls are the extent of my girls toys. We have a separate homeschool room I stash craft stuff, coloring books, more reading books, puzzles and games- but I keep it out of reach and they have to ask permission to use it bc of how messy that stuff can get.
Step #3 - I would advise sitting down with your spouse and evaluating the "stuff" versus the mess. Once my husband and I came to agreement that our girls are blessed beyond measure and that relationships are what we want them valuing not how many "toys/gifts" they receive it made it so much easier to justify getting rid of it all! My stress level is down and it's easier for the girls to clean up their room too with less stuff- now it does get trashed from top to bottom, but it's a quick "You clean the barbies, you pick up the dress up clothes, and VOILA it's done!"
Step #4- Clothes! ARG! As if we aren't washing, drying, folding, tucking away enough as it is, enter HAND ME DOWNS! *insert pulling out hair as we sort through bags of half stained clothes* Don't get me wrong I am always very grateful to receive them, but my standards have gone up and it helps me keep the cluttered closet in line. Basically this is my hard and fast rule.... If I can get it in better condition and brand new on the clearance rack at Target I don't keep it. There I said it :) I am an avid clearance shopper and my personal belief is that if I shop smart enough I can get current style clearance priced clothing that my child will have first dibs wearing for 2 seasons or more, plus I control how stained they get and the condition they stay in to pass down to my other children. My girls have maybe 2 or 3 dresses each for church, 2-3 pairs of shorts, and several shirts for the summer season. I have to stop myself from buying clothes bc they don't NEED an entire closet full, just enough to make it about a week or so then I do laundry. If I'm going to buy something it should be for next year and up to a size and a half bigger! *Please don't stone me over this step, to each her own, this is just how I keep my sanity**
Step #5- Stuffed Animals- I hate them. My oldest swoons over stuffed plush objects and I have to control my tongue every time she bats her pretty browns at me and asks to buy ANOTHER one. The girls have 1 laundry basket full of them. They are allowed to sleep with one animal (they will play in bed if not) and most of the time it's a rotation of 2-3 truly loved animals. All the rest, stay in the basket- until mommy sneaks into their room like a thief and pulls out 1 or 2 unloved animals and sends it off to Goodwill. I have been known to ship animals off to Grandma's house so they can be loved over there... again it's the same principle as the toys. The more animals they have the less they can play with all of them. Send a few to Gma's and suddenly a trip to her house is a magical experience enjoyed with long lost loved stuffed things. (Hope you aren't offended by my sarcasm ::wink::)
Step #6- Cluttery Junk i.e craft creations :) Do you have an artsy one too? My oldest will glue anything to anything. literally. Her latest fiasco was cutting up empty toilet paper rolls into microscopic sizes then mincing pom pom balls into fuzzy accessories to make polly pocket sized animals. I about died. And this is where mean mommy comes in. She is allowed to create, color, draw, imagine away for about 2 weeks. All her creations and pages go into a 3 drawer plastic cabinet. She can pull them out, add to them, recolor, whatever. 2 weeks later, I have a small panic attack bc there are craft pieces/bits/random glue thingies everywhere and I haul into the room, empty the drawer, tell her she can keep 5 "projects" and the rest will get thrown away. I do keep a FEW original pieces of art throughout the year, only the extraordinary ones to keep as a progress journal for her creativity, but the other 99% of it goes in the trash, or the fire pit- depends on how my mood is :) IF the mess happens to spill out of the cabinet within those 2 weeks, we have a friendly mother daughter confrontation and the purging happens earlier. I STRONGLY encourage my girls to use both sides of the paper and to FINISH coloring/drawing each picture before moving on. I hate waste, money doesn't grow on trees.
Barefoot and sweaty, it's hot today!
Ashley
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