How do you handle the toy clutter?
Share your solutions with us in the comments!
-Tay
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My job as a regional rep for CeCe Caldwell’s Paints takes me around the Northwest and I’m often at my room in Lighthouse Antique Mall but I do most of my marketing work, order fulfillment and DearOlympia.com shipping from home. My new Enchanted Northwest Soy Candle Line line demands more storage space and space is at a premium. I refuse to take out a storage locker or cram my garage with unused stuff.
Quick
tangent: after we moved out of our military base housing in Hawaii
(read: they decided to go ahead and demolish our house 3 months ahead of
schedule), I promised myself that business stuff would no longer take
over our living spaces.
In
Hawaii, we literally had cases of paint lining our bedroom walls. It’s
mentally stressful to me to try to work in an abundance of clutter.
Cramming stuff in and out of shelves makes me irritable because when I
have time to work alone, I want to max out that time on work and not on
fighting pans and containers and shoving my daughter’s toys in every
nook and cranny!
We
recently purchased a foreclosure in WA and renovated it. I
didn’t want a huge house, just a livable one. My philosophy is that you
let the house size dictate your stuff, you don’t let your stuff dictate
your house size.
When
we finally started to move stuff back into the house, I was like the
“none shall pass” character from Monty Python. Unless I needed to use
it in the next two weeks, it didn’t come in! We donated it or took it
to the dump. That was working well but as all parents know, Christmas
can throw you.
One
toy in, another toy out. That is my policy. I have had zero regrets
so far. Adair is allowed to play with one container at a time which is
good because her attention span is so short anyway. Then we put it back
in the container and put it back on the shelf. I am hoping this puts
her on a path of enjoying her stuff but not letting her stuff dictate
her happiness or emotional state.
This
is a key to my semi-sanity in working from home. The less to put away,
the quicker I can put things back in cabinets, wipe down the counter and
vacuum the floor. The fewer items we have, the easier it is for my
husband and I to tag-team picking up the house because we both know
where everything is and where everything goes.
My house is never as clean as I want it and I’m 100% okay with that. It’s pretty much clutter free, though, not because of my organization skills but my ability to let go of items instead of constantly fretting over where and how to store things.
DearOlympia.com
