I feel very grinch-ish sometimes when I scream about the toys-toys-toys-TOYS and the noise-noise-noise-NOISE, but good LAWD my house gets loud and crazy sometimes! And I don’t mind a few toys out here and there, but if I can’t walk to the bathroom without hitting a Lego land mine? Well, I get pretty darn cranky. But with Christmas and 3 birthdays all within a month of each other, it gets pretty messy around here.

I tried to stay ahead of the curve and clear out a lot of stuff before Christmas. The kids helped me sort it all and they chose what to give to St. Nick. Then he took the toys to the North Pole where they were fixed up and shipped out to other boys and girls. (Bonus: Santa can bring gently used items to our house and no one questions it.) That helped, but there were still way too many toys.

And so after Christmas we pulled everything out. Every.single.thing. WHEW!  And we sorted every.single.thing. And not just dolls, blocks, cars; but American Girl dolls vs. Cabbage Patch Kids vs. other dolls, Hot Wheels vs. Cars cars vs. big toy cars. And then we started boxing up. All the toys for January, February, March, and April went on the floor. One big box for May, June, July, August. Another for September, October, November, December. If you wanted your Halloween bucket when it was time to trick-or-treat, you sure as hang better make sure your bucket was in the October box. Want to take a toy to the beach? You should probably put it in the May-August box.

I did this when they were little (when there were less children and less toys). It worked really well when I did it but with the help of time and laziness and a few moves, all that organization went out the window. Will we keep this up? I hope so. I think it’s possible. I already have to do wardrobe season changes, what will one more box hurt? (I really hate changing out all of their clothes! Takes for-ever!)

How do you tame the Toy Monster?
Do you give away toys they don’t use any more?
Do you sell toys at consignment?
Or just deal with the explosion of toys?

Do you save any of their (or your) favorites?
I’ve saved some to have when my kids are older, but younger kids visit.
And for (maybe someday) grandchildren.
I love that both my parents and Marshall’s have our toys for our kids to use.