Scary Sight
Posted in: Family
Want to see a scary sight? Here. Look at Isabelle’s toys:
Want to know something scarier? This isn’t even all of them. This picture is just a portion. I had been sitting, pulling everything out, trying to organize them. She has soooooo much, the toys are overflowing big gigantic boxes, yes multiple big humongous boxes.
That’s because Alan’s family is so large. Have I ever mentioned that? Alan’s mother is one in a family of twelve children. You read that right. TWELVE! Well, eleven surviving. There are so many that Alan cannot even remember how many there are off the top of his head. He has to name them all out and count.
So yeah, every Christmas and Isabelle’s birthday, her amount of toys GROWS. I mean we were already bombarded on her first Christmas when she wasn’t even four months old.
The exception was this past birthday since we did not throw her a birthday party. I told Alan that if we did have a party for Isabelle, we should put on the invitations: “no presents please” or “no toys please, just books or clothes”. I would like to do that for Christmas as well. But he thinks it’s mean.
But oh my gawd, we’re drowning in toys!! We need to give some away and organize better. So a step in that direction…
We went to Ikea and got some Trofast storage. Whatever doesn’t fit needs to go.
Wow I completely understand! I did say no presents please one year and they still brought them. So now I try not to get attached to them, cause my kids don’t even know what they have. Then I donate, donate, donate! It is so hard when I think oh Aunt Sally gave us this but its better than drwning it. Good Luck! I am on the same page.
We have a similar problem with stuffed animals because the girls can pick them up so easily at garage sales and thrift shops. One thing I sometimes do is just secretly put some toys away in storage and then bringing them out, they’re almost like new toys. My youngest is five and almost too old for this trick, but it worked when they were younger (although then sometimes Miranda would become convinced there were toys hidden somewhere in the house when there actually wasn’t)
good idea (I love IKEA!) and good luck! ;]
What we do for the kids is I go through them and
take out the broken and the toys that have missing
parts. Then we put in two piles winterish, and
summerish. After that we put those into 3 boxes
each, so there is 6 boxes with faves in each.
After that during cool weather the winterish toys
come out and I rotate the 3 boxes during the cool
weather. And the same for winter. So the kids feel
that they get new toys. And they are more prone to
using the toys because they get to play with old
faves too. If I see that they are getting board I just
change out the toys. They also will pick up more
if they dont want me to change out the toys.
I will bring out a new box when friends come so that
they are more prone to playing, and cleaning up.
Good Luck!
I so feel you! We don’t have a large family, but with 3 kids (who are the only grandchildren on both sides), our house tends to look like Toys R Us threw up in it!
What we did for my oldest kids’ birthdays this past year was to say in the invitation, “In lieu of presents, we ask that you would consider donating to _________” For my son, we asked that they donate to the local Scottish Rite Communication Disorders Center, since my ds got speech therapy from them when he was younger. We included a brochure (which has a pic of my ds in it!) and a stamped, addressed envelope for them to send in the donation if they wished. For my dd, we asked that the guests donate the Relay for Life team of a little girl in her school who was a cancer survivor. I included the website where they could find more info and donate if they wished. A couple of folks still brought toys, but it was def. not as much as it could have been!
A little girl in my ds’s class had a birthday party and asked guests to bring a toy, which they would donate to the local Ronald McDonald House (they said they would donate it on the invite). I thought this was a great idea too!
(Hi! My first time posting a comment here…)
How about letting your relatives know that you’d love to get some family tickets to museums, aquariums, zoos, etc instead? That way, Isabelle would have less toys, but the relatives could chip in and still feel like giving something.
I always give away Ebow’s toys. Mom keeps buying more and I keep giving them away. Ebow doesn’t even miss them. He only plays with his bicycle and his sick and his ball. If he gets a new toy, he plays with it for 3 days. Since we have a toy drop off and trade with other kids up at Golden Gate Video, we don’t even need to purchase anything. When we go up to see Vince and Penelope we drop off all Ebow’s toys and sometimes he picks up some small thing, but usually he isn’t too interested in toys at all. Also I hate that plastic leaches toxic chemicals and messes up hormones so I try not to buy anything plastic but it is hard since everything is made of plastic. Anyway, you should give the toys that Isabelle doesn’t play with to needy children. So everyone feels good.
I just love IKEA.. wish we had one here in Anchorage. I hear ya about the toys, I know it can be overwhelming. I don’t have any children, but when I was fostering.. it got a little crazy
Oh by the way I love Sophie’s suggestion for gifts of outtings to the zoo and museums and aquariums. I will use that for future parties. An experience is so much more satisfying than some lifeless object.
can i come to your garagesale?
Oh my goodness it feels good to clean out! I told my kids yesterday that they won’t be able to get any more toys for Christmas if they don’t clean out some of what the have. Where would we put it?? Sometimes you just gotta purge and organize. We will be doing the very same thing next weekend.
On another note I need to ask you for help. I just got a tablet pc in hopes that I can start doing more of my own designing for the front of my patterns and such. BUT I can’t find any books, websites, tutorials, anything that is not way over my head. If you know of any could you please recommend some? I posted some of my embarrasing little drawings on my blog today. LOL! I’m going for that “Dick and Jane” 1960′s feel….I’m not there yet. LOL!
I read your blog for about an hour Saturday! *Stalker* I love your style of drawing. I always enjoy your illustrations- and so do my kids! I hope soon I will be able to put my style on paper (or the computer). It’s in my head I just have to figure out how to get it out! LOL!
xoxo,
Samantha
I LOVE the Trofast unit we have in the baby’s room – I don’t think I would be able to have a child without it
I don’t think I’ve bought any toys for little man, but somehow the amount keeps growing. Our house overfloweth with board books and too-small onesies!
i think every parents experienced that .lol. we also feel like donating some or give them away. but everytime when we picked up a toy and about to give it away.. sweet memories flows in.. ‘oh.. this was when she was 3 months old… and that was her fav and thats the first time she laughed so hard playing with it… blah n blah.. so we hardly able to throw any away .at the end! lol.