Has anyone recently looked under their tree and then looked around the house and wondered where all this new stuff is going to go? I try not to go too crazy for Christmas but I can't say the same thing for Grandparents around here. We are still 2 weeks away from Christmas and my tree is overflowing with presents. Looking at all of those boxes is giving me anxiety when it comes to thinking of places to store all of these new things. My toy closets are already stocked full and my kids closets are overflowing (they're a little spoiled). My garage and office are full of grown up toys too. To try to help me feel better about the growing pile of beautifully wrapped goodness under my tree I have come up with a plan.
First the kids and I went though the toy closet. We fixed any game boxes that we're falling apart to help keep the closet a little neater. I also pulled out every toy that hadn't been played with in a while. I took out all of the little knick knacks (mostly happy meal toys or little pieces of toys that no one knew where exactly it belong) and toys that were ready to be retired.
My youngest kids will be 2 in March so we are quickly growing out of our baby toys (hang on I have to ugly cry about that for a minute) so it is time to move on. For us that means that we can move things into the garage sale pile but if your toys will get some use later on, maybe you can move them into storage to free up some room in your toy closet.
Next we moved onto closets (we even have cleaning out closets and taking old clothes to goodwill as an activity on our Advent Calendar this year). We took out all of the shirts that my kids refuse to wear and the shirts with sleeves that are getting a little too short. Then we moved onto the pants and took out all the pants that are starting to look like they belong in a flood zone. (Why do these dang kids grow so fast!) My closet had a different issue (since I'm obviously not getting any taller)! I took out the shirts that have been hanging in there for a few too many seasons and the pants that don't quite work any more. Shoes are easy. For us the little girls shoes go to the garage sale or goodwill pile and the boy shoes (that aren't totally trashed) go in storage for little brothers or go to the garage sale pile. My shoes stay right where they are! Don't touch my shoes!!
To be fair I didn't just clean out the kid stuff. I headed to the garage and the office next. I cleaned out all of my storage drawers and cleaned up the office book shelves. For some reason just straightening that stuff up and putting it all away nicely seems to make so much more room. Now if there was just a way to keep little fingers away from it all so it would stay that way!
Now that everything is straightened up and the old stuff is gone we are ready for Christmas and all of the new goodies. What are some ways you get ready for all of the new things at your house?
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