Oh how I wish I had a before picture… this would be so much cooler to show.
The first day I went through all the toys and got rid of the easy things – broken toys, annoying toys, plastic crap, violent toys, toys he had grown out of.
I had these piles
- throw away
- give away- nice stuff for babies/toddlers I am bringing to my friend with triplets
- give away – too nice to throw away, but not nice enough to give to friends
- store for the “toy library” – this was essential – I was amazed at how hard it was for ME to part with certain things.
By the end of the first day his room looked like this. This is after I had gotten rid of about 1/2 of his toys to either give away or store or the trash.
That night Thing 3 expressed concern over where some of his toys were. I assured him I had packed some away and I knew where they were. He commented that he liked the table like that, “I can play with my cars on there now! Leave it like this!!!”
That night I re-read the section talking about toys to get rid of and then also the book section. I knew that was going to be a BIGGER challenge!