Step 2 - Toy Clean Out

I can finally see the floor!! We've been busier than originally planned this week but I've been working here and there. I've got three garbage bags full of toys in the truck just waiting to be donated or sold! 3 garbage bags!! So why does it feel like there is still so much stuff?!?!

Life still feels crowded in our living room so I need to do some more work.. Here's how it is right now:

The two pink bins are holding Duplos and the Little People dollhouse and park stuff. The piano should probably go in the closet for now with the other instruments, waiting to be rotated in a few weeks. The green thing behind the piano is the doll baby changing area and sink...thinking about also drawing some burners on top, adding some knobs and making it double as a kitchen... And the overflowing toy box full of dolls, blankets, pillows and stuffed animals. We call this little table the 'fun table.' I can't remember why...but a lot fun stuff usually does happen there. The plastic white piece with drawers holds crayons, pencils, stencils, coloring books and paper. I should get rid of the coloring books because they rarely use them. They love blank paper but those drawers are smushed full of paper with one or two lines marked on them. It feels wasteful. There must be a better way to let them have paper and stuff without it being such a mess.

The overflowing bookshelves. I must stop buying cheap Target bookcases. This one was $16 on sale and we've had it for about a year or so and it's falling apart.. granted we do shove it full of books but I wanted it to last longer. I'm imagining creating some kind of reading corner over where the pink bins are and using this shelf for lighter and easier to manage things like puzzles and games, which are currently stacked on top....?

I thought about getting rid of all the Little People but they do like them. I think we just had too many sets out. So I put away several sets in this bin and put all the small pieces to each set in a labeled ziploc bag. I'm going to put this in the closet and swap them out as needed. I put the potato heads in here too. And may add some stuffed animals.

And I put 4 more of those pink bins in the closet. The contain: wooden blocks, kitchen stuff, more games and puzzles and musical instruments.

So that's all I've got so far... I haven't made it into the back room yet...and I still don't feel like I've thinned things out as much as I was imagining... Grant's pushing for just tossing it all out. We will see...