Toy clean up Experiment

Toy clean up Experiment

Toys, toys everywhere and not a spot of floor to see; that is what my kids Toybrary (toy room/library) looks like when you peek your head in the room. We have tried many systems over the years in attempts to keep their toys from being all over the house. None have succeeded 100% of the time or even 50 % of the time which I could live with as a good result.  This is our latest and last attempt at keeping the toys from going all over the house. 

The problem with toys is all over the house is not really the mess.  We have children; it is their home too, so it is going to look like kids live here. In a home where children live, toys will be out, some forgotten as the next thought comes into a child’s brain: something to imagine, pretend, explore happens in their brains and they act on it. I am not the kind of mother who follows her kids around constantly cleaning up after them. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing I have not decided, regardless that is not the way I operate.  Maybe the immediate mess does not bother me because I am an artist and to make something beautiful you usually need some kind of mess/chaos before that beauty is achieved. So I am comfortable with temporary chaos.

Toys become a problem for me when they a hazard causing people fall or getting hurt. Here is a scenario where I think toys become a hazard.  Soccerboy and Spiderman Jr. are playing with their Lego’s at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the bedrooms.  My husband is being sweet and helping with the laundry so he is up in the bedrooms putting away clothes.  One of the girls screams and we both go running to see what is wrong. My husband gets to the bottom of the stairs and he steps on small Lego’s and almost falls because stepping on small Lego can at times feel like stepping on something sharp. He grabs the end of the railing and hits his butt and thankfully does not pitch the other way and hit his head.  I am coming from the kitchen and I run to the Toybrary where the scream came from. As I enter the room I step on a teddy bear and a stuffed dog, I hear a crunch like something breaking. Then I step on a few of Swimmers science gears and Future Authors pens and pencils snap as I finally get to the crying daughter. It turns out to be pure frustration on Future Authors part because she can’t find her Story making notebook/kit anywhere and she wants to write down an idea. 

Some have said the solution is easy, “don’t buy them toys.” I sigh in response and here is why. I do think a child having toys is bad for them. However the type of toys that I think are actually good toys is not a long list. For example: a bike, soccer ball, basketball net, a sandbox, play dough, blocks, Lego’s (despite the hazard that comes with them), blank sketch pads with crayons, colored pencils or markers.

To try and keep the mess   down we have asked family to not give them toys because they don’t really play with them that long but no one listens to this request. At Christmas or Birthdays they are given toys by relatives and the mess continues to build.  The new toys are exciting and fun then they are forgotten about when that child reaches the creative possibilities of that toy.  I think this happens because of the limited abilities of most toys to become what a child can imagine.

After my husband’s accident when he was coming home from the hospital I authorized those helping us to thrown out all but one toy for each child. This worked wonderfully, each child took care of that toy and there was no mess.  Then Christmas came and we again requested that they not be given toys but to be given instead something they needed. We got the usual responses, some direct refusals and all just bought toys anyway.  I should also say I am grateful that others love our children enough to buy them gifts and I think it is this love that causes them to ignore our requests to not buy them toys.

As a result we are in the position to either throw away what others gave them. This would teach a different lesson of ingratitude among other things, which is not what we are trying to achieve. Or we can try yet again to teach them to care for what they have been given. 

This time I have tried to put myself in their shoes.  Why would it be hard for me to take care of my things?  The most recent attempt before this we had tried giving each child a shelf on a book case in the Toybrary. They only had to take care of their own toys and put them on their shelf when asked to clean up.  There was some improvement, but like a third of our attempts this was only a third successful.  I sat down in the Toybrary and looked around with sadness at all the nice things that were not treated like they had any value.  Then I looked at the book shelves. Why didn’t this work? Then I noticed Future Authors shelf had some embroidery floss half hanging off the edge of the shelf.  Next I saw a bunch of her beads right in front of the book case on the floor like they had rolled off her shelf.  After that I noticed rights next to the beads were Lego’s and cars in the same pool of toys right in front of the bookcase.  It was like stepping out the door in the morning during the falls; sharp, crisp and being startled awake.  They were trying to take better care of their things this time but they had nothing to keep their little things from rolling off the shelf.  We hadn’t given them all the tools they needed to succeed at what we had asked them to do.

So I started thinking about what would be the best solution for keeping things on the shelf.  I thought about plastic containers first but then it occurred to me this wouldn’t work for the awkward shaped things they have on their shelves, like Soccerboys soccer ball or Swimmers pretend medical kit.  Plastic tubs were also out because they won’t fit on the shelf all the way.  Ideas number two, wicker baskets, and then I thought about Spiderman Jr. roughness on all his stuff. He is like his mom; if it is not built like a tank than it’s not going to hold up to what he is going to put it through.  So wicker is out. So then I thought “What does that leave me with?”

I continued going about my day with this question simmering in the back of my mind. I was on Pinterest looking up something else when I saw an image of a t-shirt yarn basket someone had crocheted.  I was like when one of my children put something they want to show me right in front of my face, there is no way to not stare at it, it was really obvious.

I got to work going through all my jersey knit fabric and by that I mean I was going through clothes they had outgrown.  Many people many think it is odd that I don’t throw out or give away my kids old clothes.  Here is why I don’t do either of these; my kids are way too hard on their clothes.  I don’t think there is any way someone would be willing to put their kids in their clothes by the time they have outgrown them. The other reason I don’t is I once read this thought on old clothes from the 1800’s, it was this, that a person can throw out a fortune in “rags”.  It really made me think about if I was wasting fabric.  The person went on to pose the question, why can’t the material that is not stained or worn be reused. Why the worn part can’t be made into cleaning rags or a rag rug. These questions he posed made me consider if I was wasting money by not saving the clothes my kids had damaged because of a ketchup stain in the middle of the shirt or a grass stain at the knees that would not come out.  The answer was yes.  Now I save all of these and I rarely want for notions and rarely don’t have the fabric I need to make what I need.  If a person were to take a tour of our house there are many things in each room that have been repurposed to give it a second and sometimes a third life.  Saving us I am guessing thousands of dollars in money we didn’t have to spend on things.

So when I went through the old jersey knit fabric I picked the fabrics/clothes that had patterns, prints or designs that I wouldn’t want in future projects.  I pulled them out of the box I had organized of that type of material and washed them, boxed up clothes smell funny. Then cut them into t-shirt yarn and crocheted four baskets.

When I finished the last basket I called all my kids together into the Toybrary. I told them that I had realized I had not given them the tools to succeed when we asked them to clean up their toys but now they have baskets to pick up their individual toys.  I then told them they had thirty minutes to pick up the toys they cared about and wanted to keep. If they didn’t want a particular toy then leave it on the floor and I will sweep it up when thirty minutes is up and I would throw away the rest for them.  Then I started the timer.  It was interesting as I sat quietly in the corner of the room to hear their external thoughts on each toy as they went through the room. I heard comments like; this is broken, this has missing pieces, I am too old for this one, I don’t care about this and I even heard I really am not interested in this anymore.

(notice the empty shelves they started with)

 

Thirty minutes later I had quite a pile of things for me to throw out.  I was really surprised that they were willing to let so many things go. However, I knew that I needed to follow through and throw out some things that were not broken.  I had to remember they had decided they didn’t want it.  So I wept the remaining pile into the dust pan and threw it all out.  

Afterwards they had all their small things in their baskets and some really big things on their shelves next to their baskets.

Future Author- see the pencils

Soccerboys 

Swimmers

Spiderman Jr. 

He didnt want to put down his basket that first night.

It is now two months later and I have observed some interesting things about the basket with shelf combination.  Some of my kids use their baskets to carry their toys around the house to where ever they want to play with them. However, when they are done playing they throw all the toys back in the basket and put it on the shelf without being asked.  Others will slowly empty out the toys out of their basket but when its time to clean up grab their basket and quickly grab everything that is theirs and put the basket back on their shelf.  Another child pulls out one toy from their basket and plays only with that toy for a couple of days then trades out that toy for another one.  Regardless of the different styles, I don’t get much flack from them about picking up their stuff.  I have had to sweep up a very small amount of toys around the house at clean up time; a Lego here, a broken doll arm there.  It has been nothing like it was before.  This solution of a shelf for each kid and a basket for each kid to put their things in may not work for everyone or maybe not anyone but us.  However, it is nice to finally have a solution after eight years of trying.

two months later 6:55 am

 Future Authors basket is in her room

Materials                 Cost

Old t-shirts                    0.00

Old pants                     0.00

Crochet hook-already had         0.00

Total Cost

                                 0.00