Getting Practical: The Toy Problem

Okay, so the fiercest stage of nesting is over for me.  My pursuit of any ambitious projects went by the wayside several weeks ago when my (very truncated) second trimester burst of energy suddenly dissipated.  However, there is still this issue before me of creating and utilizing available space to comfortably accommodate the two little people on the way and all the stuff that will come along with them.

A little over a month ago I realized that the already crowded feeling in our house (particularly our bedrooms) was being created not by the size of the rooms but by the amount of stuff in them.  (Profound, huh?!) :-)  I took on "Project: Get Practical!" with the determination to minimize the kids' stuff.  I did pretty good on the clothing portion on the project, successfully consolidating two dressers full of clothing into one and sorting out a heaping laundry basket full of clothing to dispose of.  When it came to the toys, however, I backed out on the idea of minimizing and instead resorted to reorganizing.

I've been pretty happy with the toy reorganization until about a week ago when I finally got tired of looking at Abel and Amariah's still over-crowded-with-toys bedroom.  So this morning I tackled the dreaded toy task, packing up (would you believe it?!) two 21-gallon tubs full of toys to put in storage for awhile.  (No, I still don't have enough motivation to permanently eliminate toys; but I'm going to try the seemingly popular idea of rotating them in and out of storage to sort of keep things fresh while at the same time keeping the "active" toy stash to a minimum.)  I was a little worried that Abel and Amariah would be a hindrance to the task; but I was pleasantly surprised when, after simply explaining that I was going to pack up some of the toys for a while, they each calmly picked a couple things they wanted left out and didn't say another word about it.

I wish I could officially check "Project: Get Practical!" off my list, but I'm afraid the accumulation of stuff will be an ongoing problem that will have to be continually re-addressed.  For now, at least I feel like the "making room for babies" phase of the project has been sufficiently completed....