I've tried a few different things with my two-year son to stop some of the chaos he causes around the house daily. I tried one of these open toy bin deals but they were dumped out completely daily, fun - fun - fun. So I sorted all his toys and sent a bunch of them to Goodwill. Then I divided all his toys into the six bins, with the plan for Danny to have one each day with a different assortment of toys in them, similar to preschool bags but on a larger scale.
This would have worked if I had been more consistent but dh had said he didn't want me to keep any of Danny's toys away from him and Danny realized this soon. If his fire truck was in the blue bin, he wanted it even though it was the yellow bin day. After weeks of this I became frustrated and gave him all his toys again. Do you know what happens when a two-year old has free reign of ALL his toys? They are all over the house! Daily! The puppy's arrival meant things had to be changed, because the puppy doesn't understand about not chewing Danny's toys yet.
I went and bought bigger bins, with lids and decided to put each type of toy in each bin instead of trying to divide them equally among the days/number of bins. All of his cars/trucks are in one, all of the emergency vehicles are in another, music instruments, construction & farm vehicles, plastic dinosaurs & other plastic toys for pretend play, and one for miscellaneous toys. This is working for us because Danny typically wants certain toys, usually his cars/trucks bin and I can work with him to clean those up before he can play with another toy. Splitting the toys up randomly among the bins was not a good idea for such a head-strong little boy. This last picture is the final result of organizing his closet, the picture top-left is actually a closeup of the left side, the green bin is from one of those toy bin sorters, too small to hold his toys.
I also started the kids on having a "pick up box", when I say "it's tidy time" they are to go around the house and put all their toys, shoes, etc. into the pick up box and take it to their room. I'm still working this out but they think it's a race right now. I really want them to put their toys away once they put them in their rooms but we've got to work on that. Oh, yes I put Danny's dresser (actually the parsonage's dresser) into the closet to free up more floor space in his room. It also saves me the stress of fearing the dresser will fall on him.
Friday, February 23, 2007
A Closet Organized
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3 comments:
Hi Jessica,
As soon as I saw your comment about worrying that Danny's dresser might fall on him, I had to email you.
I cannot say it strongly enough: Get the straps that fasten large pieces of furniture to the walls!!! Parsonage or not, with a boy in the house, especially as active a boy as Danny, safety is the only thing that matters. His life is worth any number of holes in the walls.
I say this because I have two boys who are 6 now. They're not nearly as active as Danny sounds. However, they are young, too young to have the world experience to always be able to foresee a dangerous situation. When they were 5, they pulled out one of their dresser's lower drawers to step on to reach the top of the dresser. The dresser fell over. I still thank God that He protected them. It only fell on the legs of one of them and there were enough toys on the floor in front of the dresser that it didn't crush his legs.
My baby could have been crushed to death because of my negligence. I had told them many a time NEVER to stand on furniture because it could fall over, but they were just too young for me to rely on simple words, however emphatic. I had had my dh strap my (many!) big bookcases to the wall, and I'd thought that the dresser was strapped as well. I should have checked.
PLEASE strap your furniture to the wall!!!! If you're worried about the parsonage walls, just remember you can always patch the walls if/when you move out. Until then, keep your little boy safe!
warmly,
Yvonne
PS-I miss your enthusiasm and insights on the wtm boards, but I totally understand avoiding them for a while. I should do the same!
Yvonne,
What a sweetheart, the dresser cannot fall at all, it is wedged underneath the clothes rod in that area, you can kind of see it in the picture. But what you mentioned is exactly what I was trying to avoid and I agree, dressers should be anchored to the wall for young tikes no matter what damage that is fixable to the wall.
I miss you too.
Jessica
Hi Jessica,
Ah, that's a relief that the dresser is wedged in. Boys do the craziest things sometimes! But they sure are fun!
yvonne
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