Thursday, January 28, 2016

I GOT MAD!

The day anger moved me for ward.


What? What you say did I get mad at? This!

To say my kids have a small toy problem is an understatement.  And this was just the ones in the living room.
Now I have to confess this was not the kids fault I dump out all the bins that the toys were in because I got mad. Mad there were ten or more bins stacked up against the wall and toys were still spilling out of them. There were bins for all kinds of toys, bins for book, bins for office supplies, bins of cloths for my kids to grow into, and even the Christmas bin all stacked up against one in my living room. The kids never put the toys were they went and anything else they did want to put away right just end up in the pile on the wall. So I got mad and dumped them all out.

 Normally I just get overwhelmed when I look at my kids’ toys (or their rooms) and feel just too tired to do anything about it. So I just pick one small task a day and say someday I get it all done. But not this day I was just too mad. Furious. Frustrate. Angry. I used this anger to fuel me. I stared by dumping out all the toy bins; then, checking all the other ones for toys and other things that did belong and add those to the pile too. The office bin was the first to be moved, random toy and clothes removed. Then box placed under the desk hoping that it would stay just office supplies. The others still had lids on the so not too many random things here, moved to the side for another day.  Then time to jump into the “THE PILE”. I sorted all the toys into their own bins, trying really hard to not let any broken or unloved toys go back into the bins.

It was amazing how much garbage and dirty clothes had ended up in the toy bins.

 It took most of the day but this was the end result.All toys in bins with lids.

  Labels with pictures and words so even my little one knew what was where.


And this is what was leftover, one bag of garbage and one box of donate stuff. 
I was happy that the things were organized again but still had a sinking feeling. 
"Do my kids have too many toys?"
Yes! 
Yes my kids have too many toys but its not a problem that I can solve by myself in one angry day. My children need to be part of the process of letting the toys go, and learning that less really is more. For now I hope to continue taking one step at a time and maybe one day my kids will get angry at the state of their room and I can be their to help them let go of the old, broken, or unloved things. To put a little order to things and feel better when the emotional and physical clutter is out.