"Seeing all those toys made me realize what a good childhood I had. Thanks mama!" Anna
We've been meaning to get to this clean out project for around three years. Our room that is filled with toys have never been packed up/given away/organized. All of the girls toys were basically left just as they were last played with.
We have a huge part of our basement that we ended up calling "feels like new"; named that when Anna was around two years old because when I would rotate toys she would say, "wow... it (the not new toy I was taking out) feels like new" (said with a big huge smile). So we called it 'feels like new' all of those years.
It was pretty organized in there because I was so careful with the toys they had. We had clear bins that were all the same size -- great for stacking and labeling and seeing inside.
But we didn't need to keep every single toy, but we wanted to keep those that we loved. So the task began. And it basically took from July 11th through August 3rd. That was the biggest chunk of time we were home this summer. (Anna's summer job I talked about was back here)
We took everything out in stages. Here are a few pictures of those stages. And oh my gosh, it was a mess for a long long time!
Then we thought through, what:
💚 sparks lots and lots of memories of playing together as sisters = keep
💚 valuable and will withstand the test of time / a classic toy = keep
💚 personally meaningful = keep
All of those things we decided to hold on to we wanted to pack differently than they were (even though they were already in bins). Scott is the ultimate packer and his motto with this project was, "if we ever have/ want to move, let's have it ready to go". That mean consolidating a lot. While all of Abigail's Legos were in separate bins according to the project they were (many many bins) we put them in baggies and then somehow fit all of those baggies into two bins.
So on and on it went, all four of us working all day on a rainy Sunday. And then Monday. And then every evening for a month!
A few things got thrown out (not much) and then a lot that we wanted to donate went into Scott's school for teachers that have young families. Here is a beginning pile of that:
Scott took a picture for me when he put it all out at his school. Love this little display:
Here are some things we decided to just throw out:
💚 We kept American Girl dolls, their clothes and all of the sets of things that we had but we donated the 'booster seats' (the girls never used them much) and the doll carriers (not that much for those either) saving space for the part of A.G. that we did want to keep
💚 We kept all of their Calico Critters. Excuse the crazy amount of pictures -- they (me too) wanted to remember how it looked when it was all set up.
Yup, all of those sets are bagged up and put in bins all neat and organized.
And so now it is all tucked away. All except for their play kitchen with is attached to the wall. We attached it when the oven almost fell on a playdate friend years ago. It fits so snug in that little nook of the playroom that for now we'll just leave it.
It feels good to have all of that organized. Is is sad? Maybe a bit. When I was living in those years when I was home and they were playing (and all of those summers) I 🌟 K N E W 🌟 I was living in the 'good old days'. I used to say to Scott all the time, "these are my favorite days." I'm so glad I knew it then. I feel proud of those days. Here are a few thoughts on their playing years and if I could go back in time I would do again:
💗 I kept them off screens
💗 We had a rule/understanding that Santa would only bring toys that didn't need to be charged
💗 No screens meant long hours as a child to build what I called 'worlds' -- they created deep, intricate worlds -- feasts for their imagination
💗 I bought, cared for, and featured 'open ended' toys like magnatiles, big card board 'bricks', legos that allowed them to make anything
💗 I rotated the toys to keep them feeling like new
💗 I provided and cherished lots of time for them to play. I made it a priority. And play together. They are best friends because they were always together creating those worlds.
So sad? Well I guess, it wouldn't be honest if I said I wasn't. But mostly I'm grateful.
☺ I'm grateful for thirteen years as a stay at home mama to value, nurture, and cultivate play.
☺I'm grateful for the memories of the sounds of them playing
☺I'm grateful for the messes and the way the playroom looked all of the time {all those 'worlds' took up a lot of room}
☺ I'm grateful for what playtime in our home created. It created a young adult and a teen who are ⭐ creative ⭐ open minded ⭐ not addicted to their screens ⭐ and most of all B E S T F R I E N D S
So those years are over, but I have the memories and my daughters now.
Right now this room (yes, we still call it the "playroom") looks like this:
And that built in area that once housed a whole world of Calico Critters I'm using for a few things
1. Things that need to be brought into my classroom
2. My journal/planners (I can make the pages there and store them there to look back at once the month is over
But just in case you wanted, a little trip down memory lane. Here are a few blog posts you might like:
When the TV Goes Off, Life Begins
How We Start Vacation (shows a glimpse into the playroom)
Four Day Weekending (show their worlds)
Anything You Need, You Can Come to Me (love this to tears)
Around the House Today (shows them playing in the playroom)
One Not So Ordinary Wednesday (oh Calico Critters play)
Surprise Snow Day (crafting and dance party in the playroom)
Weekend Recap (oh that mess in the playroom makes me so happy)
Somehow this post makes me happy :) Your girls are lucky, and so are you! I love how you hung all the back-to-school stars from the ceiling. Have a good year!
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