We have too many toys in our house... that is the opening line to way to many conversations between my husband and I. I think because we both grew up in larger families and felt like we did with out in some areas, we over compensate with our own children. Granted we have four of them and money is always tight. But some how the toy collection just keeps growing and growing and growing! We have a playroom. A room that is a decent size and is completely dedicated to the housing of said toys. That room looks like a tornado blew through on any given day. I counted the toy boxes (rubbermaid storage containers of the medium to large variety) there are 12 of them! Holy cow 12 toy boxes!! Each of my four kids have two boxes of toys, one dress up box, 2 baby doll boxes and 1 play kitchen box! As you can see there is a good reason for a lot of conversations revolving around the amount of toys our kids have. So yesterday, feeling quiet ready to start my spring cleaning, I decided to venture into the danger zone (playroom) and started to purge. I tried really hard not to think about where the toy came from or anything sentimental. I simply looked at how much does it get played with and more importantly how tired am I of picking up said toy. Once the determination was made with the above criteria the toy was put in either the give away pile or back into the toy box to live another day. My bestest friend in whole world gave me some great advice about purging toys. She said that I should set aside one box of sentimental toys. Maybe some that really have a meaning or that all my kids got to play with. At the time I thoughtno way I am getting rid of it all. But then when I actually started the process, I had to admit to myself somethings needed to be saved. Like the it's a boy beanie baby we got when #1Son was born, the tummy time toy that all my kids have just adored, the Elmo (sack race) toy the #1Son and BB both played with so much, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet nite time toy that sings a lullaby, etc... I set aside a toy box just for keep sakes. After 3 hours I had narrowed the excess down to...

drum roll please****

Each child has one toy box!

I gave away (actually dropped off to the thrift store) 2 45 gallon contractor grade black trash bags full of toys!!!!

We have one keep sake box that will go in the attic.


And I can finally walk through the playroom. I still have a little bit of organizing to do and I may even give away some more things. But I am so proud that I was able to purge as much as I did. It felt so liberating. It was kind of weird cause I felt like that was a lot of money gone out the window. But at the same time I felt like maybe some other children would be blessed by getting some nice toys from the thrift store. So it was definatley a win win situation.

Now I am going to tackle all the clothes that are piling up around here.

Looks like this year it won't be deep cleaning and window washing its going to be purging as a theme for my spring clean.

I am determined to get organized no matter what.