HELLO! I am alive, I promise. Know it’s been quiet on here lately–but I suppose that’s to be expected now that summer madness has started. I rolled off one Santa Barbara trip, into the long weekend at the lake house, then got strep throat over the weekend (JOY) anddd I’m going on a girls’ trip to Napa with Kate and Melissa on Thursday. (Hallelujah for Z-Packs!) Oh, also, June was out of school yesterday so not only was I sick in bed unable to get any work done, but Neal and I had to tag team her all day. (And by that I mean Neal took her the entire first half of the day so I could sleep. ♥️) And I haven’t packed yet and our flight is at 7am tomorrow. WHEWWWW. So grateful for all these wonderful trips but also the past couple weeks have been a real rollercoaster. That all being said…now you know why it’s been mostly crickets lately. 😂
How are you doing?!
Anyway, today’s blog post is for my fellow parents out there, I can’t take credit for the genius idea I’m about to share with you–it’s all my House Manager, Janine! (If you don’t know about Janine and her wizardry, or what a House Manager is, head over to this highlight on my stories!) She’s a professional in all things that fall under the “improving your home” umbrella and she shared this solution with me that I thought was such a game changer for organizing toys: mesh toy bags! I knew I had to turn this into a blog post.
If you’re fed up with toys littering your house and want them out of sight, you will love this trick.
First, I think it’s essential to pare down your toys in general. We don’t have a lot of toys for June because A. I think too many toys can be overwhelming for kids (and parents!) and hinder their creativity and B. I don’t want to look at them and C. I don’t want to be constantly cleaning them up!
Second. Get yourself some toy bags and bins, and use this method: instead of just throwing everything loose in bins, each separate toy set gets its own bag that keeps all the pieces together. (This is especially helpful as June is getting older and I find different types of play food mixed with puzzle pieces mixed with half of a train set, mixed with a finger puppet and it becomes a HUGE headache!) This keeps everything neatly organized, together, and easy to see, so cycling toys in and out of her play space is a breeze! (More on rotating toys here and why I think it’s great! You don’t have to have Montessori toys to follow this Montessori method, either.) Note: it’s not intended to give your KIDS access to these–these are for parents only. You control the few sets of toys that are out at one time.
I put them all in two seagrass baskets I picked up at World Market and they fit perfectly on our bookshelf in the living room. Easy for me to access, but she can’t reach them, and she’s able to focus on the small handful of toys in front of her. Best of all, I love that you can’t SEE what’s in the baskets, specifically, but when you pull the basket out, the mesh bags make it easy to find what you’re looking for!)
Now, I keep most of her toys in here, with only a few at a time down in her toy cupboard for her to access at a time. This ensures that she’s always interested in her toys because it’s always something “new” to keep her attention, and it also makes it WAY easier to clean them up in the evenings after she’s gone to bed!
I hope this little organizing trick helps your sanity just a tiny bit. 😉
