Swap and Hop

Lysa TerKeurst and Karen Ehman are hosting a swap and hop today. The theme is organizational challenges.

It wasn't hard for me to immediately come up with my organizational challenge: TOYS!!!!

Look At This Beautiful Clean Room!

Too bad it only looks like this when I turn into Nazi Mama and spend hours in the girls' room with them doing most of the work for them.

I Thought I Had a Solution:

The list of organizational tricks I've tried for toys would be too long for this post. We've purged a lot of toys and bought and rejected tons of storage ideas. Recently, I bought shelving and beautiful canvas totes to store the toys in. I thought the girls would think their cubbies were so cute (and color coordinated) that they would feel compelled to keep their toys organized and picked up. It isn't working. : )

Exhibit A:

Cubbie system that is mysteriously missing its canvas totes.

Exhibit B:
Ah, here they are! Instead of thinking they were so cute they felt compelled to keep their toys cleaned up, the girls thought they were so cute they turned them into more toys!

The girls can't see which toys are in each cubbie so they dump them out and use them as toys. They carry them around. They sit in them. They turn them into dollie beds. Then they leave them where they drop them.

I think I've come to the conclusion (the same conclusion that my born-organized husband has been telling me for years) that there is no system that will keep the toys cleaned up. There is only a pair of girls who need to do the work to keep their toys cleaned up. I can't help it though, I still fantasize over finding the magic cure. Do you have one for me?

(However, if you are passing out magic cures, let's start with the weight-loss that you never gain back cure and then move on to the toys) : )

Check out Lysa's and Karen's blogs to see what other bloggers are facing as organizational challenges. There is a giveaway involved, and Karen will be providing directions for an organizational make-over for two lucky winners.

I'll end this post with two more pictures because they make me smile.

Although I get so tired of seeing toys everywhere, I suspect that someday when they are grown and gone, I'll miss seeing evidence of them everywhere. These pictures capture the personalities of each girl. I can tell what they were playing and who was playing it before they walked away.

This pile had to have been left by my oldest "I want to be a vet someday" daughter.

And here is what our future American Idol star left behind.

If you are visiting from Lysa or Karen's blogs, welcome!

To see my past Swap and Hop posts click here.

To learn more about me click here.

Please come back and visit again soon. : )

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