Do you have toy jail at your house? We do (ours is the top of the fridge, not nearly as cute as the one pictured).Toy Jail is where toys go that are naughty, you know, the ones that loaf about in inappropriate places. Whenever we find a toy underfoot, or left on the dining room table, or on the stairs waiting to trip someone, the naughty toy goes off to jail for an unspecified amount of time; once in custody truly unpleasant or incorrigible toys are often transferred directly from jail to the dread goodwill bag.
The children hate seeing their toys in jail and will pick up after one another which spares us all from the "not me" syndrome.
While searching for a toy jail pic I found the most tempting e-store, Blueberry Forest. We don't need new toys, but if we did . . .
Anyway, back to topic: What are your tricks for keeping the house tidy?
3 comments:
Anything on the kitchen floor/or outside a designated toy area goes in the trash and I am not a fan of toys so it is easy to follow through. I will sometimes give a warning if the toy has special value or if is has significant monetary value.
We use large plastic round tubs, the kind you get at discount stores, with the rope handles. Then we make a game of lobbing toys into it each evening. Toys that are misused or not taken care of go to the garage or trash can. Currently we are in a crayon-ban mode. All crayons were thrown away after someone colored on something other than paper.
I love this post because it brought back a memory I had as a kid. I saw my mom struggle with clutter and I thought- why not designate an area for toys, etc. that have been left out. A place they could be locked up and the kids have to do jobs, etc. to get their stuff back. I thought I would do that as a mom, but I forgot about it. When I read your post I remembered. Thanks! I am going to do that!
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