"The Secret"

OK Stacey - This one is for you! Stacey made a comment that she would pay good money to know my "secret" where the toys are hiding in my house. So, Stacey - you can pay me in cash later :) I am not a clutter person - I like everything to have a place and be put away in it's place. I need the counters completely clear every night before bed or I just go crazy. It drives Jason mad - but it's just the way I am. I wish my house was always perfect - but it definitely is NOT - but I try.

I really don't like seeing toys. We have PLENTY - Jason would say far too many - but I need them to be out of sight. So, we have lots of storage. The biggest "Secret" is that we turned our downstairs hall closet into toy storage. We installed some shelves and put the toys in bins with lids that close (so they cannot just chuck a toy into any open bin). All the toys are organized and there is room for the bigger toys too. It is awesome. It makes the toys very accessible and completely out of sight. They play with a bin or two at a time and then put them away before getting out other toys.

We used to have a wood toy organizer with open bins in the closet - but it was constantly a mess and I got sick of reorganizing the toys - so we did a massive toy re-organization project Conference Weekend and sorted, trashed and donated toys and put them in bins - then installed the shelves in the coat closet (see Taya helping/playing below). The new plan works out sooooo much better.

And the loft helps out a ton too - there is so much storage in there - large bins under the coffee table, built in cabinets and an entertainment center with a ton of storage and drawers. I don't like buying really big toys unless they match my decor (the kitchen, table and rocking horse all match my loft) or they can fit in my kid's walk in closets in their room. That's it - not too much of a secret - I am a mean mom who doesn't like seeing my kids toys :)