1) Rule number 1 - "Everything has its happy place" and that includes jackets, keys, dishes, toys, etc. If a new item comes to the house, it needs to have a "happy place" assigned and there is where it should go, even if it is the basement (where a lot of seasonal, should-be-thrown-out, old electronics for recycling items end up, good thing the basement is 1,200 sq ft).
2) If something is broken, it must be fixed (within a reasonable amount of time) or be thrown away. Keeping junk around that doesn't work just collects dust and takes space.
3) Limit the amount of decorative trinkets that serve no purpose at all and just takes up space. We have a fair number already (in my opinion), so as we receive them for gifts, we must choose another trinket to throw out or give away.
4) Piles of paper - either shred, throw away or file - this is a biggie between Bill and I. I hate his piles of paper that stay on his desk for months and years. His desk is 3 times bigger than mine, and he manages to have less clear space on it. He does clean them up when he seems I am getting irritated by them. I know he doesn't throw some of them away because it may contain personal information - we need a Shred-it service to come to our house!
5) If we haven't used something for over a year, we should consider getting rid of it. Like the air compressor or lawn mower in the garage.
Now the reality is we have 2 toddlers, and in addition to all our junk we have their stuff, including lot of toys. When I see any toy box advertising the large number of pieces inside as a selling point, I immediately think of those pieces ending everywhere in the house! Mason often comes to me to find stuff - "where is the little guy that drives the truck?", "where the captain for my boat?", "where is Woody's hat?"... you get the picture.
The rules above still apply to them and their toys:
1) Everything has its happy place - jackets, shoes, hats/gloves, and toys must be returned to its happy place at the end of the day
2) If a toy breaks, we will try to fix it or throw it out.
3) We need to limit the number of toys, before it overtakes the house. We have a swing/slide and a train set/table in our living room, and lots of toys in our family room. We have already given away a number of baby items, but it is an ongoing process. It will get to a point that for ever new toy, they will need to choose one to give away.
4) Piles of artwork from school. I love my kids, but does that mean I need to keep every piece of art they bring back from school? I have three bag fulls, but I think I will have to go through them and select only a few pieces to keep.
5) As the kids outgrows the toys, and don't play with them anymore, they will be donated or end up in our garage sale.
Bill's sisters Holly and Heidi were in town to visit Heather and Jamie. We went to see them on Saturday with the kids. At some point we mentioned "Lego Star Wars" and Heather immediately remembered a large chest case of legos, lincoln logs and k'nex they had from Edward (who is now 22 and at college). They were glad to let the Audrey and Mason borrow them for the next 10 years :-). Mason spent hours playing with the Legos on Sunday morning. I didn't hear anything from him other than the occasional help to assemble or take a lego piece apart. My favorite part is that the Legos came with a Brick Vac that picks up all the lego pieces easily! But still seeing the number of legos pieces and the size of some of them (some are really teeny tiny), I went straight to Target to get some containers to help sort all the kids toys out.
Here is the result of the clean up (as the kids went to their naps). I had to take a picture, since it won't look like this for long.
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