Toys! What a Novel Idea!

You may have noticed from a previous post, blog tag, that I am somewhat of a neat freak and don't particularly care for messes. I really like everything to be neat and tidy. So for years and years, I have kept buckets, boxes or baskets of toys in the Living Room simply because we had no other play area. That would also mean, dozens of times a day, picking up all the toys. Chris would always tell me to just leave them until the end of the day and pick them up when the kids are in bed. Well, I'm stubborn and I always justified it with "But what if someone drops by???" Oh the embarrassment of it all. Well, after we moved into this house, we had an extra bedroom downstairs and turned it into a playroom for the kids. Nice shelves, neatly organized, clear boxes with the toys arranged by type. This has been great since I rarely ever go down there and forget that sometimes, it isn't always neat. But best of all, people who drop by never have to see the mess. So lately, I can't even sit down at the computer before Brooklynn is at my side turning off the monitor. (I've actually become quite good at typing with a black screen.) The only real problem is that Brooklynn is too little to play downstairs by herself and McKenna's too scared. The older kids forget they even have toys unless friends come over. So they rarely ever play in the playroom. Yesterday, I had playgroup at my house and decided to bring about 6 boxes of toys up for them to play with. Brooklynn had so much fun playing with the toys that I decided to leave them up for a day or two. Funny thing is, she's played with them all day today! Both Brooklynn and McKenna have been playing quietly for an hour without any fighting. And best of all, my monitor hasn't been turned off once. I guess I'll give the toy thing another try and deal with the mess. Well, I'll try for one week. How about that? Baby steps, baby steps.