I did that thing.
You know the thing I'm talking about? The thing where a parent quietly sneaks into their child's toy basket, gently tucks the unsuspecting toy victims into a large bag, tip-toes upstairs, and hides the bag away in a deep, dark closet for weeks to come? And then, after these said weeks, pulls out the large bag of toys and presents them to their child as if they were new?!
Well, that's what I did.
It's not that Georgia has a ton of toys, but I am a minimalist, you see. And because she surely doesn't need 1,523 toys immediately accessible at all times, I figured I could pull off the thing without her really noticing.
I like to keep one laundry basket of toys in the playroom for Georgia, along with one basket of books. It seems that one basket is a manageable amount to scoop off the floor when it's time to vacuum, yet there's plenty in there to keep her entertained.
Not to mention, by splitting the toys, you get the added bonus of pretending like you're gifting her a new bag of toys every few weeks!
And here's the funniest part:
Being my procrastination-al self, I simply placed the bag by G-love's closet instead of taking the two seconds of extra effort to actually put it in the closet. Ya, I know, it's horrible. But here's the funny part. The toys were up there for a mere two days when Georgia finally saw the bag sitting by her door. She ran up to it, scooped up some ridiculous plastic toys, and just squuuuueeezed them up to her shoulder, as if giving them a deep, meaningful hug.
They had been gone 48 hours, after all. That's a long time in baby/toy time.
Before they went “missing”, I bet she hadn't played with them for weeks.
So, we figured at least we'd give the toy rotation a try. More focus from baby and less toys for Mommy to keep track of. Win-win…win-win-win-win.
Another bonus was that in separating the toys, I was able to clean out and wipe down the laundry basket of toys (which is absolutely filthy with that God-forsaken dog hair). And this task helped me to come to the conclusion that, at the current moment, my life officially revolves around dog hair.
Sweeping it.
Vacuuming it.
Dusting it.
Wiping it.
And cursing it.
Send reinforcement.
The end.
Anonymous
January 25, 2012 at 3:36 pmWe toy rotate too…although I was looking forward to putting more toys away after Christmas but with the 2 girls now and the younger one still needing the “baby” toys out I feel I am being overrun…when you are don’t with your reinforcement send them my way 😉
…Renee 🙂
Lyda
January 25, 2012 at 4:03 pmMy life is constantly revolved around cleaning up cat hair. We moved our cats with us to Hawaii and the shedding . . . oh the shedding! Aye!
But good idea with the toys. Though I wonder at what age do they start to notice when the toys are gone . . . ?
Shawnee's Girl
January 25, 2012 at 6:27 pmI had been meaning to rotate our little man’s toys, but I never seem to get around to it. I do move them from upstairs in his room (where he doesn’t play as much) to downstairs every once in a while though. As for animal hair, well I learned that was a losing battle early in life. I grew up on a horse farm. It was odd for me to NOT be covered in hair. Now many years later, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂 It is a small price to pay for their love and affection.