Ugh - need a moment to vent! Everywhere I look in my house I see DS's toys! We have a separate playroom (aka our former "dining room") for him where we keep most of his toys - and I love that. But, we still have little bins of toys here and there in the family room or in the kitchen and his push toys are in this corner of the family plus one of his bigger toys is in the other corner. It's starting to drive me bonkers! My inclination is to put all the toys back in the playroom every night but then I never do because they're just going to end up wherever he pushes or takes them the next day when he gets home from daycare (he plays in the playroom but he's all about exploring wherever he can right now so many toys end up in various nooks and corners throughout the kitchen and family room every night). So tell me - is it just me and my poor organizational skills or does anyone else feel like their house is over-run?
Oh - and also give it to me straight - are we totally lame that, at 14 months, we still have DS' pack n play set up? We do actually put him in there briefly everyday when we get home from daycare so our dog can eat her dinner in peace, but is it time to pack this sucker up and figure out another solution?
Vent over! :-)
Re: My house has become Romper Room
Re: the pack n' play- if it's still working for you and your LO is happy in it, I would think it's fine. We moved our dog's bowls into the kitchen, which is gated off on both ends.
<a href="http://www.thebump.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Pregnancy"><img src="http://global.thebump.com/tickers/tt1bf94d.aspx" alt=" Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker" border="0" /></a>
Our house is overrun with toys too. We don't have a seperate play room (I wish!) so we rotate toys so we don't have oodles and oodles out at a time. We put small ones away in the toy box every night and the big ones get lined up against one wall in the living room. I figure that's as "organized" as we're going to get until we have more space.
As for your play pen, if it's not in the way and you're still using it, keep it out. We had the same debate over the jumperoo about a month ago. We still used 2 or 3 times a week when we needed LO to stay put for a few minutes but it was taking up so much room in our little living room. We finally put it away and just found better ways to keep him contained/entertained (highchair, take him to the bathroom with us, etc.).
Mine is like that too.
I just organize/clean what I can and call it a day.
They're only this little once and won't have this kind of fun for long!
LOL. I think we all may have days like these...
Honestly though, I feel the same way- I really feel like I can't catch up! But I also agree with dairygirl19 who states they are only this little once-- that puts a whole new perspective on things for me!
For a long time now we've been saying "'Preschool' is the new decor." We don't have a play room so stuff just is everywhere.
I do tidy up at nap time just so it doesn't get out of control. And then if he wants to take a new toy (many pieces) out like potato head or block, he has to put one other thing away.
We still have the pack n play up for when I need to shower or get ready and DH is not home.
I got to that point as well. Luckily, my FIL built 2 large toyboxes, one for the playroom and one LO's bedroom. Toys mostly stay contained in there, but DS learned at Daycare how to put toys away, and I've been really working with him on continuing to put his things away when he is done playing with them. Maybe you could try working on putting toys away with your LO, I know mine loves to help clean up.
We have a ridiculous amount of toys...I always feel like my house is being overrun by them.
We have a separate toy room upstairs and I keep most of it in there. In the living room I have a book shelf with some books and toys and in the dining room I have a bin of large legos and a play piano thing.
By the end of the day toys are strung from one end of the house to the other. I just tidy up then. Doing toys during the day never works. She ALWAYS wants what I just cleaned up.
I think it's find to keep little bins of toys in different rooms and the bulk elsewhere. I mean they're going to end up there anyway.
As far as the pack-n-play DD LOVES hers. She would ask to get in and play all the time haha It was taking up too much space though so I took it down. I think that's really just a personal preference. Maybe you can read LO a book while the dog eats if that's the only reason you have it up.