One of the big drawbacks of a house without a designated toy room is that I’m forced to let my kids keep toys in their bedrooms.  Unfortunately, because our entire house is essentially one level, the cars, dolls, trains, and other random plastic objects inevitably make their way from the bedrooms to the common rooms of the house.  For the first few weeks, I would waste tons of time each night gathering up the various toys that had migrated from the bedrooms to the family room, kitchen, and hallways.  I needed a quick fix solution that would make my kids more responsible, so I invented this simple game.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I gave each of my kids a ’stash box’ a few years ago to help them be a little more responsible with their stuff.  A few weeks ago we started a new stash box ritual to help keep the toys in check.  We call it the Stash Box Challenge. 

I bought a cheap digital watch from WalMart and set the alarm to ring at 5:30 each night.  When the alarms sounds, we stop whatever we’re doing and the kids go get their empty stash boxes from their rooms.  They line them up on the fireplace and then we start the hunt.  We walk through each of the common rooms (i.e. living room, kitchen, hallways, bathrooms, mud room, etc.) and search for random objects that don’t belong.  As we find things, we add them to that person’s stash box.  For example, if Emily kicked her shoes off and forgot to put them in the shoe caddy they go in her box.  If Jack dumped his backpack on the floor instead of hanging it on the hook, it goes in his box. 

Once we’ve searched all the rooms, the kids dump their boxes and tally up their scores.  While I add their score to our simple fridge scorecard (you can find the file download below) they take their boxes to their rooms and put everything away.  We tally points all week on our chart and then announce the winner (and award the prize) at Family Home Evening on Monday night.

The first week’s scores were pretty pathetic.  My oldest daughter had a grand total of 58 items.  My youngest won the $1 prize with 24 items.  However, each week, the scores get a little lower.  As an added benefit, the kids seem to need my involvement less and less each week.  As soon as they hear the alarm, they grab their boxes and start searching for toys…hoping to catch one of their siblings off guard.  Generally, I just function as the referee and they do all the pick up.

It’s a simple system, but it has made a big difference in how my kids take care of their toys and how our house looks by the end of the day.  I figure that’s a win, win in any Mom’s book.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

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Why spend hundreds of dollars to rent an inflatable castle for your kid’s birthday when you can make a cardboard version for next to nothing? This great site has tons of how-to’s and inexpensive products to help you create some fantastic play places.

I read about this site on another blog and had to pass it on. Mr. McGroovy’s very affordable box rivets offer a quick any easy alternative to more traditional means of connecting cardboard. As a side benefit, his site is loaded with simple plans and creative ideas to make your next birthday party memorable. The site even offers tips on how to get appliance boxes for free from your local shops and dealers. Be sure to check out their customer testimonials area. It’s amazing to see what kind of creations their customers have come up with. My personal favorite is the huge pirate ship.

I haven’t tried the rivets yet, but from what I’ve read from the previous customers, they look like a great solution. I can’t wait to try them. Here’s the site link in case you’re interested.

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Moving into our new house last month has required a lot of adjusting. Our new place has different quantities of cabinets, closets, and even living spaces. One of the biggest changes has been the loss of our basement toy room. Consequently, I’ve had to use a little ingenuity to find new ways to store tons of toys in small spaces.

In our old house, these inexpensive stackable shelves used to stack vertically and house my son’s books in his closet. In our new house, I gave them a new purpose by laying them horizontally across the top shelf in my daughters’ closet. The cubbies provide convenient toy storage for the rarely used items and allow me to take advantage of the loads of available space above the hanging bar. This same technique would be great for a hall closet, mudroom, or laundry room. Just thought I’d pass it on.

I purchased my shelves at WalMart for just under $10 each. I couldn’t find them on their website, but I found a similar product at Target.com. Here’s the link so you can check out what you’re looking for before you head to the store.

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At $20 a piece, DVDs present a problem. We buy them to keep our kids entertained while we get some much needed Mom time, but at that price we hesitate to let our kids touch them. Rather than be the constant middle man between the DVD player and my kids, I created this simple binder system.

The first step (and this is a tough one for some people) is to ditch all the plastic cases. The fact of the matter is that most scratches come not from using the DVDs but from kids trying to take them out or put them back in their cases. Save yourself the hassles, the space and the scratches by purchasing these inexpensive and compact CD cases.

I purchased three different colored cases to help keep my family organized. The first case is for kid’s DVDs. The second is for Mom & Dad movies. The third holds all the “bonus features” DVDs that we never watch but can’t seem to throw away.

The color coded cases and the easy flip-through, clear sleeves help them find exactly what they’re looking for. Better yet, there’s no particular order to the DVDs so when they need to put one away, they flip through the sleeves until they find an empty slot. The sleeves are made of soft, flexible plastic so scratches are a thing of the past.

We’ve also found them very handy for road trips. Rather than sort through which DVDs we want to keep in the car, we grab the entire case and slide it under the front seat. It’s also very handy when you want to keep your Mom & Dad DVDs out of the hands of little kids or babysitters. It’s not a fancy system, but it simple, cheap and makes life just a little easier. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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After my last post, I went through my games and thought I’d add a few more details.

First off, there are tons of choices in these leftover-type containers. I thought I’d pass on a few of my favorites.

For the larger-size games (pictured here) I like the Glad-brand “family” size containers. For the smaller games, like Sorry or Monopoly, I use Rubbermaid brand. I can’t remember what the containers are called on the label, but they have the number “2″ on the lids and bases. Rubbermaid offers these number 2 containers in both open and divided styles. The divided containers are great for games with money, like Life or Monopoly, because they allow you to store the money separate from all the pieces.

As for the game rules, I stash those in a sheet protector that’s stored in the trunk with the boards. There are a few games that print the rules on the box, but most common game instructions are available online if you search Google. Simply print what you need and add them to your packet.

One more loosely related tip, if you have any of those obnoxiously loud kids games like Duck Pond or The Fishing Game, you may want to experiment with the batteries. I found out, completely by accident, that if I removed one of the batteries from our Duck Pond game the pond would still move but the annoying quacking sound was disabled. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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Thanks to Julianne for your question about games and puzzles. I’m a big game lover. My house has tons of games and puzzles. However, I hate the bulky, awkward boxes they come in. So I opted to pitch the cardboard and replace it with stackable plastic.

Like I said, I have tons of games, so I used the most inexpensive container I could find. These disposable plastic containers designed for leftovers were both cheap and shallow (unlike most tougher plastic containers). In most cases, I just cut the image of the puzzle or game right off the original box (generally the sides work well) and stuck it to the lid with double-stick duct tape.

I used my label-maker (WalMart $15) to make a small label to put on the back of each folded game board. The game boards are stacked together and are kept in the trunk with the game piece containers.

I also have one container that stashes extras. In it, I keep a few extra dice, a timer, some random pieces from old games, a notepad and some pencils.

Unfortunately not all my games will store this neatly. Games like Connect Four, Hullaballoo, and Battleship are still stuck in their original containers. But the vast majority of my games are now contained and much more accessible.

As a side note, Julianne, if you were referring to the wooden-type kids puzzles, I have a bunch of those too. I treat these like they are one toy rather than individual toys. I keep all the pieces for all the puzzles in one container. The puzzle boards stack on my son’s shelf next to the container. Whenever he wants to do a puzzle, he lays out all the boards, dumps out the container and finds the pieces he needs. The bonus here is that he’ll stay focused much longer. When it was just one puzzle, he’d finish too quickly and get bored. Now it takes time and keeps him interested. Of course, it also offers a very quick clean-up…a must for me. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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I’m big on labeling. When things aren’t labeled, I end up being the only one that can put things away. Consequently, it also means I’m the one everyone runs to when they can’t find something. Labels, especially for my kid’s stuff, make everyone responsible for their own stuff.

My two youngest can’t read yet, so I needed a method of labeling that would be easy for them too. I used my digital camera to take some pictures of their toys. I printed them out in wallet size and then laminated them. I then stuck them to the containers with Velcro so that I could swap them out as the contents change over the years.

They’re so easy to make and even easier for my kids to use. I’ve got these all over my kids rooms, the toy room, the job chart and the craft boxes.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

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