to spend ages putting all the toys back together

[curiousuze]

at the end of the day? DH thinks I am nuts crawling round, looking under furniture, muttering 'I know there's another fireman somewhere...'

He just sweeps everything under the sideboard, ready to be thrown around the room tomorrow.

At the moment we are missing:

two fridge magnets in the shape of cupcakes
a horse from his happyland farm
a rattly ball from his elephant game
a drumstick

DS is only 16 months; he hasn't even started on lego or jigsaws. I'm going to drive myself insane, aren't I?

(but I can't help hoping all these missing bits are in a secret hidey hole I've not discovered yet...)

[BrianButterfield]

I like to keep stiff together though it tends to be more a box for farm stuff, a box for trains etx. I check jigsaws and tidy everything at the wnd of the day too - it's nice to have a toy-free house in the evening and helps to stop toys getting trashed. Stuff still gets lost though!

[crazykat]

I do this every few months, I have four DCs so it takes a few hours. I'm then mean mummy and chuck anything that's broken or has integral bits missing.

At 16 months your ds won't notice so I'd just put it all in the toy box or wherever its stored.

Yes you will drive yourself nuts with Lego, jigsaws, cars, train tracks and worst of all are transformers which take an age to change from figure to vehicle and have various missiles which all look the same.

[Nocomet]

It's the one sort of tidying I enjoy.

Toys are expensive and I hate seeing random boxes where nothing can be played with properly.

Lego and playmobil are different, a lot of the fun is mixing sets.

[bloob]

YANBU. they can't play properly if its all jumbled and messy! Plus if you don't then they inevitably end up trashed as all the bits are missing.

[Poledra]

I used to do this. Then I had 2 more children...

I do tidy up toys into their sets (or, these days, hustle the DCs into doing it). But I don't try to find the missing bits. You need an odds'n'ends box, into which you put all the odd pieces of games etc you find. Mine is a little shoebox - I pop all the random teeny bits I find in there, and the DCs know that, if a game is missing a piece, it's probably in the shoebox.

[HauntedNoddyCar]

YANBU. I like stuff to be back in sets. DH doesn't get this at all. He doesn't understand that if the dc have to empty all the puzzle boxes out to find pieces for one of the puzzles, then the amount of mess is far higher the next day. Same goes for looking for the missing Happyland person who is in the car box rather than the Happyland box.

[HaroldLloyd]

You do need to do something I think or they are just hurling things around and it makes me itch.

Moved into an Ikea expidit which changed my life and a box for things a random small figures section, books section, puzzles etc.

If you know where they go it takes minutes each day.

[Waltonswatcher1]

You need to watch yourself though ; Ds has lots of tension and the lego playmobil phase was just awful . I think my need for total tidy domination caused a lot of his problems . They learn what they live as we all know , the 'why is this helmet on his head and where's the sword he came with syndrome ' is bad bad role modelling .

I'm lucky enough to have a third toddler - this time round I will be more relaxed and chilled . This child will be my best creation yet !

[treas]

OP - have you tried looking behind the radiators (if you have them), seemed to be my dc favourite bidding place.

BTW YANBU - I used to be the same, I even colour coded the lego! However, now dc are old enough to tidy themselves all my lovely storage is a right tip. However, as long as I don't have to do the putting away then I don't mind.

[msmoss]

I don't do it every night but we sometimes play 'toy audit' in our house (my DSes are going to be on threads about me in years to come aren't they)

[fiatpandababba]

I try to do this daily, sometimes it doesn't happen though. I've noticed that when the room is organised into sections the baby 16 months plays much more nicely. If it's a mess then he also just chucks stuff around.

[curiousuze]

I am really sad about the happy land horse! Where is the little bugger? Can you buy replacements?

Expedit is definitely the way forward - and the box of bits

[EEatingSoupForLunch]

YANBU - every evening I re-stack the stacking cups, put the train back together, put the shapes back into Shapey Turtle and the clothes back on several dolls. These are DC2's works, DC1 understands tidy up time. My advice is to teach this young!

[LifeIsBetterInFlipFlops]

YANBU...as previous poster said, teach them young.

I've always kept toys and games pieces together, and colour coded Lego...makes life easier and nicer somehow, and just takes five minutes in the evening.

[LifeIsBetterInFlipFlops]

P.S: your husband is being unreasonable and lazy!

[curiousuze]

treas right, have just been round all the radiators and found:

the cupcake magnets
the rattly ball
my eye cream (YES!)
a sock.

Great advice. Still no horsey

[clairealfie]

Oh I'm terrible for this. Every night I tidy up and put all the sets together. So far all the playmobil men still have their hats and accessories but I know one day one of them will go missing and I will be in tears!

But yes my little boy plays much better when everything is tidy and he only has access to a couple of things. He's attention span is ridiculous if there are toys everywhere.

[BadgerFace]

I love tidying up the toys at the end of the day! I find it very theraputic. Especially the Tomy eggs. The colours must match. And the stacking cups. And the architectural rubber blocks which only fit in their bag in a certain order...

DD is 15 months. I would like to teach her to tidy up but so far she's definitely only in the take everything out stage...

[curiousuze]

badger when I put the coloured blocks away I have to arrange them so there aren't two of the same colour in a row. Oh dear.

[PeaceEagle]

Oh, I used to do this religiously. Playmobil tested me sorely, then Sylvanian Families finished me off. I won't speak of LEGO.

Good luck, hopefully you'll be more resilient than me!

[ICanSeeTheSun]

Dd has a huge dolls house, every night I love putting it all back together. Everything has it's place.

If it's something you enjoy, then I would say its a hobby.

[CrohnicallyChanging]

I have to put all the toys back together too. DD is 18 months so we have lots of building blocks, stacking toys, shape sorters etc.

It doesn't bother me too much if one of the building blocks is missing, because you wouldn't be able to tell unless you counted them. However I have to make sure all the stacking beads and shapes for the shape sorter go back properly, because it would spoil the toy if one went missing.

Besides, if I tidy up every night then there's only so many places a missing piece could be (2 downstairs rooms and a missing piece has to be in one of them!).

DD doesn't help much at the moment, but I tidy up in front of her and encourage her to do small bits as part of getting ready for bedtime- I don't want her thinking the tidying fairy comes along every night.

[CrohnicallyChanging]

Oh no, curious the building blocks have to go away with the same colours together, in stripes, in rainbow order!

[CrohnicallyChanging]

See!

[curiousuze]

Ooooohhh I like it chronically! That's how I arrange smarties before I eat them