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Behaviour/development

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chim000 · 16/06/2009 16:46

ds's are 7 & 3. My back room where they have the toys is a bloody pit. When I was in my old house after I split with xp I planned to have a couple of boxes of toys out & the rest away in cupboards then just rotate the toys every few weeks. But the house I'm living in now has no storage so this is not an option. I have got rid of loads of toys so there's nowhere near as many now as there were. But I am fed up beyond belief of tidying the place. I can stand over them making them tidy but they won't lift a finger. I can 'help' them tidy but they won't really do it, I will try to make it a game, but no joy there. I've tried so many things to get them to tidy (ds2 is the real problem tbh) that I'm at my wits end. I've threatened that if toys are not picked up that they will go to charity, but am now at the point where this really is going to happen this week. But I don't know if ds2 is too young to understand this or not?

I've also tried to stop the accumulation of toys by asking family not to buy many toys for Christmas or birthdays but my mum doesn't seem to understand this concept!

So is ds2 too young to understand that toys that aren't tidied away go to charity? Or what else can \I try?

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AMumInScotland · 16/06/2009 16:54

Sorry but I think 3 is way too young to understand, and even 7 is a bit young to really follow things having consequences. Is there somewhere else in the house you could store some of the toys and do the rotation thing? Even if they were all in one big box that would keep them out of circulation.

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chim000 · 16/06/2009 17:03

Unfortunately not. Under the stairs is open, and not the option to get any kind of unit to keep them in. My wardrobes have no space to keep a couple of boxes and no more space in my room to put more storage. The boys rooms are out of bounds for toys and I wouldn't trust putting a storage unit of some sort in there becasue I know ds2 would break it to get at whatever was inside. The shed has no door and the roof on it is not waterproof so that option is out. The only other option is the loft.

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AMumInScotland · 16/06/2009 17:06

Eek, you are short of storage. The only other thing I can think of is just learning not to be bothered by it, if it's limited to one room, but that depends if the chaos in there is more than you can stand...

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chim000 · 16/06/2009 17:14

This house is great in that I can lock the front room door and my bedroom door and they are my sanctuaries, where I can go and there's not a single toy, it's great!!! However the lack of storage options is a pain in the bum! Unfortunately the mess is so much that it's a case of tiptoeing around things, and pulling a muscle here and there as you stretch to not break something (either toy wise or bone wise!) I'm just so lost for options.

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supagirl · 16/06/2009 19:34

Chim000 I totally appreciate where you are coming from......I would store some in the loft tbh and rotate them bi monthly.

Our 2 boys share a room and I was sick of threatening/pleading/asking nicely/doing it myself/ignoring it......so in the end I just went in with a bin bag, took everything off the floor and hid it in my wardrobe.

THEY TOOK OVER A DAY TO EVEN NOTICE!!!!

The youngest (5) said "thanks for tidying our room" and it was only when the eldest (6)was looking for his sunglasses of all things that he noticed some toys were missing and they had been playing in there for a day and a half.

I told them what I had done and why. We've agreed to keep it that way and rotate the toys to make it easier for them to keep it tidy. They now know that if they don't clear away at the end of the day I will go back in and take whatever is lying around.

We've also agreed that in the school holiday we will agree on some things to sell on ebay and use the money to buy new toys as they have so much they just don't play with.

I was so shocked by this exercise and it has proven to me that a) they have far too many toys b) they didn't appreciate their toys and c) The less options they have, the less they come to me asking what they should do!

It's win win - I would bung em in the loft

SG

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chim000 · 17/06/2009 15:33

Right, well I have bought some bin liners today, so Friday will be my mass clearing day!!! I'm going to leave 2 or 3 boxes down here and the rest is headed for the loft!