To just give up?

[Stanky]

I've been trying to tidy 7 yo ds bedroom. I've been here many times before, each time determined that it will stay tidy from now on. We will tidy it every day. We don't. Weeks turn into months, life is extremely busy at the moment. I was making some progress, but 3yo ds2 came in and tipped out all of the football cards, lego and tiny skateboards I had just tidied away. I didn't lose my shit, but just quietly died a little inside and nearly cried. There's still a huge pile of crap to go through. I'm disorganised, messy and overwhelmed, so I'm not a good role model for my boys. It's no wonder they're messy too. Depressing.

We bought a large, lidded storage box. Every night they put all of the toys back in the storage box. Once we get to the point where the lid does not fit on, they have to go through the box and find things to get rid of. If they refuse then all of the box will go.

There were tantrums at first, but they got used to it and do it themselves now.

Books are kept in under bed boxes with the same rules and board games in under bed boxes under their sofa.

Their room is hardly spotless but you can see the floor and I can get in to vacuum.

I found there was a time when old and projects needed to go. Take a photo of all of them and make a scrap book to have as pride and joy. The freed up space was amazing. Sorry if this has already been suggested.
And investing in storage is worth it .