You know those studies that tell you 'By the time you die the average person will have spent 25 years in bed, 7 years on the lavatory, 3 weeks peeling carrots 'etc,

[Slubberdegullion]

Well I'm wondering by the end of my life how many months or years I will have spent moving shite back from whence it came.

Seriously, how do children do it? How does a 3 hour afternoon with friends result in almost an entire morning of just returning stuff back to where it should be?

To give an example,

(some) items of the play doctor case found in dd1's bedroom (under bed).

Find doctor case behind sofa in sitting room, open it to find

duplo

remove duplo, put doctor shite back in box.

take duplo to duplo box, find inside, some duplo and hundreds of hair bobbles

upstairs to dd2's bedroom, open bobble box to find 2 pieces of fifi jigsaw, back downstairs to find fifi box (not with other puzzles obviously), locate fifi box in kitchen, open it to find, some more fifi puzzle and my little pony minature hair brush.

ffs

on and on it goes.

They must have had the most marvellous fun yesterday playing the game 'lets just randomly move our stuff all over the house and give old lazy arse mummy something to do tomorrow'.

I know were not allowed to moan about tidying up here, we should be just doing it. well I have just done it and now I'm having a moan so nerrr.

I like how good I am at knowing my little bits of plastic.

Aah - small yellow cone - Playmobil box.

Odd looking soldier - Memoir 44 game.

Small fuzzy ball - craft box.

It's oddly satisfying. Like doing a jigsaw, except the pieces are scattered all over the house.

Play balls. Three whole bags. All over living room.

Well for someone who is remarkably sloppy with the laundry I am fanatically controlling re; sorting out toys. I will not let my DS's help with the tidying lest a bit of little Lego ends up in the Duplo.

Must have over 20 big plastic colour coded boxes all named and lidded and neatly stacked exactly where they are meant to be!

I should seek help really.[hmmm]

lol Slubber

I spent hours moving shite yesterday, finally looked around to admire my efforts, thought "I deserve a glass or two of wine for this", plonked myself down on sofa with said wine, seat cushion curled up revealing......

MORE bloody Duplo. Grrr

oh look, some people came to talk to me

100x were you playing 'clean up unanswered threads' challenge?

cheese, I fear that my life will be darkened for many years with the toil of moving duplo and then the inevitable (and even smaller) lego from within and under things and back to the collective.

serin I have many attractive wicker baskets on large floor to ceiling bookshelves. I am anal and home wares stylish

One day I will invent a robot that moves around the house all day long doing nothing but "putting things back". Programming might be tricky...

I'm with serin in anal-toy sorting - if cars end up in the planes box I start to hyperventilate.

Before your DCs have friends round collect all the toys with more than 3 pieces and hide them.
Half an hour before the friends leave give them a basket each and set a timer for ten minutes. They have to collect the toys they've been playing with from all round the house and return them to your DCs room.
Give them a 'prize'.

I quite like the collection basket game idea. At least all the gubbings is in one place then and you can just carry your baskets around replacing stuff (like a librarian).

I'm returned to (breathlessly) report the discovery of a small metal soldier (to be filed separately from the larger, ELC type) in the baking tray drawer in the kitchen. Randomness on a par with Slubber's, I feel .