Our house is a REAL house.  We have two kiddos that come with lots of toys, books and games to keep them busy (while Mama blogs).  In an effort to save my sanity, we have a system for keeping toys in check.  To begin with, we don’t keep a ton of toys in our home.  Every Christmas, it’s out with the old and in with the new.  I make my boys go through their toys and pick a few things to donate.  (I’ll usually throw in a few more things after they’re done choosing… things they don’t play with.)  Also, we rotate toys periodically.  Most kid stuff stays in the playroom or unfinished basement.  We only keep everyday favorites in the main floor living space.  When they want to bring in a different item, they select a toy to go down to the basement.  (I know this sounds like I’m a drill sargent but I’m really only talking about the big toys i.e. ball pit, kitchen set, pop-up house, etc.)  This keeps our family room from becoming over-run with kid stuff.  Plus, I find my boys are more apt to focus and have a longer playtime when they have less choices.  And they get really excited when they bring in a ‘new’ toy from the basement that they forgot about.  Half the time, we even end up playing without toys… family dance parties, rhyming games, wrestling, etc.

The playthings we do keep on the main floor are disguised.  (I like ‘disguised’ better than ‘hidden’ because my kids know where their toys are.)  We have dozens of bins, baskets and organizers devoted to this purpose.  There is a console behind our couch chock full of toys but you’d never know by looking at it.

Our entertainment console has even more kid-friendly storage.

We have a small table in our sunroom that stores Lincoln Logs.

At the end of the day, we all pick-up together and everybody knows where everything goes.  All of this makes me a happy girl at the end of the night when I’m sittin’ on the couch with my hubby.  Pretending we don’t have kids.  Until one of them cries.