Toys Gone Wild!!

Do you ever suddenly realize that your kids just have too much stuff? Too many toys to be more specific...

I realized the other day that I could no longer pick a clear path through many rooms in our home with out kicking multiple toys out of my way. It was an "ah ha" moment for me. The mist that had been covering my eyes for months cleared and I saw before me things I had previously not seen. Things were a MeSs.

Our living room, Graham's bedroom, Grady's bedroom, the spare bedroom, and even our garage were all out of hand!!



This is in Graham's room and every bin has toys shoved in it too!!



Isn't this all just silly?? And by silly I mean pitiful. I thank God ever single day that my family is blessed but this excess of stuff is starting to seem sinful to me.

I have crammed stuff in every nook and cranny of the house so that things can "seem" to stay clean.

Exhibit A:

The top two pictures are from our living room and the bottom one is spare toys that we have stored in our GARAGE. I'm frankly appalled at myself that I ever let it get this bad.

For a good long while I excused my behavior lack of cleaning and purging on being delicately pregnant. I didn't want to over-exert myself. My next excuse was that Bobby is gone working soo much now and its just me. I told myself time and time again "It's ok that laundry is never folded and done. It's ok if the boys rooms look like crap every.single.day. It's ok to turn a blind eye...." My excuses trailed on for what seemed like months.

This past Saturday I woke up from my haze of indifferance. The 400th time that morning that I had stepped on a Lego and swore a blue streak is when I said THAT'S IT. And I actually meant it for once. ::this might also coincide with the fact that I had my first real cup of coffee in months and I was high on caffeine::.

I realized that afternoon while out eating and shopping at Kohl's that I wasn't the only one to blame for part of this toy indulgence. McDonald's Happy Meals are to blame as is pajama's with free toys attached to the hangers.



Yes, I actually took a picture of the toys that came with Graham's PJs. I was soo mad about them!

During the great toy purge of 2011 I realized that half of the crap that we were picking up and throwing away was free stuff that we didn't need anyway! I'm so over bringing this crap into my house. It makes me mad enough that I just want to go on evil Mommy strike and ask everyone to not get my kids birthdays or Christmas gifts for the next two years. And quite frankly, the toys that were saved are still of great quality and do get played with. Honestly why do we need any more?? Should I also have to purge said old-ish toys of good quality in order to make room for new toys? It makes no sense to me but I'm sure the Goodwill store smiles when they see me coming!

Super long story short (and numerous garbage bags later...) here is what we are left with.

I only took pictures of Graham's room because I was pretty much spent by the time we got done. 

I think I might also be having this melt-down because I realized that Grady's birthday is next month and that just means more stuff is coming! Aaack! And can you imagine once there is a third child in our household. I feel a panic attack coming on...

How do you handle too much stuff in your house? And also if you were me how would you approach Grady's birthday? Would you ask (in leau of gifts) savings bonds, donations to charities in his name, money to save for his college, or gift cards to be used at some vague time in the future? Or would you just deal with whatever toys came your kids way?

I really don't want to be that evil Mommy-Dearest Momma but I loath the idea that my kids are starting to be spoiled and worst yet acting that way too... I want them to have new things and to be excited opening gifts, but I'm having a hard time finding that good balance between just right and too much.

(Something random that I feel I have to add here is that I am to blame as well. If I had a firmer hand on the boys about picking up every night before bed half the battle of the toys would be gone. And for what it counts, Graham did help a tremendous ammount during purging and then clean-up. We talked a ton about having too much and other kids that didn't have enough. He seemed to really catch on and hopefully will be a huge help to me in the future!)

(I also have to add that I just spell checked this big-ass post and blogger spell check didn't come back with one mistake! Either bravo to me or spell check is broken this morning :)