Oh woman.

That is so my world.

HA HA.

Just give up. Embrace the mess.

Or go all 'home made simple' on them!

at least he knows what he's doing! i'm in agreement with the commenter above, embrace the mess. it'll make things easier for you down the road. 'cuz, trust me, today's messy-toy extravaganza is tomorrow's pile of videogame discs and/or boxes and/or controllers and/or wires! and don't get me started on empty cans of cola and/or candy wrappers! xoxo

Think of it as job security

We are living parallel lives! My 6 yr old, as wonderful as she is, will NOT part with any toy from her baby years up to present! My house is now disaffectionately referred to as "Toyland" or "The Clutter Hut". Everytime I straighten out her room and the den, she goes right behind me and brings it all out again! Arrgh! I'm glad to know that I am not the only one who deals with this...at lease I know it isn't just a defect in *our* genepool.

We have a fairly small house. We call the living room, where the main tv is, "Trev's Playroom" because it's mostly his toys and his realm. I can't remember the last time I sat down to watch tv in there or took a nap on the couch.

Someday, I'll have lots of time to nap in there and have a nice, neat living room, decorated beautifully and then I will reminisce about the days it was Trev's Playroom. Then I will be sad and wish my kids were still little.

That's so cute! Its amazing how much they watch and imitate isn't it? If we could only get them to imitate us putting things away in the first place!

Is this like a government job ? Make work to have work ?

Once, as punishmet, I emptied my daughter's drawers and told her she had to refold and put all her clothes and other stuff away. She did it and came back to me, proud as a peacock. She'd actually enjoyed it! So much for using that as punishment. She enjoyed it so much, you'd think she'd actually put things away in the first place, but no, you'd be wrong, our basement was toy heaven, and you'd take your life in your hands going down there without a child tour guide.

You made me laugh outloud. Now THAT is a quote for the parenting books!

Now that you have all that space, can I brings some of our toys to your house for a while??!!! We're currently doing an addition/remodel to our house, but I'm having a hard time with the math. We're currently minus 400 square feet from what we started with. I know, I know...be patient! But really, can we bring some toys over?!?

LOL...picking up toys so that your Living Room looks "livable" again is never ending activity in our house too :)

Right now I'm staring at toys while the toddler is taking nap, but I've given up putting them away knowing they'll come back out after he wakes up!...Oy.

Anyway, I stumbled upon your blog and love it! Hope you don't mind that I link to it from mine!

-J.Lee

I still have our play pen set up in the den because it serves as a great catchall for toys. It's kind of ugly, though.

The child was just doing what you wanted: putting the toys where they belong. In The Preschooler's mind, that meant: off the shelves. After all, shelves and cupboards are mere temporary stash spots; hardly the toys' *real* homes.

That is too good!
Embrace the mess.......and if anyone was to be so rude as to say anything about it too you, refer them to Preschooler for his definition of where the toys go!

Futile.

parents just don't understand. ~sigh~

I KNOW!!!

The other day my sweet girl was trying to be helpful and started picking up her brother's toys off the floor to put them in the cabinet where we keep them. I told her to wait until later (after he was in bed) because he would just pull right back out again!

If only you had known.....

Yeah, I gave up a long time ago. I'll get my uncluttered rooms back when the kids go off to college.................maybe. LOL

Girl, you just decribed my back seat of my car. Toys R Us called, and they'd like their STORE back! Where do all these toys come from????

Now that's a new approach!

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