I want a toy box!

When I was pregnant with G (or maybe before, or maybe after-- don't bother me with details, okay?!), someone once gave the advice to never get a toybox for my kids. If I have all the toys in a toybox, they reasoned, my kids will have no choice but to empty the entire box every time they want a particular toy because-- count on it-- the toy they want will always be buried under at least a dozen other toys that they don't want. Instead, I should have large toys on shelves and smaller toys divided into smaller boxes which also fit on shelves.

I thought it was pretty sound advice.

Another piece of sound advice I received was this: Teach my children to always pick up a toy (or toy set) before getting out a new one.

I confess, I have not been good at all about following piece of advice #2. Which maybe explains why piece of advice #1 has turned out to be pretty useless, too. I've done my best (under a limited budget) to have "a place for every toy and every toy in its place," but-- well, scratch out the second half of that statement because, like I said, I'm terrible at keeping up with that and teaching my kids to do the same. Honestly, I just have other priorities.

Even when I do try, it's always a losing battle and entirely unfair, because while it might take me an hour or two to get all the toys reorganized, it only takes my boys minutes to recreate "toymaggeddon" all over again. I think they must have a secret fantasy of living in the ruins of Hurricane Gargantua.

Which brings me back to piece of advice #1 and why I've begun to come to the conclusion that, while it might have worked out great for the parent who originally gave the advice, it just doesn't work for us.

I want a method for picking up my kids' toys that actually takes the same amount of time as it takes for them to get the toys out again. Which is why I have decided to get...dun dun dun...a toybox. Also, I want this toybox to fit into the closet, so at least once in a while I can put the toys away and actually have them stay that way for a while.

Nick and I used to be able to accomplish this-- sort of-- by putting the smaller toys in boxes and putting them up on a high shelf. Just the other day, the boys got out a shoebox full of various kids' card games and proceeded to take every single card out of its respective box and covering the entire bedroom floor with them. They reveled for hours in the mess. But when Nick came home, he decided he had to resort all the cards before putting them away. I tried to explain to him that it was a lost cause, but he was determined. He sat on the bedroom floor and sorted and boxed, amidst the boys continuing to throw around the cards that were still left. Eventually, he had all the cards back in their shoebox (he missed a few under the bed and behind the shelves, but it didn't matter) and placed the shoebox high up on top of the boys' wardrobe.

Well, the next day, it didn't take long for G to figure out that he could take a stool into the bedroom and reach that box of cards all the same. When Nick came home, he sighed, and all I could say was, "I told you so."