Simplify Sunday (#3)

Two weeks combined into one this time around, since last week Sunday was our trip home from Disney, and all we did was add more junk to the house in the form of Disney souvenir toys.

But we made up for it by some major purging in the girls' toy buckets, as well as new shelving in our living room.

First, the toy buckets. They each have their own, if you remember, and they've become the resting spot for all the miscellaneous small items that don't have a home elsewhere. Essentially all the toys you get in kids' meals at fast-food restaurants. I think Chick-fil-A's got a great thing going, whereby they allow you to swap the toy for ice cream. I wish others would jump on board with that idea - it would make my resolution to not let the toys take over my house a lot easier to manage.

So Dale and I took some time to go through the bins and throw out the toys that are cool for, say, 5 minutes in the car as you drive home from the restaurant. We even were able to entirely clear out the decorative bowl that sits on our island and collects the junk from day-to-day living (including the toys that hadn't yet found their way into a bucket). And look at the result! You can actually fit the lids on the buckets without sitting on them, and you can actually tell that the bowl is one intended for decoration, not just a way to hold more junk. Ahhhhhhhh.


I've also previously referenced our living room toy corner. "A Mess" is the understatement of the century. So Dale and I have been actively looking for some sort of organizational shelving to use for the toys that would still look decent in the living room. We finally found it! What do you think? The girls love that they can actually see their toys now, instead of them all falling to the bottom of the basket, which is now designated only for balls and stuffed animals. Double Ahhhhhhhh.