Sunday, August 3, 2014

Taming the Toy Takeover

There are a few things I have decided just to accept even though I wish they were different.  One of them is that, unless we ever have a house with 6 or more bedrooms, our guestroom is always going to look like a large walk in closet full of excess and out of place crap that happens to have a bed in it and not like a "retreat" with thoughtfully placed baskets of travel necessities and high quality linens.  Another is that the days of my carefully organized "rainbow" closet where my clothes hung in color order like the colors of the spectrum (ROYGBIV!) are long gone and never to return. I am just pleased with myself if I actually hang up the shirts that require it before the pile of laundry takes over and I am forced to put away the clean clothes.  Another is that my kids are going to see TV and lots of it because I am just too selfish to give up watching it myself.  I could go on but the topic of acceptance I am covering today is the fact that our house is going to be a domain of kids and that means toys everywhere.  Yes, we could keep their toys in their rooms but Ben doesn't want to play by himself most of the time.  He wants to play in my vicinity so that means they would be dragged out anyway.  And I sure don't want to sit in a kid's room all day because...TV?  Up until recently, we stashed toys and books (so many books!) in baskets placed around the living room.  They were always overflowing and were a huge mess.  Our TV was on an old chest of drawers which I really like but the drawers are so old and sticky that we hate to open them.  It is nice because scratches from Ben have just made it look better and more fashionably old but we have wanted to replace it for awhile and the time has finally come.
 
Recently we visited my aunt and uncle and they live in the same city as an IKEA, the place to go for cheap and arguably crappy furniture.  Yes, the longevity is questionable but right now we are not interested in long term.  We are interested in having something functional that will last until our kids stop ruining things.  Also, I want them to be able to enjoy our furniture and eat popcorn while watching movies and not worry about every spill or ding ruining a special piece of furniture. 
 
We spent a fabulous kid free afternoon at IKEA, which was as chaotic on a Monday as it is on weekends.  Among several other "must haves" that I had to have we chose this assembly from the "Besta" line and chose two baskets and two doors for the cubes.  This collection is arguably kind of "dorm room"-y but we need the organization of a dorm room. 
 
 
Yes, that is indeed a rerun of "Laguna Beach" on TV!  That moron Jason just never quit with the idiocy.  I am rolling my eyes all over again wondering what all those girls saw in him.  LC, you are better than him 1,000 times!  The books are now behind the cupboard doors and toys are in the baskets.  DVDs are in the drawers.  We still have a catch-all basket in another spot but I emptied out two other ones that were getting pretty beat up.  I will probably use them for piano music.
 
One of the best IKEA purchase, which made the chaotic, city driving adventure worth it, was this: 

 
 It's a little wooden train set!  It came with four cars and we bought the expansion cars.  The main set cost $9.99.  What a bargain for the entertainment it provides!  Those two big cars are from Target and they fit the tracks too which is excellent. 
 
 
 The only problem is a certain baby wants to play too...and she doesn't respect the track arrangement!  It causes lots of screaming, "Tessaaaaaaa NOOOOO! Tessa sit dowwwwwn!"  "Sit down" means that he wants me to move her elsewhere. 
 

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