Tricks of the Trade. 5.

Six kids.  

Twelve hands.

Even though we have vastly downsized our children’s toys, there’s still a lot of little hands with a lot of little playthings.

Besides, you can take away the plastic dolls and the metal trucks but kids are still going to create entertainment out of nothing at all.

Cardboard boxes into airplanes for their big-eyed animals, hair clips into prized possessions, you name it.

My general rule is that toys belong upstairs.  

All of our kids sleep upstairs and I can handle the chaos of their toy playing selves if it is maintained upstairs primarily.

Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule.  Certain dolls and favorite stuffed animals make their way down the steps here and there.  (Hopefully not of their own free will.)

I was finding myself picking up after the kids, asking them throughout the day to run toys upstairs or having a stash of toys found on the dinner table as the table was being set.

And so I made a plan.

(I like plans.)

I grabbed a large enamel basin.

I thought it was cute and I thought it was large enough.  (You could use a basket or a bucket or whatever style of container you find appealing.  I like enamel.  I like basins.)

I placed it in our hall area by the kids’ shoes and jackets and backpacks.

We just call it The Basin.

During the day I toss any downstairs toys inside The Basin.

If London is in charge of cleaning the living room and she unearths toys, she tosses them in The Basin.  If Riley is sweeping the dining room and a toy appears in her dust pile, she throws it in The Basin.  (You see my point here, I am sure.)

Eventually, of course, The Basin gets full.

Our kids have daily chores.  Included on each child’s list of daily chores is this  – “The Basin”.  Beside the chore is a number.  It is that child’s age.

For example, Bergen’s chore list reads: “The Basin – 7.”  Therefore Bergen is in charge of putting away seven items from The Basin every day during chore time.

Usually this is more than enough to keep The Basin emptied on a regular basis.

Occasionally, if our day was so busy chores were never accomplished, I have the kids empty The Basin together before a television show can be watched or before dessert is served.

(Somehow, dessert always speeds every chore along at our house.)

And there you have it friends.

The Basin.

The Keigley solution to random toys found at the dinner table and on the steps and under the chair.