Getting My House Ready to Sell–Toys

If you have at least one child in your house, chances are you have enough toys to entertain 10 children at one time. At least that’s how it is in our house. Let me show you some shameful before photos I dug up from my files to show you just how bad it is in our house when it comes to toys:

There are a LOT of toys. Because we have so much space in the living room, we tend to fill it up with a lot of stuff. The biggest fear I had going into this house selling adventure was “what do we do with our toys!?” I couldn’t see how I was going to make it so that Jack could keep his toys, and we could stage this house for selling. Being at home all day, every day makes it impossible to keep a house clean. Toys are out as soon as the boy gets up in the morning. My challenge was to figure out a way to be a stay-at-home-family but not get the place messy.

In order to be ready to show our house in a moment’s notice, we consolidated, stored, and donated a LOT of toys. Here is what we were left with at the end of the day.

I can grab this box with all the little boxes inside of it and easily take them to the basement crawl space or even to the back of the van when we leave the house. Jack knows where everything is, and he now knows that if he gets something out, the last toy’s he played with need to be returned. It doesn’t always happen like this, but it does help.

We also have this ‘corner’ of the room with toys. It is also easily grab-able and stored in the basement at a moment’s notice.

His big trucks have been parked in the room along various walls at different times, but I finally consolidated them into one ‘garage’. Having just redone our floors, our closet hasn’t yet gotten filled with random things, so I had the space to park the big machines in there. Jack thinks it’s fun to park them in their garage.

I’ve had to do some hard weeding out of toys. Jack loves trains. He loves his Geo Trax that he’s gotten from his cousins, but we decided to box them up and store them in the basement for now. I think they may make a few appearances before we move out of here, but they’re not out ALL.THE.TIME like they used to be. There are two other train/car tracks that are still out for him to play with, but they fit in smaller boxes, so they’re allowed to be up here.

I have to admit that baby toys take up MUCH MORE space than toddler toys. Matchbox cars and planes can be put in a small plastic bin. However, a bouncer, swing, baby gym and whatever this is called: take up much more space in a home. I’m not sure what I would have done if I had to deal with these toys in my home. (For now, they’re in our basement crawl space)

There are other things we’ve done in our living room to make it bigger, cleaner, and nicer, but those are not so much toy-focused as they are furniture removal. I’ll do a separate post on those whenever we finish staging our living room. Once the carpet is done upstairs (I’m typing this while the carpet guy is doing our carpet today), I’ll be able to get more ‘after’ photos from our rooms upstairs as well. We’re moving right along on this house selling adventure! Thanks for joining me on my journey.

Foto Friday–Orange

Oops, I missed last week. I’m sure I’m the only one who noticed, but I’m still sorry about it.

This week’s theme is Orange.  I walked around my house and found orange things to take pictures of, since our leaves turn yellow in our backyard, and I’m without a vehicle to even go out and look for orange.

So here they are, unedited and simple. 

This is Jack’s new dump truck.  You can tell that it’s not actually NEW.  It’s just new to him.  His cousins played with this truck 10 years ago, my sister and I played with it 30 some years ago, and my dad played with it (its original owner) 60 years ago.  Like most hand-me down toys, Jack broke it within a week –I’m not sure how these toys can last years and years, but then when they get to Jack, they break or get lost in 2 days.  *sigh* Anyway, Rick fixed it and it’s like ‘new’ again.  Maybe Jack’s kids will play with it someday.

This pumpkin is new to me.  I just bought it from a craft fair last weekend.  I never go to craft fairs, and when I do, I rarely buy anything for myself, but this weekend I went a bit crazy.  It didn’t help that my best friend’s mom made it and I love her like my own mother, so I HAD to buy it. 

Buying this pumpkin was life changing for me.  Really.  When I got home, I realized I had nowhere to put it.  Every surface in my home is full of clutter.  So, in trying to find a spot for my new –and only- fall decoration, I de-cluttered my home.  I mean REALLY de-cluttered. Let’s just say that this dry sink was unable to have a big pumpkin sitting in it like this last week. In fact, I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen the inside of the sink like this in 5 years! Mostly I  just de-cluttered my kitchen, but MAN does it feel good!!  Maybe I’ll blog about it someday.  I didn’t take any ‘before’ pictures, but I can pull up just about any picture in my files and call it a before. 

Have a great weekend!

Color Learning Activity

I read a lot of blogs.  A.LOT of blogs.  Many of them have activities to do with young children.  I watch what those women do with their children and think “I could totally do that!” and then I don’t do it.

Poor Jack.

So, today, I’m starting a new schedule for us.  I’m adding more learning activities into his daily routine.  I should have already been doing this, but I’m a lazy mother, so I haven’t yet.

Poor Jack.

Today, I came up with an activity off the cuff.  (which is a nicer way to say “I pulled it out of my you-know-where”) Jack already knows his colors very well.  He sometimes mixes up pink and purple, but other than that, he’s got all his colors down pat.  So, I decided to start with an activity where I knew he’d have success right away.

I traced a roll of masking tape onto plain white drawing-pad paper.  Then I had him color each circle (which I also asked him to name for me since I knew he knew it) a different color.  I handed him a crayon and told him which circle to color.  Next time I would let him pick which circle to color, but I was moving things right along today.

After he colored each circle a different color, I put the paper on the living room/play room floor and said, “Now go find a red toy and put it on the red circle.”  He did!  He did the same for all of the colors.  It was pretty quick, but he did have to go searching a bit for a few of the colors.

I cleared the paper, and asked him to find another red toy for the red circle.  You could tell by the look in his eye that he wanted to use the same toy he’d already used, but I’d put the toys in my lap so they were ‘out of play’ for this round.  He found a new round of toys without much trouble at all.

We did it a third time, which I could tell was the last round for him.  When he put a plane down on the red circle (for it’s red wheels), the plane wouldn’t stay on the circle.  Jack said It kept flying away. 

He was so proud of himself and what he was able to accomplish.  I only had to help him find one toy through all the rounds.

I think he’s going to love his new learning activities thrown in throughout his days.  Now, Mommy has to learn to plan ahead.  It’s like writing lesson plans all over again!  AAAAAHHHHH!!!

Foto Friday: Out of Place

Remember when I showed you the before and after pictures of my laundry room?  I’m proud to say that I’ve kept it clean!  I even added some colorful labels and a colorful tub to corral loose items. 

When I went into my laundry room yesterday, I saw something that was out of place. 

Can you see it?

No, not the spatula sticking out of the tub.  I use that to push down the diapers into the water when they’re soaking. 

There it is.

Mater wanted to help out with the laundry yesterday. 

Thanks for your help, Mater!

(Don’t forget to visit Mom Tried It and see other Foto Friday submissions for today’s theme Out of Place.  You can see last week’s theme BLUE here. )

*******

On a completely unrelated note, I wanted to share with you that I lost my hard drive two weeks ago. It was rough, but God saved all my pictures, so I’m not crying as hard as I could be.  I also figured out how to get my music files back onto my computer from my iPod, so I didn’t loose my 2, 250 songs!  So, in the scheme of things, it wasn’t that devastating. 

One thing I did loose that is more of an annoyance than anything is my Live Writer.  That’s the program I use to write my blogs.  All my posts are saved online with Blogger, but Writer had all of my posts listed in it’s storage so I could easily link to a previous post with no fuss.  I had even started a post on my Girls Trip 2011 but lost it in the crash.  Oh well.  I’ve since downloaded Live Writer again and it will store all of my posts from here on out.  No biggie I guess.

I hope you all have a great weekend! We’ll be celebrating Rick’s birthday with his folks coming down to visit tomorrow.  Happy Birthday Wonderful Husband!!

Foto Friday – Symmetry

 

I’ll admit, this photo is BAD.  I didn’t run it through Photoshop at all, even though I’m having a great time experimenting with PS.  It’s blurry, and the color is just not ‘wow’.

BUT, what it lacks in quality, it makes up for in character. I took a progression of shots while Jack was running his race cars down the track so I could see who the winner is.  Those cars go SO fast, that I usually can’t tell who wins.  My new-ish camera has a super fast shutter capture speed –type setting that captures up to 34 frames per second.  It’s FAST!

All week I couldn’t come up with a good symmetry photo, so this is what I decided on at the last minute. It won’t impress you with its quality, but it may bring a smile to your face with its character.

Have a great weekend! I’m off to our annual Mom Retreat.  Can’t wait!!!!

Purple is the winner!!

Growth Chart Moments-So Soon!?

It hasn’t been that long since my last growth chart moments post, but new skillz are popping up every day around here!  So, here we go on another Growth Chart Moments adventure.

• Just last night, Jack blew on his food to cool it down.  It was the cutest thing!  I usually blow on his food before I put it on his plate, but he’d never noticed or cared about that before.  Last night he picked up his green beans and blew on them before he put them in his mouth.  We thought that may have been the cutest thing we’ve ever seen! 

 

• He recently figured out that some of his toys have strings attached to them.  And those toys that have strings attached to them also have wheels on them.  He finally put those bits of information together and has now started pulling his pull-along toys.  He has pulled his wooden puppy and xylophone along behind him as he walks all over our house.  It’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen!

*Check out his pegged jeans and scrunched socks! His pants weren’t staying rolled this day and I was so done with them! ! *and check out the poor ‘dead dog’ being pulled along.

• I’ve started counting with Jack recently.  I’ve counted toys, buttons, people in pictures, more toys and more buttons.  It only took a day or two and now he’s counting everything too!  He points to the things he’s counting and then makes the same counting inflections as we do when we count.  It took me a while to figure out that he was counting, because he doesn’t say numbers or even the same sound as he counts, but his inflection is spot on. He likes to count our buttons, his toys, his food, and pictures in his books.  Sometimes I think he just likes making the counting sounds.  It’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen!

 

• Jack likes to BONK his head.  If we say the word BONK, he’ll immediately bonk his head with whatever toy is in his hand.  If there isn’t a toy in his hand, he’ll hit his head on the nearest object.  Sometimes that’s Daddy, sometimes it’s the window or furniture, and sometimes it’s the floor.  It’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen!

I can see where this bonking thing might become a bad thing – We were at a mall play area yesterday (for the first time), and Jack was playing along nicely by himself and then with another little boy who was there playing too.  Everything was going well until Jack decided to BONK his head.  He stopped what he was doing, leaned down to the floor (can you touch your head to the floor while still standing on your feet??) and bonked his head.  Several times.  Many times!  He would run a little, then BONK!  Run some more and then BONK!  Yes, mine is the crazy child hitting his head on the ground.  Time to go, honey!!

So, as you can see, we are enamored with our son and think he’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen.  We say to each other, “just when you think he can’t get any cuter, he DOES get cuter!”  I’ve been made fun of from the beginning for saying “he’s so cute!” all the time.  It’s not that I’m bragging.  It’s that I’m totally in awe of how cute this son of ours is.  You don’t even have to agree with me. I’m the Mom and I may be  blinded by love!!

God certainly blessed us with a great little guy!

Scout

Jack received this present from his Grandparents at Christmastime, and he LOVES it!

Meet Scout:

He sings, lights up, and knows Jack’s name, favorite color, food and animal.  He’s a LeapFrog toy, and his paws all do something different.  They’re very easy for Jack to push, which I think is why he enjoys playing with him so much.  Scout is very much loved by our boy.

Case in point-

Last night, Jack wanted to take Scout up to bed with him.  I usually don’t bring him up, simply because he’s loud.  His many songs and activities have no volume control, and since it’s a time for quiet, I haven’t wanted to bring Scout up to bed with us.  But, last night, Jack really wanted to bring him up.  He gave him a big hug, a few kisses, and walked to the stairs, ready for bed.  So, Scout joined us for bedtime last night.

It took a few extra minutes for Jack to get to sleep because of having Scout with him (he also asked for Monkey, so he had two friends in bed last night).  Eventually, Jack got to the point where he would sit up, push Scout’s paw, then lay back down.  He did this for a while, and then finally fell asleep.  I thought about removing Scout for the rest of the night, so he wouldn’t wake Jack unintentionally if Jack accidently hit his paw or something.  But, I figured that if Jack really wanted Scout to be with him, I should leave him in there.

Around 10 o’clock, I checked on Jack, Scout, and Monkey.  I think walking down the hall must have made Jack stir, because when I opened his door, I heard Scout going through the start of all his songs as Jack’s foot was doing the ‘horse-foot-stomping’ thing.  I turned Scout off and picked up Jack to snuggle him back to sleep like we usually do, but things were different this night.  Instead of wanting to snuggle into my shoulder, he pointed back to Scout for me to lay him back in his crib!  He wanted to snuggle in with Scout – not Mommy!  Okay!!  I’ll take that!  He wrapped his little arm around Scout’s neck and went right back to sleep.  We didn’t hear from Jack again until much later.

Could it be that we’ve finally found a comfort toy for Jack?  I hope so!  

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa W!!!

Boy Noises

I'm starting to worry for my son. Not because of anything he's doing, but of what I can't do. I can't make boy noises. For example:

We brought home a toy school bus from Aunt Jenn's the other day. When Daddy came home, he asked me if anyone had made noises with it. Ummmmm, no. I hadn't even thought of it. So Daddy spent a few minutes showing Jack how the bus could sound like a bus/racecar as it drove around the family room. It was like a whole new toy for him. Why hadn't I thought of that??

It was then that I realized that I may not be the best mommy-to-a-boy after all. How can I raise a boy to play like a boy when I don't know how to make boy noises? And I'm not exaggerating. I stink at racecar noises. I can't do plane noises. And I REALLY lack any skill to make gun noises. These are all very important noises for little boys to know how to do. Since I'm the one who is home all day with him, he gets most of his education from me. And I can safely say he’s not getting a good education in making noises while I’m around.

Thank goodness for Daddy!! He's an expert noise maker*. He has impressed me with boy noises ever since we were dating. (My favorite happens to be his shotgun noise, which he makes as we're driving along and see a groundhog, deer, or goose that needs to be 'hunted'.**) I knew when I found him, that I'd found a great Daddy-to-a-boy. I can only hope that he can undo all the horrible noises Jack has to hear throughout the day.

*Now, stop thinking of all the other boy noises that we DON’T like to hear. I’m not talking about bad boy noises. I’m keeping it completely innocent here, people!

**sorry if this offended any non-hunters out there. Really, I think he just enjoys making that shotgun sound, so any chance he gets, he does it.

I'm "Crunchy"

The other night, Hubby and I were invited to dinner by one of his co-workers. It was such a nice invitation to come out to the country and enjoy a casual evening with new (to me) friends. They had a great home, yummy food, and CUTE kiddos! I enjoyed the visit especially with this co-worker’s wife, because she and I had a lot of similarities. She used to be a teacher (taught kindergarten for 7 years) and then became a stay-at-home-mom when her daughter was born three years ago. She could completely relate with my sadness from not going back to my classroom this year for the first time. The other big connection for us was our love of our laptops and the internet. We both feel like we need our connections online. And both of our husbands don’t understand this at all! So, needless to say, we bonded.

During the evening, we shared our baby and parenting stories. I think mom’s can go on for HOURS talking about our kids and their stories. While we were sharing, she said to me “you’re crunchy!” It was not meant to offend me, and it was said in jest mostly. But it got me to thinking. For those of you who don’t know, ‘crunchy’ refers to being ‘granola’ or ‘hippy’ or an earth-lovin’, organic-eatin’, tree-hugger.

Am I crunchy? Let’s see.

1. I use cloth diapers on my son. I love how cute they are. That’s one of the main reasons I use them. They also keep Jack from getting rashes, and they hardly ever leak. And they’re saving us money.



2. I breastfeed. I used formula for one week when Jack was born, and I was waiting for my milk to come in. Since then, we nursed for every meal until we started solid food. And we don’t use bottles much, since I’m staying at home and don’t have need for bottles very often. I have my home-made cover (Hooter Hider) for when I am out in public and need to feed Jack. I’m also getting pretty good at feeding him in the van. This has saved us a ton of money.



3. I make my son’s baby food. I never realized how easy it was. I can make sure he’s not getting any unnecessary sugar or ‘other’ ingredients that aren’t good for him at this age. I’m hoping it’s saving us money.



4. I’ve only purchased one toy for my son. He has toys, but they’re from family and friends. All of his toys from me are containers and boxes. He LOVES the empty oats round containers. This is definitely saving us money.



5. I use a ring sling. It seemed like it would last us longer than a baby carrier, since they only last through a certain weight. As long as I can carry his weight, I can use this sling for years. I bought it for 50% less than the original price. So that saved us a bit of money.



6. We got rid of cable. Jack doesn’t need to watch TV yet. And it’s another distraction during the day that I just don’t need. (The internet is enough) This is definitely saving us money.


7. I meal plan and make sure we eat at home almost all the time. I grocery shop every Monday to get what I need for that week’s meals. Since we rarely eat out anymore, I think we’ve saved money on food.

So, do you think I’m crunchy? I’m thinking I’m more thrifty than crunchy, but you can be the judge. I do own a tye-dye shirt.