Whenever I take photos, I angle the camera toward the couch. The couch being the last bastion of adult civilization in my otherwise toy-overrun apartment.
I flulff and organize those throw pillows daily, so that my brain can pretend my living room looks like the photo above and my sanity remains in tact.
You will almost never see a picture of the opposite end of the room. Because it looks like this:
We might clear the coffee table of assorted blocks and slices of bread, but the toys have made their permanent home in Mazzy's most-frequented corner.
The unphotographed end of the room is where the Sesame Street and Disney figurines live as well as the shelfless books and the homeless toys.
(Although, I have to hand it to my daughter. She keeps her Sesame Street characters meticulously arranged.)
The most beloved toys and books never find their way back into those two lovely upholstered toy storage benches I had made before Mazzy was born.
Nope, these toys stay out and within reach at all times.
Yes, we clean-up but it's more in a "let's make a neat pile" kind of way as opposed to a "this belongs in the closet" deal.
Thankfully though, my living room is not as bad as Samantha's living room (pictured below) which is why she'll be winning the Toydozer giveaway to help her sort that shit OUT.
Well deserved, Samantha!
Although, I'm not sure if this area is a downstairs playroom and there is in fact, an upstairs living room worthy of a spread in Elle Decor… in which case, I may revoke your win on account of square-footage-envy, SO DON'T TELL ME.
The other Toydozer is going to Betsy (selected at random) who says she needs it to help put away the endless supply of wooden food that never seems to stay anywhere near the mini-kitchen.
May clean-up time be more fun and more frequent for you both!
If you'd like to purchase a Toydozer (regularly $18.99) for yourself, Mommy Shorts readers get 20% off by using the code BLOGGER20 at Toydozer.com.
I hope everyone has an excellent holiday weekend. If you are celebrating Easter, may your kids find lots of eggs and avoid being trampled by overzealous parents.
If you are celebrating Passover, you might want to check out my post on Babble today called "Passover Can Be Fun For Kids Too".
Happy Holidays!
— Mommy Shorts
For a kiddy corner, Mazzy’s area is remarkably organized. She has a great future of neatness ahead of her.
My favorite is the froggy potty chair in the middle of her room!
I can so relate! My kids have made their mark on every room, including my master bedrrom and the master bath – what should becmy oasis but became the bathtub they prefer of course, so my oasis is surrounded with tubtoys. But you know – when it looked like my eldest would be my only, a friend who interior designs helped us reclaim our living room to ” adult stuff only”. Then my second miracle occurred, and 2.5 years later my living room is overflowing with toys. And I really don’t care, my infertility gave me perspective and while I try to keep an organized chaos, I embrace seeing the constant evidence of the child I prayed for so long to have in my life. Soon this time will pass, my kids will move out, my livingroom will be clean – and my house will feel that much emptier and that much less like a home. Until then, when they are asleep, I just dim the lights and have a glass of wine. That helps too!
My nemesis is stickers and scotch tape. Those are constantly stuck to the floor, furniture and walls. After 8 years I’ve unfortunately been beaten down by them and don’t care anymore. Although, we had a quite amusing reminder of the kids recently when my husband and I went to Vegas for an adults only vacation. When we got to the hotel he took off his shoes and collapsed on the bed. What did I see stuck to the bottom of his sock? A nasty old sticker. I imagine I’ll be finding stickers in the house even after the kids go to college.
Oh, thank God! I was going to have to hate you eventually for being a working mom and still have an immaculate home! 😉
Mazzy just knows a good view when she sees one. So she stole the best corner in your living room, whatcha gonna do?
Oh why thank you! I am shocked to see my toddler’s destruction featured on your page.
This particular room is our living room and it started as a tiny section for toys at one end and now they have overtaken 3/4 of it. Those stairs only lead to an even messier bedroom littered with puzzle pieces, a menagerie of stuffed animals and clothes, so there is in fact no fabulous clean room tucked away. In a perfect world there would be.
I’m pretty sure I should have entered this because my entire house is 900 sq ft of destruction. Sadly it’s not all toys…
Thanks for coming out of the cluttered-full-of-toys-living-room closet. Makes me feel MUCH better. Hehe. I was just saying yesterday to my husband, “we should really purge our toy box.”
I too live in a very small two bedroom apartment and we try so hard to keep the living room toy free at the end of the evening. But now that we have two blessings and all the baby crap is back out I give up and we have small piles in every corner. Not to mention a kid sleeping in our bedroom! I’m doing well if I have one semi-decent looking room at the end of the day! Thanks for making me feel better about our mess!
Whew, I’m not the only one. Thanks for making me feel so much better about the toy-takeover of half of my living room, the puzzle pieces currently living on the dining room floor in front of yet another toy-corner, across from the school work pile, which at the time includes a big leprechaun trap. Worst part is that all those things are blocking the way to my wine refrigerator. Travesty.
Tomorrow, my husband will be building a playhouse loft bed “for Anna” and actually, though I’m so excited to gift it to her knowing she’ll love it, I’m as excited to get the G-D play kitchen and dollhouse out of my living room and under the loft bed. I’m taking back my living room.
Good thinking 99! My photographer friend says take a knee when snapping interiors – but he forgot your tip which is even more important!
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I just had to buy one of these. Impulse buy I think not! I should send a picture of the daycare room that I will be using this in!