Toy Organization ║Large Family, Small House Organization

[@Mimsy827]

Andrea, our oldest daughter was invited to a birthday party when she was about six. The invitation said to NOT bring a gift because the birthday girl had plenty and the party was just for fun and fellowship. It also stated that if anyone really wanted to bring a gift that they would donate to a charity in the gift giver’s honor. I thought that was genius for larger birthday parties! That would have never flown with the grandparents or aunts and uncles! I am about to become a grandmother for the first time, and I am determined not to overwhelm my daughter and her husband with toys. I’m thinking the experience idea is a great! Like something their family can do together (zoo pass, etc) or a very special date with Mimsy and Pops. Or even special classes that are parent approved (art, ballet, etc). The toy motel? YOU ARE THE SMARTEST WOMAN EVER!!!!

[@_GiGiBloom_]

“Hi guys! Andrea Mills here” 💝🥰😢 she has the sweetest voice when she says this. 🥰 I love that she has left these awesome ideas for her family and all of us! 💝

[@effieborchert985]

Tom, monetize these. Please, for your family. We watch these a lot.

[@NicoleTinsley]

I absolutely admire your parenting style! Although, I am not a mother, since I am a 16 year old girl. But I love how Christ centered and practical your family is! Thank you for all of your helpful and entertaining videos!

[@jenjenb1209]

just a thought. the divider thing for the sleds in made from pvc piping from a home improvement store. Just measure out the lengths you need and get t connectors and elbow connectors. It is way cheaper to make it. Also you can paint them with Krylar (sp) to withstand the weather.

[@kerryfatima548]

I miss andrea so much... I use these techniques with my own family and trying to minimize toys but its a long process

[@reillemclaren6885]

Your videos make me so happy ! I don't know why I'm in my mid 20s no kids and I don't come from a big family but I find myself watching all your videos. your so happy, positive and so organized !

[@AnythingByAshley]

My husband and I struggle with infertility, so no littles here... but I am one of your biggest fans! I hope to someday have a big family like yours. Thank you for sharing your lives!

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I, of course, don't know what the difficulty is that you're dealing with or what you've already tried, but in case it might be helpful, I'll suggest the herbs Vitex and Ashwaghanda. If you read reviews for them on Amazon, they're full of women saying that once they started the herbs they got pregnant even when other medical fertility treatments have failed. I pray God blesses you with your heart's desire!

[@AnythingByAshley]

Andrea Mills I have PCOS, and don't have a period. We were pregnant in 2009, but I lost my baby girl at 4 1/2 months pregnant, on Christmas Eve, while my husband was deployed. Ugh. No luck since. We are told IVF is our only option. Of course adoption and fostering are in our minds also. But it seems like the universe is against us. Every time we have the $20,000 saved, something happens. Every time we go to the foster care meetings, something happens, and we can't go. But I'm not losing hope! I WILL be a mommy, dang it. Haha. Until then, I have five dogs and three kitties. They are my whole world. I just hope they can have a human sibling, soon. Thank you for the suggestions! I currently take a whole ton of vitamins, but I don't have Ashwaghanda! Buying it now!!

[@Amadorcrew]

I love the way Andrea thinks I love these organization videos she has helped me so much with organizing my home. I rewatch these videos often thank you Tom for keeping them up. R.I.P. Andrea your missed and loved by so many ♥️

[@indigoblue4791]

Andrea, I love how logical and meticulously you organise your things and your life!! I am always impressed when I hear what and how you've all been doing. I've really enjoyed Tom's channel too! Sending big Merry Christmas Wishes too you all. 🤗

[@indigoblue4791]

p.s I think teaching your children these skills and the generosity to give to others they now show, is just fantastic! I help my youngest have a good sort out right before Christmas. He was reluctant at times but when he understood it was to make room for the new things to come in! Hello Solomon, it's was lovely to see your sweet face today. :)

[@melaniecolwell4933]

I laughed when you talked about the toy cupboard, because we have one! We live in a 900sqft bungalow and all my kids did was dump toys!! it was sooo frusterating i felt like i did 100 piece pick up all day long! i began to feel so discontent with my house and aggravated with my kids. I kept telling my husdand that we needed more space! one day it dawned on me and I cleaned out all the shelves in my sons closet donated a ton of toys and now only keep what they play with! if they haven't asked for it out of the closet after several months its gone! and it is the most freeing thing!!

[@Kocorochan]

One thing you're missing is: when you give a toy to a child, *who does that toy belong to?* Does it belong to you or does it belong to the child? If it belongs to the child, do you have the right to just get rid of it? There's no sense of ownership there for the children, which can be one of the reasons they dump them and learn not to form attachments, as they know there's a chance it'll just disappear while they're away. Just because they haven't played with something for a couple of months doesn't mean they're not going to play with it again. Toys, even when it's not obvious, can be seasonal. My mum still has some hoarding problems and really, really resents her mother for doing this, 50 years on. Discuss it with them, don't just throw things out because *you* think it's clutter.

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I feel your pain, Melanie! It's a group effort to keep our home in a livable condition and none of us have the right to make the house miserable for everyone else. I think it's perfectly legitimate to weed out the "no-longer-loved" items from time to time, especially for the little ones. I always tell my kids we have room for people or things, but not a lot of both. When you develop the habit of appreciating each other and appreciating what you have it's far easier to let go of extras and part of loving each other is being considerate with your possessions and shared spaces!

[@InHimAlone]

I like that idea for the sleds! Do any of your lego builders have the personality of wanting to keep their creations on display - either their own work or a set they put together? How do you handle that?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

They usually put them on their windowsill which is about 8 inches wide or somewhere in the living room if they want everyone to see them. If they want to keep them for more than a few days, they put them on their shelves in their beds.

[@drummerlovesbookworm9738]

What good ideas! We bought IKEA Billy shelves for each of the three kids and that is where they keep their own 'stuff' - sentimental things, photos, etc. The requirement is that the shelves look attractive to others and they are pretty cute arranging their things on them. I see a lot of rotation happening which means they are getting rid of just such stuff as Happy Meal toys and replacing it with something newer. I also noticed a seasonal aspect to their arrangements....dried leaves in the fall and pine cones right now...a bird nest found last Spring. Our 13-year-old now has perfume and nail polish arranged on construction paper doilies she made!!! Love that! xoj

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

We got your package this afternoon; I opened it thinking it was something I'd ordered, but I quickly realized it wasn't. Then I saw the note that said it was from you. You are so thoughtful! We put it together, lit the candle and enjoyed watching it spin. So fun! Thank you!

[@cheyennesida618]

You are so creative when it comes to organization. I will probably be stealing lots of your ideas once I have my own family. So inspired

[@babyaubs890]

My sister got my daughter a 5ft long barbie doll house, not tall and against the wall, long and takes up a lot of floor space. My daughter loves it so I wouldn't dare take it from her but it's so huge! With Christmas coming and her birthday in January and a new baby coming in February, I'm definitely having her go through her room this weekend with what toys she wants to keep and I'm sure we'll keep some things for the baby when she gets older but they need to be stored some where else until then.

[@alyxthespideykid]

You should write a book, about all your organizing. I would read it

[@jeannieleasa1579]

Spidey Alyx You are exactly right. Andrea, you could have several sections with several chapters for each section. Your videos would be a starting point for each chapter. Your explanations and reasoning is very clear and logical. Do it!!! I know it would sell. I would buy.

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

If I can figure out how to make time for writing it's something I'd love to do; I've been considering it for quite awhile. There are actually several topics I'd like to write on.

[@amandathane8761]

The toy motel is genius. ☺️👌

[@sharonsmith7749]

I would just like to say that, although I do not have any children at home now, I love your videos. You really are an awesome family , so kind and loving. Andrea, your organisational skills are amazing! You have a new sub now. xx

[@ossifkiki7574]

Literally been trying to figure out how to really down size the toys in our house and get a good organization system. Thanks ☺️

[@123mintjelly]

I can't believe they didn't keep the train set. I would have kept it first ! But that's just me - Hee Hee. You have come up with a really neat solution to keep the toys under control. In fact all of your organization ideas are good.

[@brookd007]

Love, love, love this! Love the idea of the toy hotel! I'm down to the two youngest, so the toy "library" sounds perfect. My six year old boy is absolutely great about acknowledging what he no longer plays with. The eleven year old girl, not so much!

[@dy9605]

I wish I'd found your channel while you were still on earth to share your wisdom. But I feel empowered to tackle my children's toy room tomorrow so thank you for this.

[@hannaha760]

I love this!!! I really need to go through, and sort all the toys... we have to many! I'm going to try and do this tomorrow! :)

[@alyshabrown1860]

Thanks, I would love to see how you storage them.

[@erincooper2553]

Sometime can you talk about your boy's tablets? Like what kind they are, how much they cost, how they got motivated and made/saved the money, how long it took, etc.

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I'll have to have Tom help me with a video on that topic sometime. It's not my area of expertise! I'll add it to my list.

[@sheilas1283]

Another really interesting video, Andrea. I had to laugh when Solomon appeared. I guessed it was him when I heard that little voice off-screen! We're just starting with grandchildren so our toy storage problem starts all over again!

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

My mom had so many toys for the grandkids, too. She'd want to get rid of something but then one of them would play with it and she'd have a change of heart. I'd tell her, "Mom, they'll play with _anything_. Just keep what you want to keep and they'll be happy with it!"

[@courtascot]

I love solomon

[@MrsH091011]

I always go crazy on Christmas and buy my daughters so many toys. Most of which they didn't even ask for. This year I'm doing things differently. They are only getting one doll each and one shared toy plus little treats in their stocking. They will be getting presents from family so there's no point in me giving them so much. I think they will appreciate and enjoy their present more than if they got 10 or more presents.

[@franciscaoliveiradias3413]

What about board games? Unless I missed it when you mentioned those

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I should've remembered to mention that! Here's my video on how we organize those: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipOwi3iXi76fsLM

[@franciscaoliveiradias3413]

Andrea Mills ok thanks😊😊

[@S.Patierno]

Have you ever struggled with the kids being possessive ...? And how have you dealt with it? Especially with toys from birthday that are given to a specific child?

[@raisingforhim3186]

what a cool idea. we limit toys for our son. but it's easier since we only have one right now! he has too many even with us limiting him haha.

[@ashleymckee9566]

For the sleads you can make the rack thing out of some pvc pipes :)

[@mollybreckman6094]

I haven't even watched it yet. Great Video!

[@RachelM7]

If family ask for ideas for gifts for my children I always tell them an experience. Whether it be movie theatre gift certificates or a sleepover or a date with the family member, they'll have the memory much longer than any gift. My brother always get my children gift certificates for the movie theatre and they look forward to that so much because we very rarely take everyone to see a movie.

[@peachy4173]

Thanks for sharing!! Love all your videos.

[@mamacyndiferstoyunboxing2215]

Helpful as always! Looks like I have some organizing to do

[@laurav484]

I've started implementing things like this. We have 3 kids under 2 and our house is already overrun with toys!

[@asprinkleoffieryunicorns8302]

You have so much less than my family! it's just me and my sister although we have huge boxes of barbies, legos, build - a - bears, bath toys, dress up clothes everything, we have loads it's completely different. We did use everything when we where little though, we would take up three rooms with our barbies, whole rooms with our legos and pretty much the whole house with our American Girl style dolls. Your house seems so much more organised and tidy than ours :) Would you ever buy your girls American Girl dolls?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

The girls had a couple of American Girl-type dolls. (One of them is what Eden wanted to donate the day I shot this video.) We've had fun making things for the dolls based on things we see in the American Girls catalog. We love the My Froggy Stuff channel for ideas on how to make things. Those dolls (and the Build-a-Bear things a friend gave Eden) are in a pink basket on top of the girls' closet.

[@yvonnejohnson2109]

Hi! I am new to your channel. Just Sew Trish said about you so I thought I would check out your channel. I like your ideas for toys organization. Thank you for sharing

[@halalyumboxlunch3482]

hahaha i love the toy motel i am gonna implement it

[@stormwinters6634]

great way of thinking an helpful thanks Andrea

[@tammylangdon6627]

The big stuff!! it's currently a problem that is running me crazy!! I am a mom of 5 and a grandma of 6. my 18 month old granddaughter lives with us and everyone seems to want to get her ride on toys, rocking toys HELP!!! My house is not very big and I have currently given up my dining room for her stuff!! But it's the first thing u see when u walk in the door.Christmas is coming and I can only imagine!! Her aunts and uncle's like to do for her because she is the only biological granddaughter and the youngest.I do not have a clue as to storage ideas for her but now that she's toddling I know I got to get this stuff under control.Any suggestions for storage and organizing for a little one??

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

Big riding toys can be awful! We keep ours outside by the sidewalk. We park them (or try to) nicely so they don't look too bad. If they get weather damage, well... all the easier to part with them! If you have to keep them inside, I'd choose the one or two that are the best and donate the rest. Another idea is to be direct with your family and tell them you don't have much room for big things but you know how much she enjoys them. Suggest that a month or so after Christmas you'll return the big items to them to keep at their houses for her to use when she comes to visit or, if they don't want them, that you can donate them. I had a sister that loved to get giant play-doh sets for my kids, but we had no place to put them. I told her one day that I didn't have room for all of them so I was going to donate them, but that before I did that I wanted to offer to give them back to her for the kids to use at her house (she doesn't have any kids yet.) She opted to keep them herself and now the kids still enjoy them from time to time without me having to store them. It was a win-win!

[@prcheung4325]

how do you spend quality time with each child?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that I'm always here with them when they need me. We don't have to _try_ to spend quality time together; it's just a natural part of life. It's so nice to suddenly find myself in the middle of a deep, meaningful conversation with one of my children that just happened because they were hanging out with me while I folded laundry or whatever. Of course, if they have a problem, I'm always right here. Yesterday Judah needed to talk to me about something private so we scooted the other kids along and had our talk.

[@meg1622]

Hi Andrea! Have you ever experienced having a child not wanting to give away his or her toys? I have quite a problem with my godson. He has a house full of toys, I'm not even exaggerating. We've tried going the donation route, telling him that his old toys could go to kids who don't have any but he doesn't care. He throws tantrums every time we try to give his toys away. So his toys just accumulate, until now, at 5 years old, there's barely any floor to walk on in their house 'cause there are toys everywhere! He doesn't even play with 75% of them. Plus he wants new toys every week or so. How would you recommend we handle the situation? It's getting out of hand :(

[@meg1622]

Also, hi Solomon! It was a nice surprise seeing you sneak into the video :)

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

Being generous is not always natural, but it can be cultivated. I'd start by talking with him about problems he's having (like not being able to find what he wants to play with, having to spend lots of time picking up messes - or always having to live in a mess with no room to play, etc.) and then say, "Let's arrange everything so that all of your favorite things are really easy to find and it's really easy to clean up." Go slow and gentle and talk ahead of time about what his favorites are. Reassure him that nothing is going away, but that you're going to move it out of the way for awhile. Then go through the process of arranging all of his favorite toys in his room and box or bag up his "not favorites." If he says they're all favorites, say, "Let's start with your absolutely most favorite of all your favorites to put on the shelf first." Once the shelves or bins are reasonably full, carry on with boxing up the rest. Put them away for awhile somewhere else like another room, the garage or attic. After he's had a few months without them, bring it up one day and ask if there's anything he'd like to get out of the boxes, but don't let him look in them. If he wants something, get it out. Then tell him that in a few months you're going to donate the toys to children who don't have any, but tell him you want him to think hard and remember if there's anything he wants back before then. Every few weeks, mention how much longer until donation day and ask again if he thought of anything. Once the day comes, donate them. It will give him plenty of time to emotionally separate himself from his toys, it'll help him get accustomed to living with fewer toys and it'll give him reassurance that he has plenty of time to make decisions about what he wants to keep. After that, I'd do this in a mini way more regularly. Like every six months or so, help him arrange everything, box up the extras, set a donation day and let him get things back out if he wants them (but always without looking in the boxes! If he sees the stuff, he'll want it all back.) Eventually it should become natural for him.

[@meg1622]

Andrea Mills oh my, we've never tried it that way! You're a genius, Andrea! Will try this method and update you if it works. Thanks so much for taking time to respond! :)

[@cnwgirl5420]

WhAt are those rainbow tissue paper jars for

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I think you're referring to the jars on the little black shelf behind me... Those are ribbons and trims I have for sewing projects that I sorted by color. (I shoot these videos sitting at my sewing table.) If you meant something else, let me know so I can answer again!

[@deedee200]

Xoxo DeeDee

[@prcheung4325]

how do you get your kids to share? how do you handle fights?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

Sharing is such a natural part of life, I generally don't need to teach it. The little ones mainly learn by the example of the older ones. They feel really proud to buy a treat and share it with everyone. Sometimes there are squabbles over a toy or something, but if we can't settle it we put the toy up for awhile. The kids rarely ever have any physical fights, so I don't really have thoughts on that. As for verbal fighting/bickering, I intervene if it gets out of hand and they usually get a demerit (a mark on our privilege system.) If they continue we may send them to separate places to calm down. I try to spend time when everyone is calm talking about the heart issues that were contributing to the fight. (One of the big ones is realizing that's it's not possible to force someone to think or act a certain way and when you try, it just makes you angry!) There are certain pairs of kids that fight more than others and I try to be tolerant of a certain level of it because we all have natural inclinations to get along with or not get along with certain people. As long is they aren't making each other miserable or the rest of us miserable, I'm not going to intervene. We do sometimes try to match up less friendly pairings for fun things to foster better relationships.