Books, Books, More Books -- and Legos

The room shifting project continues. This week, we've been working on sorting and organizing the toys in Tim's (my youngest) old bedroom, moving only the ones he still wants into his new room. Being the youngest of four kids is a mixed blessing -- for me, if not for him. For this child, there has never been a shortage of toys. In fact, almost every toy and book that ever belonged to the three older kids has eventually come to rest in his bedroom. Obviously, there's no one else around to take on the overflow, so it's time to do some decluttering!

We decided first to tackle the hundreds of children's books (this picture shows just a small portion of the whole collection):


Of all those books, these are the only ones he really wanted in his room:


There was a much larger portion that I couldn't part with, so they went on a shelf in the basement. Some have special meaning, others will be good research material for my own children's writing. Notice, there's still room for more (which will likely turn up later, from yet unexplored corners of the house!):


Even so, there were lots of books we were able to let go of -- four bags full -- which are now sitting by the door, ready to be given away to a worthy cause:


The one item Tim has really missed playing with is his Lego collection (again, the combined collections from four kids!) This was a quicker job than sorting the books, as the Legos were already sorted by color into separate bins. To save on space, I decided to splurge on this seven-drawer cart to hold the majority, with the excess still in bins, on the newly painted toy shelf. Now we have a bunch of empty bins to use for other toys. Ta-daa!


So, that's our progress so far. It seems like we've hardly made a dent in the pile up there, but I know better. Hopefully it gets easier from here, now that our favorite toys -- the books and Legos -- are safe and sound.