This morning I tackled all the non-toy items. I had a huge mound of stuff on my dining room table including craft items, puzzles, preschool workbooks, coloring books, flash cards, crayons, pencils, board games, etc. I was overwhelmed as to how I was going to re-organize this stuff. I pulled some of it out of their closets and some from other areas. I wanted to centralize the location as well as re-organize.

First step.. the purge:
I thew away all the used coloring books that only had a few pages left.
I made up shopping bags of stuff to donate to either church or goodwill.
I decided anything they don't work with or use for more than 2 minutes had to go.

Second step... the organization:
3 drawer cabinet for doodling & coloring.
Top drawer: Pencils, markers, crayons, stencils, etc.
Middle: Paper
Bottom: Coloring & preschool workbooks
2 small plastic shoe boxes for crafts.
Large sterlite bin for board games.
Large sterlite bin for wooden puzzles.
Small sterlite bin for other puzzles.
All of the storage containers fit into the living room closet!

Last step... my kids found all the stuff they didn't know they had!

Anyway, I wanted to share my organization story for the day!

Please share how you have your non-toy items organized.

One question! What did you do with your children while you were doing this? I have a problem with attempting to get rid of anything when my daughter is around.

I do it while she's at school To organize shoes I use a pocket organizer on the back of her door. To organize hair bows I put a mini 3 drawer thing under sink in bathroom. All Barbies are in a rolling barbie suitcase I picked up at goodwill for 3.50.. will let you know if I think of any other things..

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They were distracted by some other things that I brought out of the closet while I was organizing. I did most of the work during my 2 year old's nap. My oldest is the same way, she tries to hoard things that I'm trying to get rid of. She will hoard them in her room and not really play with them.

I bought most of this stuff from yard sales... way too much stuff! Remember, just because it is only .25 doesn't mean you should take it!!

You're not the only one that sometimes forgets that!

I've gotten most of my kids toys from Garage Sales too! I'm really trying to watch what I buy - but it's hard!

I put our games up in the hall closet. I've paired down QUITE a bit! I got rid of almost all the grown up games since DH will never play with me anyway! I kept a few, but have mostly kids games. Now I'm stuck with the one shelf and am only allowed that many.

Our art supplies are in one of the lower cabinets in the kitchen. I keep them in a 3 drawer tub too, but they're not NEARLY as organized as yours. I purposefully put them in a child proofed cabinet so that I have to get them out for the boys, but they know how to open child proof locks so it doesn't help!

Puzzles are in a puzzle rack in the boys closet. I got the outside box part from a garage sale but put in a wire rack from Toys R Us to hold them. Of course some of the puzzles are too big so they just sit on top!

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Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 5, 3 & 1!

I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

We only have a few games and puzzles which are on a shelf. I have a rubber bin with craft stuff and another one with extra crayons, notebooks, school supplies. The crayons they use every day are in a bucket that is actually supposed to be for pet food I got it at WalMart a long time ago - it has a handle and a flip top lid.

Coloring books and sketch pads are a problem. They must easily have over 100, which WERE stored in a nice picnic basket and blended in with my living room, but now is overflowing. I need to purge some of them, I guess.

Me too