MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

Yes! It is that time of week again. And, being Labor Day, it means we must labor. Right?

Actually, this bit if labor was done a few days ago. I just decided to put it up.

Making a Happy Home Monday is a small blog carnival that I created. It is hopes of inspiring and encouraging others to find one area in their homes to improve upon. Make it pretty. Make it more functional. Make it clean. Whatever you do, make it happy.

I would love for you to join in. If you do, just link up down below (on Mr Linky) and show/tell us what you are doing!

Over the past month, my hubby and I have really done a lot with the boys' rooms. My oldest switched with my 2 youngest (who share a room.) They are now in the bigger room with their bunk beds. My oldest and 2nd now have "big boy" rooms....meaning it is set up to facilitate homework a bit better.

Well, in my mind, it was just a matter of moving a few key pieces of furniture. Hmmmm....it took us over a week. We had to switch beds, move dressers, clean, rearrange, switch closets....this even included my 2nd son, who had some furniture in his room that belonged to my youngest.

So, we FINALLY got that mostly settled. (I'm still working on detail stuff, but for the most part, we are done.) The thing that was just overwhelming had to do with the toys. TOYS! TOYS! TOYS! There is no way that 4 kids need that many toys! Actually, I'm referring to the 2 youngest, mostly. My oldest, who would rather be on the computer, watching TV, playing DS or reading, has a small selection of toys.....mostly transformers and a few games. My 2nd is in the transition of not really playing so much with toys. Though, he does enjoy lego's, k'nex and more "sophisticated" forms of play. He has a small tub full of his stuff.

Nope, the area is in my youngest boys' new room.....they had 3 of the GIANT tubs, 1 large tub and 3 baskets full of so much. It was sad. Now don't get me wrong. I'm glad that we have been blessed with gifts from friends and the ability to get so much of what our boys want. But, they don't play with them all. Some are outgrown. A few were broken. Some are just not liked by the kids.

SO....the other day, I decided to dedicate a bit of time. Little did I know that it would take me about 5 hours. I went TOY BY TOY! I kept the ones I knew for sure they would like. I sorted out the ones I knew they didn't like. THEN, the ones that were on the fence, I put in the floor to see if they were picked up. If not....they went into the discard bin.

By discard, I mean donation. We have a lovely charity place down the road. They run a thrift store. The merchandise is all donated. I would rather donate than go through the "fun" (note the sarcasm) of a garage sale. (For the record, there was only 1 kitchen-sized trash bag full of trash and/or broken toys.)

Here is a picture of what I'm donating.

The large tub? We still have 2 of those full of toys to be loved by my children. The basket? Just overflow. The bags? Kids' clothes. I recently went through the dresser of my youngest 2 and pulled out grown clothes.

What do you think?