Fairy Wands and Pom Poms

After the Thanksgiving dishes were washed and put away, the table cloth was washed and rolled, it was time for our next big chore of the holiday season: Clean Out Your Closets!

We started in my five-year-old's room.  He's in kindergarten now, so "baby" toys are apparently not allowed.  (Last May when we did this, he informed me he was too old for (most of his) Fisher Price Little People, and it nearly broke my heart.)

It's an easy process - maybe 10 minutes from start to finish with Peyton there, and we're done.

Peyton's closet is (obviously) already organized.  All I do is pull out certain things and show them to him.  He's good about "yes" he likes it and he still plays with it or "no" he's done with it.  I, of course, get veto power - but only when he says "No".  If I have seen him play with it (and enjoy it recently), I'll ask him to give it one more chance.  (This is why when Peyton told me he was done with his Little People, they stayed in there another 6 months until Mommy accepted it.)  If he says, "yes" he wants to keep it, I'm not going to veto it.  (BUT... I may stick a post it note on it.  If Peyton plays with it, he removes the post-it, but if he doesn't by the time the 6 months is over, it's gone!)

This is the perfect time to do this project.  The kids know that Santa is coming, and he usually brings some cool new things.  Plus, the kids are full, and happy - they have been off school for a week, so they are quite cooperative by now, and they are generally more happy when their closets are clean, organized, and things are easy to find!

 I also do this process with my three-year-old, Kallee.  She's a messier child, but she's also only three.  She can't read the labels we put on her bins, although we recently changed hers from pictures on her bins to words.  (That's the teacher in me!)

On our adventure in cleaning out the closet, we discovered FOUR fairy wands.  Now, even if she fairy wanded with both hands and both feet, there's no way she would be able to say that many hocus pocuses to make them all work.  Kallee decided pretty quickly which two she would like the most.  (Saying things like, "Wouldn't it be nice to let another little girl play with a couple of these?  Do you need all four?  How many can we give away?" helps the weary.)

Kallee was particularly fun to do this with, because she was so excited every time she "found" a "new" toy.

She takes a bit longer (as a baby does opening Christmas presents Christmas morning) because she likes to discover each new toy.

In the end, I asked he how she felt about her closet, and she gave me a big "thumbs up"!  (Which made me give a big thumbs up, too!)

 *We do this twice a year - once right before Christmas and once right before their birthdays (which both happen to be in May - a good 6 months apart, convienent for me!)