Wait. You saw that picture and clicked over because you thought it was a before pic?
Oh.
Well, this is uncomfortable.
That’s not a before picture. It’s actually a celebration picture. Here it is without all the extra bloggy stuff:
It’s a success picture because it’s an “organizing solution” that works for us. And it has been working for two and a half years!!
I wrote a post back in August of ’12 sharing that we’d tried a new method for containing my daughter’s stuffed animals. Before this idea, they were forever strewn across the floor, the bed, and any other available horizontal surface.
Even though I know it’s not scientifically possible, I truly believed they were multiplying.
IfyaknowwhatImean . . .
It was three years into this deslobification process, and the Container Concept was taking hold in my Slob Brain. I was starting to get it.
We placed her beloved (but rarely-truly-played-with) stuffed animals on the shelves of the rustic china cabinet-ey thingy we’d moved into her room a year and a half before that. Over the year-and-a-half, we’d learned that these not-so-accessible shelves weren’t good for toys she wanted to play with regularly. Getting down was a hassle and putting back was a longshot.
But using it for displaying furry friends works. And with each clutter shakedown in her room, the Container Concept continues working.
That cabinet is a container. It’s a limit. It contains/limits the stuffed animals we can keep.
If a new stuffed animal enters our world, its worth is easily determined by whether or not it is deemed shelf-worthy. The shelves only hold so many stuffed animals. If we want to keep a new one, an old one must go to make room.
If the new animal doesn’t beat out at least one other animal on the shelf-worthiness scale, we can’t keep it.
The container (not a nagging mama) determines how many stuffed animals we keep.
And the decision is hers. While I have no idea why the pink platypus is so appealing, I don’t care. It fits on the shelf and doesn’t clutter the floor.
It’s CONTAINED.
Yay for a solution that has worked for a long time. Those are like the Golden Ticket around here.
Need more ideas for organizing kids’ rooms? Here’s a big ol’ post with specific ideas and lots of links.
Added affiliate link: In the comments on this post, Cecilia mentioned an amazing idea for CONTAINing stuffed animals that I’d never seen before. 
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--Nony
So how is it that you “know” they’re not multiplying? You’re Newton with an apple waiting to bonk him on the head. That’s the only reasonable explanation, and I’m going with it!
i would totally keep the pink platypus too.
Our stuffed animal storage is the one thing that works in my daughters room. It’s a bean bag and she can only have stuffed animals and dolls that fit in there. We leave it open and she just flips it over and it’s a reading spot. She LOVES it.
I’m planning on making a stuffed animal zoo for my daughter’s room.
http://theownerbuildernetwork.co/easy-diy-projects/diy-projects-for-kids/diy-stuffed-animal-zoo/
I know this is an old post, so I’m sure you’ve addressed this elsewhere and I just haven’t found it yet. How do you get/teach your kids to honor the container? My kids won’t choose stuffed animals that fit in the given space, they will continue to demand additional containers. Or extras end up on their bed again, and we have the same issue as before the container existed.
Yes, I can set the boundary and enforce it, and I do. But any tips on getting them to respect the container so I don’t have to be the mean mom?
Humm, trying to think like Dana would…
Guess I’ll just go with my recent experience with this…
We had bracelets for my tween. She was really struggling with what to give away, I told her we could use another space, but SOMETHING would have to go, that deserved less space.
She did pick a few things to let go of, a d we did put a few bracelets in a different place as well.
Last year with her stuffies & other kids stuffies as well, I went to TJ Maxx and bought a medium sized cloth basket for 2 of the kids beds.
That along with the 2 large stuffy places, 1 in each bedroom, is the limit. I let them manage it for usually a year, then at some point I go in and say, this is too much.
We’ve gone through the stuffy culling a LOT around here.
I feel like being generous with what space is available, making containers work, and giving lots of time in between decluttering each specific area, is helpful.