Every Christmas leaves us with more toys and less room in the house. Don't get me wrong, we love excessive amounts of toys. My husband and I are just a couple of big kids. The more the merrier, we say. Still, I need to be able to walk from the kitchen to the living room without impaling myself on a plastic stegosaurus.

This year, I decided to put my obsessive-compulsive nature to good use and organize the children's toys. These are the steps I followed:

1. Make a Donation Pile

When was the last time you thoroughly went through that toy box? Your eight-year-old outgrew his Tickle Me Elmo long ago, trust me. It's time to sit down, weed out the unused toys and donate them to charity.

My husband likes to take our old clothes/toys to the local women's shelter, despite the fact that he feels there should be shelters for battered men, too. (Don't ask - I guess he saw a Lifetime Movie about it once.)

2. Invest in Some Clear Containers

Clear is the operative word here, as it will reduce your chances of misplacing toys or finding a fermented sippy cup of milk under a pile of blocks. Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Every parent plays "name that smell" a few times too many.

Though buying a lot of containers isn't a frugal way to organize your house, it will greatly improve your quality of life once everything has its own place. Directly following Christmas, Target usually sells plastic totes at a reduced rate. Toys that they overstocked for Christmas will probably be on sale, too. It's an endless cycle for us when we go to buy toy containers and end up with a cart full of more toys. Sigh.

3. Quarantine Those Piddly Toys!

The "piddly" toys are the ones that you always step on, that the dog chews on and that generally muck up your organizational system. You know, like the 5 million Little People who never seem to find their way back to their respective playsets. Yes, the bigger toys can be place in a large toy box, but you need a system for the little ones.

Why not buy a box specifically for those Little People, Mr. Potato Head parts, Mega Bloks, etc.? Then, you can easily stack these boxes in your child's closet or playroom. Neurotic parenting tip: If any of your totes are large enough for your child to hide in, please drill some holes in the top.

4. Label Everything

This is the last and most vital step in organizing the mess that Santa left behind. You need to label your new toy containers, but don't stop there. Parents of preschoolers should make it a habit to label all the major things in the house. This will greatly promote your child's reading skills. From the refrigerator to the front door, make labels with clear and bold letters that identify each object.

Want to know where to find said labels? You will make them yourself!

I heartily recommend WorldLabel.Com. There, you can order blank laser and inkjet labels for just about any project. From shipping and address labels to media labels, you will find affordable and professional solutions on this site. Simply download the corresponding, free template for the label you order, then print off your creation at home when the labels arrive.

Here are a few examples of the toy labels I made, using blank multipurpose labels from WorldLabel.Com:



While we're on the subject, here's a recent CD label I whipped up. If you're in a bind and need a quick gift for Grandma, burn some pics onto a disc and stick a cute, personalized label on it!



These weren't hard to make at all. I just grabbed a free template from the site, then cut and paste some images with Photoshop. If you don't have Photoshop, download GIMP (a free alternative). Or, you can simply type onto these labels in Microsoft Word. No need to be all fancy like this geek (though it is fun).

There you have it, my four-step solution that drastically improved our messy house. If you have any other tips for all the messy geek parents out there, let me know in the comments section. Trust me, I need more organization in my life!