A Togetherness Trick that Works Every Single Time

It works every single time in my house.

Too many busy weeks in a row? Too much overstimulation? Bored tween/teen? Mama's overwhelmed? Daddy's working too much? Can't get away from the mundane?

No matter what's going on in our house at any given moment, I keep a little secret in my back pocket for those moments when nothing else is bringing us together. I forget about it far too often, but when I remember and pull it out, it works.

That secret is cleaning out the toy box together.

Not the chore kind of cleaning out- the adventure kind.

This week my oldest has been at day camp every day, so I've had some one-on-one time with my youngest, and we've been cleaning out the toy box. He's going through the early tween phase where he's often searching for something he really loves to do, and we're getting ready for a big change this winter that will require us to clean and purge everything in our tiny Airstream home, so this felt like the perfect way to get a head start on the cleaning and reconnect at the same time.

Every morning I simply got out a few of our Lego boxes and worked with him to find a flow for sorting, and then he was busy for the rest of the day with the fun things we found.

We found Lego minifigs we haven't seen in months, trinkets from when he was tiny, and some of our old favorites that have been hiding in dark corners. We even found some cool things to show his brother when he got home from camp every day.

We talked about our favorite memories with those old toys, told stories, and revived some old toy flames.

It was magic - definitely something I don't want to forget again.

Why is it that we forget things like this? Maybe it would lose its magic if we did it all the time, but just in case you haven't cleaned out a toy box with your kiddo lately, I thought I'd send this as a little reminder about the connection it can bring - even for kids who are older. There's just something about the threat of losing a toy to the donate pile that makes it become suddenly fascinating, right? 

An added benefit for us was that this little activity of connection and cleaning sparked an organization overhaul throughout our entire tiny home. My little guy got motivated to do some big cleaning chores to earn a new toy he's been wanting, and I got motivated to organize other out-of-control areas too. We cleaned out the pantry and spice rack, added organizers to the charger cord drawer (always a problem here), reorganized the school closet and even cleaned out our messy truck - a chore we've been avoiding since our around-the-US-perimeter trip this past winter.

I forgot how good it feels to have everything clean and organized - it feels really, really good.

In fact, it has changed my perspective in unexpected ways.

Things just don't seem quite as overwhelming when I have an organized home. Does anyone else feel that way?

I even found a few podcast episodes from a homeschool mom I love about organizing my home, and it totally fed the flame. (Here's a link to her website and here's a link to the cleaning episode I loved this week - she's amazing.) Now I feel like I can tackle anything, and I have two kiddos with a whole pile of toys, games, and art supplies they want to try again.

I'd say that's a family togetherness win for sure.

What kind of family memories and togetherness wins pop out when you clean out your storage bins?

Hop into the email group and chat - I'd love to hear about it.