Sometimes it's the little ideas that help the most

Still loving the locked closet! Toys still trickle down the stairs and into the living room, but at least we can now see the floor, right? I had a thought though the other day about how stressed I get when I'm going to "pick-up" the house. You know how a ton of tiny things just migrate to random spots. I'd go crazy if I was ALWAYS putting stuff away. I mean.. I'd never sit down. On the other hand, doing it once a day or every other day can feel overwhelming. I mean.. just look at my stairs!
(Daunting, no?) Anyway, as I said.. the toys and clutter aren't as bad as it was before I implemented the locked closet, but it still stresses me out at the end of the day because I feel like I don't know where to start.
Today the toys are mainly in sets.. the little cube blocks and little people blocks and things, but there's always those stray things. Like the slippers, or a random toy and craft project laying about.

ENTER-- the basket

I keep this handy little basket for ferrying stray things around the house and especially up the stairs. Generally, I just fill it with everything that needs to go upstairs and while I grab a bunch of stuff to go in the basket I put away the things that stay downstairs.

This is a GREAT way to help Mommy too! Because all that needs to be done is fill the basket! (The Daddy can even do this without knowing where anything goes because I can put everything away later.) It IS pretty important to have a place for everything though and EMPTY the amazing basket so that it can go back downstairs for next time. It's also a lot easier to teach a child to do a specific cleaning task than to just say "clean the room."

Anyway, this is a very small idea, but it's saved me a lot of steps (and my sanity!) Makes picking-up so much faster too!