Over the years, we have accumulated several outside play toys from kids’ birthday gifts and Grammie’s great finds at yard sales and on Craigslist. I love our fenced in back yard. I love keeping the back door open and watching them play. I love my kids’ friendships with our neighbors and having lots of kids in the backyard.
But I don’t love how messy our yard can get. The toys get strewn all over the yard and I haven’t done a great job having the kids clean up before they come inside. And with our patchy grass, it gets quite muddy out there. The toys and slides get muddy and filled with rain water and it invites lots of creepy crawly friends (which if you know me, you know I have a big issue with bugs).
So, my dad gave me a big tarp he wasn’t using anymore and I got the idea to use it under a lot of the toys. I love how it turned out. We’ve had a good bit of rain this week and it has really helped with the mud. And the tarp, in general, gives a boundary to that play area. Karis calls it a “village” and the playhouse is now a restaurant. I love it! We’ll see how it holds up through the season.
Karis was excited to pose in the pictures. :)
What do you do to manage outside toys?
