I Have Become One With The Chaos

I'm not sure when it happened -- perhaps when Marta began demonstrating that she was in no way like her order-minded older sister and liked to literally drag her arm along shelves to wipe them clear of all toys, books, clothes, whatever -- but something has changed a little in my necessity to have all of the kids' toys stowed with their proper pieces comfortably attached at the end of each day.

Rousing post, right? 

But seriously, I used to be really picky about this. I mean, we bought (or more likely, had been given) these toys and I wanted to take perfect care of them. I wiped them down constantly, washed many in kid-safe cleansers at night, and tucked all the pieces in the right places. In fact, I often didn't have the need to pick up a game piece on one side of the room (or, God forbid, on another floor of the house) and haul it over to the OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM to put it away, because Berit never threw, mingled or messed her toys like that. Not bragging, she just didn't. 

Enter Marta. Last night she was taking any number of dolls from dollhouses, Happy Meals, those random sets of girls' toys with the ice cream trucks and couches and etc. etc.,  and pieces from Candyland, Memory, the doctor's kit and various fairy wands for rides in the dumptruck and dollhouse minivan. You can imagine the horror when I tried to clean it up -- where did it all belong? I was going to have to THINK about it! 

Instead, I just dumped it all into a bucket (with Berit's name, not even Marta's on it) and called it good. 

Is this progress? Is this a garage sale in the making, what with all the missing pieces?