I kept most of the toys that encourage creative play and imaginative thinking.įIND OUT MORE How my kids reacted to toy decluttering He’s not out for Halloween, he’s a member of the family! Little Brother carries him around and sleeps with him…he goes by the name Yorick. Likewise, I knew that my son might spontaneously combust if I got rid of a single Thomas the Train engine…but the unloved Chuggington train set is going to get sold. □īelow are all the toys we decided to keep.Īs you can see, we kept a lot of building toys, such as LEGOs, sweet vintage Little Tykes waffle blocks set I found on eBay that was a total steal and our beloved giant bugs. I’m glad to be rid of it, as I don’t have to listen to my husband’s smug assertions that I shouldn’t have bought it in the first place. Neither was Little Brother when he got old enough to try. I purchased it for my oldest when he was 2.5 years old he LOVED the play kitchens in other people’s houses - I quickly found out, he wasn’t so interested in playing with them in his home. That giant play kitchen especially had been a thorn in my side for a long time. I have to say, it felt REALLY good to get rid of these toys. Place each item in the appropriate box to keep or discard.Hold each toy in your hand and ask “Does this spark joy?” (I did this on my children’s behalf). Here are all the steps I followed to declutter toys using the KonMari method. Psst! Sign up to get your FREE copy of the most comprehensive KonMari checklist ever so you don’t miss decluttering a single item! I do have friends with children who participate in the decluttering process - a lot will depend upon the individual child’s personality and familiarity with the concept of tidying. If your kids are more autonomous than mine and can chip in, feel free to get them involved! Therefore, I decided that I was going to do this on my own I see what they play with and I know what they truly like and what they don’t. However, if I went by what MY children said brings them joy, I would be surrounded by piles of torn papers, broken cars, and scattered plastic bits and bobbles, probably gibbering like a loon. In her book, Marie Kondo says that children as young as three have the ability to decide what brings them joy and what doesn’t. Have boxes ready labeled “donate, sell, trash, keep”.Search everywhere around the house and gather toys all in one place.Focus on keeping multi-use toys that inspire creative play.Broken toys should be automatically discarded unless they are truly loved.You can read more about how we extreme decluttered our entire home down to eight suitcases in this blog post.įIND OUT MORE Important tips for decluttering kids toys It’s called Life-Changing for a reason it has literally changed my life and helped me move on after decades of grief. If you are new to the KonMari method of decluttering I highly recommend you check out Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Here’s the deal, chances are that if you declutter toys, not only will your children be happier, have better attention spans, and become more creative - you will also be less stressed out from having to constantly pick up after your kids. I’m not going to climb up on my high horse because I got rid of that when I was decluttering. Because there were less toys to choose from, the children used their creative instincts and explored different ways to use the same toy, further developing their cognitive skills.” Researchers found that when the toddlers were in the room with fewer toys, they were actively engaged for a longer period of time. Interestingly, a recent studyhas shown that children who have fewer toys are happier and engage in more creative playtime.ĭuring this study, researchers viewed 36 toddlers (ages 18-30 months) for two 30 minutes periods one in a room with four toys, and one in a room with 16 toys. □ )īut in all seriousness, did you know that children in the USA only make up 3.7% of the global world’s population of children - and yet they account for 47% of all the children’s books and toys ON THE PLANET? Scary things, like mummified grapes and toys you have no recollection of buying (I find that the long end of a Swiffer mop works well for this. We will be reaching deep, deep, under the depths of your couch and finding things that haven’t seen the light of day in eons. It’s time to do some soul searching…and by that, I mean COUCH searching.
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