I love involving my daughter in our donate and recycling efforts. Allow them the experience of recalling how happy they were to make a piece of art, play with a toy, and then allow them the agency to be part of the decision to release it. Explain to them EXACTLY WHY you choose not to keep everything. If you are modelling behaviour that teaches them to tie their happiness to owning things (even if those things are handmade by them), you are teaching them that things make them happy…and we know that is simply not true.Īs you declutter with your kids, bring them into the process at an age appropriate speed. It’s up to you as the parent to teach your kids how to apply their emotions to the world. And when that feeling comes up, I go back to my principles of asking myself ‘what does this family want to carry with it through life?’ And I take action to create a less cluttered home. ^^okay, that was a lot of rhetoric, but too often I’m asked about storage solutions for toys, when all I want to say is ‘it’s a mindset challenge, not a storage problem.’ And no, I’m not perfect, and sometimes our playroom feels like a disaster. Is it because your child hasn’t quite learned that happiness lies beyond the physical? Is it an opportunity to teach them that things come and go and the more in control we are of our decisions of what to keep and what to give, the more space we create for new experiences? But consider why you think your kids will be ‘heartbroken’ if you donate a used toy? Is it because you truly believe they don’t think you love them? My advice for decluttering toys starts in the minds of the parents, manifests as an age appropriate conversation with the kids, and grows into a family wide dedication to having open conversations about what to keep in the home. I wrote a popular post this past Christmas about how to have a non-consumer holiday and I feel like a lot of that philosophy applies here. So while I love to write about the process of actually tidying up, today, I’m suggesting this is a great place to learn about mindset and how our attachment to things trickles down into our children. Most of the time, what I hear parents say is ‘my kids will be heartbroken if I toss xyz out…” or ‘how do I handle getting rid of something my kid made?! It’ll hurt their feelings so much.” Admittedly, I have only one child right now and I know the task of decluttering gets more challenging when there are more kids – but I hold true to my decluttering principles. I am constantly asked about how I keep clutter at bay when kids are part of the equation. Life changes completely when you have kids, right? It’s like overnight, you go from feeling like you have your entire life in order and then BAM – the house feels like it’s been taken over by tiny little humans who need SO MANY THINGS. Inside: How to teach your kids to declutter toys, why fewer toys might be better and tips for organizing and storing toys once you’ve successfully decluttered.
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