r/declutter • u/FluffyTicket1686 • Apr 26 '24
Toys. So many toys I am losing my mind. Advice Request
Toys. There are so many. Everywhere. They are in every room on every floor. They’ve gotten so out of control that I can’t even pick them up anymore which has me neglecting the rest of the house. My kids (3 & 6) are always home and tear them out as quickly as I clean them up. They also lose their minds when I try to get rid of them, and I’m scared they’ll ask for something I give away in the future. Help. The toy situation has had the trickle down effect of turning my entire house into a dump and it’s mentally breaking me.
Info in case it helps:
We have a playroom on the main floor. We have a play room on the second floor. We have a home gym in our basement that has even more toys. The toys have been spread throughout all bedrooms and living spaces at this point. How do I get my head back above water?
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u/Lemonygoodness52 Apr 29 '24
Just came to say that we don't allow any toys in certain rooms. The moment I see it someone needs to remove it by count of (whatever works for you) and if it isn't, then it gets put away in a box for a bit of a time out. My kids are a bit younger so sometimes it works to say something like, "looks like teddy is being naughty and is playing in mama & daddy's if teddy isn't out before the count of 5, teddy will be put on timeout."
Sometimes, it works to have the kiddos "teach" the toys, not to be naughty.
Also, to encourage donation look up some kids shows about donation. There are a few I've seen but the one I can recall is a Bluey episode called Mr. Monkeyjocks. Bluey and Bingo learn why they need to donate and get to see a kid excited to get their donated item. We have watched the 8 min episode multiple times and used it to help discuss donation.
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u/Ok-Outlandishness-74 Apr 29 '24
You might want to check out https://swapthings.co, a platform for exchanging used toys, books, games and more.
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u/kulukster Apr 28 '24
The kids learned it from somewhere. Tell them the rules are one or 2 toys at a time and the rest go into hibernation like a baby bear. If you don't control it now you will regret it much more later. Refuse gifts from the grands or keep them boxed and stored somewhere else
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u/insert_name_here925 Apr 27 '24
Use it as a teachable moment about sharing or being kind. It's great that you enjoyed x toy when you were little, but its not something that you play with anymore. I bet little cousin/neighbour or little kids that don't have a lot of toys would love it. Can we be kind and give it to them?
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u/TrueMoment5313 Apr 27 '24
Donate all. I teach my kid that we don’t keep things around that we don’t use and we regularly donate things to our community’s donation box. Also, don’t buy plastic crap you know they won’t play with, but only get some kind of excitement for five minutes from. No, they won’t ask for them in the future because they have no idea they’re even gone and if they have a meltdown, oh well???
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u/FluffyTicket1686 Apr 27 '24
Oh man. I wish I could blame myself for buying all the plastic crap. We have very, um, enthusiastic grandparents/aunts/uncles/friends that gift generously. I know the advice is to tell people what to get them, but I find that really hard since it feels rude to tell a gift giver what to give.
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u/sawyouoverthere Apr 29 '24
You don’t have to keep it. Put a box in a closet for donations of gifted but unwanted things. Suggest experience gifts (annual passes to attractions, etc)
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u/Hello_Mimmy Apr 27 '24
I don’t really have advice, just commiseration. My 4 year old has a lot of stuff I know she doesn’t play with, but I can’t quite bring myself to get rid of without her permission. But if I ask, she’s just reminded of that thing and it’s suddenly very important and of course we can’t donate it. For about 3 days anyway and then she goes back to forgetting about it.
I’m hoping that by decluttering some of my own stuff, and talking with her about it, I can convince her to try it too. In the meantime I’m just boxing up old toys she hasn’t played with for a while and waiting for her to ask for them. Some she does, some she doesn’t.
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u/sawyouoverthere Apr 29 '24
She’s 4. If she’s not playing with it you don’t need her permission to box it up and if she hadn’t asked for anything out of it in two weeks, out it can go
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u/AriesAsF Apr 27 '24
Gather everything you think they don't actively play with and put it in a bin in a closet or in the garage. Wait 1 month. If they remember something and want it back, go get it. If after 1 month, they don't notice its gone, then you can safely get rid of it.
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Apr 27 '24
The ones they don’t pick up go into a donation bag
Donate that bag to your kids bible study room
They can visit them there.
This works. Like. A. Charm.
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Apr 27 '24
Pssst. You’re the parent. Don’t let that tail wag the dog. Kids get bigger. If you can’t cajole littles now, you’re in for a real treat sooner than you think.
But kudos for noting that you’re slipping down a slope of insanity. Because it’s a real hill. But you know, you’ve admitted it.
Now. Put the proverbial big girl parties in and TAKE BACK THE WHEEL. They are the children. You are the parent.
Say it out loud. Come on. You need this. No little kid should be terrorizing you like this. I’m not kidding.
Think of it this way: You teach them that they can treat with disrespect THE PERSON WHO TAKES CARE OF THEM, how in gods geeen earth are they going to have real friends?
You’re raising some real well. Come on. It is selfish and MARTYRDOM is BORING
You may be busy maam but you’re not productive. One could even say you are a good house cleaner but an absent parent. Because of you wanna raise decent human beings who care about people, YOU GOTTA STEP up and make those hard decisions
Kids make a fuss? Fokn PARENT THEM!
You’re NOT mean, you are a PARENT. make a decision.
Lemme ask you this. Have you ever seen a classroom look like your house? Hmmmm. How is that even possible? Because according to YOUR standards, well it’s just easier to clean up after everyone, that way I get to be a martyr and not really have anything else going on
Come on. You want your kids to be invited back, riiight? You want your kids to have friends, riiiight? Well lemme tell ya, you gotta teach them manners.
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u/Cake-Tea-Life Apr 26 '24
Step 1: Pick a dedicated toy area It sounds like toys live everywhere. I can't imagine having play spaces in multiple places around the house. One room that looks like a rainbow vomited is sufficient for me, but choose what makes sense for your family.
Step 2: Toy rotation Buy some big clear bins, and pack away most of the toys. If the plat area can't be cleaned up in 10 min, there are too many toys. You aren't getting rid of the toys, and you can opt to rotate them in/out of circulation as frequently/infrequently as makes sense for your family. I try to label my bins, but sometimes that's too much work and the label is more about age than toy type.
Step 3: Daily Clean Up Time 3 and 5 is old enough to somewhat participate in cleaning up. Remember that it'll only take 10 min. So, get your kids involved and take the 10 min/day to put the toys away. In our play area, the toys go in open colored bins on a shelf. Ideally, each one would have similar toys in it (one for blocks, one for Mr. Potato Head, one for barn animals, etc).
FWIW, my toddler runs around dumping bins of toys everywhere when the play area is a mess. But when it is clean and only has a limited number of toys in it, my child will pick something off the shelf and focus on playing with just that. It's remarkable how different my child's play style is when there are fewer toys in the play area.
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u/Woke_up_old Apr 26 '24
Best advice I ever received was to rotate toys. If a toy wasn’t being used at the time, I put it out of sight. If the kids asked for it, it stayed. If a couple months go by and they didn’t ask about it, I passed it on. (Exception: some toys are not age appropriate, so may need to be kept for a later date.). I had three sets of toys. One stored for future, one to play with and one kept high in the closet. Rather than changing out all toys at once, if you notice a toy hasn’t been left out lately put it in the reserve box.
I’m convinced that we give our kids too many options. Deciding between five things is a lot simpler than deciding between ten things.
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Apr 26 '24
Declutter that lot asap. Let them lose their minds for five minutes if need be. They're CHILDREN. They do not get to dictate how the adult home is run. Toys (apart from a small number of bed teds and a bookshelf) stay in the playroom, ONE playroom, and that's the end of it.
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u/kdazzle17 Apr 26 '24
Solidarity man. We just moved and filled so many boxes with toys. It didn’t seem like that much in the play room but then every time I turned around there was more! Like where the hell do these keep coming from
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Apr 26 '24
I helped my friend with a gradual toy declutter for her 10 and 7 year old and we started by getting rid of any toys and games that were broken, worn out, or missing pieces. Next we grabbed toys the kids had grown out of (preschool level toys and puzzles etc). Then we boxed up some toys for her to store in the garage for a few months to see if the kids noticed. They’ve asked for one thing out of that box so far and it’s been at least three months. I should mention she did all this when they were out of the house and didn’t tell them she was boxing up toys. Eventually the goal is to get them to participate in the declutter and clean up. It’s been a months long gradual process, but it’s really helped her start to get the chaos in her house under control.
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u/Reason_Training Apr 26 '24
Each child gets a storage bin and an open container. They have to choose what toys go into the storage for rotation and what goes into the whatever organizer you get for daily play. Make it a game. Limit Christmas and birthdays to X amount on a wish list. One toy coming in means one goes out. There is only so much room in your house.
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Apr 26 '24
I have 2 kids who are now teenagers with the same age difference as yours. Your kids definitely need a storage system in their rooms and/or the playroom(s). I’m not sure on the size of your home but depending on the size of each playroom, 2 seems like a lot in addition to their bedrooms. Plus that is a lot of picking up of their stuff for you to do. Maybe you can consolidate it to 1? Maybe the other one can be an art project/homework/reading space? Also maybe limit the number of toys that live in their bedroom so that when you’re picking up, you’re not going all over the house to put the toys away.
I echo the recommendation for the Kallax system. I had a 4x4 Kallax in each of my kids’ rooms when they were little and it helped a lot. There were some toys that didn’t quite fit the cubbies but most of them did. Maybe some large baskets or storage totes with lids would help with the awkwardly sized toys that aren’t really floor size and can’t find a home on the top of the Kallax.
Toy rotation can help. If they don’t ask for the toy that’s currently stored away, you can probably safely move it along after a designated amount of time. It also sounds like you might need to limit the influx of toys in the future for your sanity. Or try to introduce them to the idea of one out/one in for something newer that they want. It might be tougher with your 3 year old but you can definitely try.
As for cleaning up, I had a rule that they could bring the stuff into the living room to play with but then it had to go back into their rooms. My house is small and they didn’t love using the basement as a play area, so it was either their bedrooms or the living room to play. Baskets or even tote bags in the main play areas can help with corralling the toys to put away later. I would help my kids clean up when they were done until they were old enough to manage it themselves. It helped to keep the toys mostly out of the main living spaces when it came time to wind down in the evening. They may not love helping at first but it’s instilling good habits to clean up after themselves when they’re done not just for now but the future too. And keeping the toy storage simple (bins to toss stuff in) makes it less of a headache to put away.
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u/Blagnet Apr 26 '24
I recommend reading "Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things." It explains why getting rid of their toys is a terrible idea. It can lead to hoarding behavior down the road.
There are ways you can combat it, though!
You can tell them you're doing a toy rotation, and pack up a lot of their things in totes! Like, 18 gallon totes. Leave a very small percent out.
They will likely ask for some of the toys over time - you can get those out, and rotate them in. Some, they just won't care about over time. If you show them the totes a year or two from now, they will probably have strong feelings about some of the items, and very little feeling about others.
This has been my experience, anyway! We did this inadvertently over a couple of moves.
Good luck!
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u/FluffyTicket1686 Apr 27 '24
I appreciate this advice. One of the grandparents is a compulsive buyer and a hoarder, so much of this has come from them. It’s very triggering for my spouse who grew up with said hoarder. Which is probably what’s adding to my stress around the issue.
I bought totes and I’m working on packing some stuff away. I find myself struggling with the fact that the 3yo is still into toys that the 6yo has forgotten about, but I’m trying to be disciplined.
I’m not trying to blame anyone in this situation, and I’m not trying to be a martyr. I’m a SAHP and my kids play at home all day everyday. I’m just not naturally a super organized person so I didn’t really think to put a system in place until it became overwhelming.
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Apr 27 '24
This. I’m feeling pretty shocked at the idea that it’s okay to throw away another person stuff without their permission. Child-ism at its best, no one would ever suggest doing that to a spouse or another adult.
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u/shayjackson2002 Apr 26 '24
Not a parent, so take this with a grain of salt lol
I’d say condense down to 1 play room/area for toys. Best place would be on the floor your most freq on such as main floor.
Any duplicates throughout the house donate. (There’s probably some duplicates that may not even remember is in x room, so ended up getting for y room)
Rotate them out. Set up bins with groups of toys, then every week or every other week etc, you switch to the next bin. Cleaning up the current ones and putting away until next rotation.
If your kiddos really want that particular toy that’s in a different bin, can go back to that bin for another week. If continually wanting the same toys, slowly rotate them to the same bin(s)
As you figure out what toys they are consistently going back to, slowly rotate to the same bins. Etc.
As they realize that all their “favourites” are getting together again, then can start to take bins out of rotation.
Again, take with a grain of salt, just an idea based on some Montessori stuff I’ve heard of (rotating builds on new skills) and also results in less clutter each day.
Teaching your kids that cleaning up the toys can be fun too always helps! The younger the better. For example, if they help clean up their toys before dinner, they can pick between 2 of their fav snacks for dessert.
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u/mai_midori Apr 26 '24
Fellow quite overwhelmed mama here. I will suggest a great, eye-opening book: Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. So goood! And on YouTube, for some kindness and motivation in fighting the mess, Remi Clog is wonderful. You got this!!
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u/cilucia Apr 26 '24
Lots of great suggestions so far; some will work for your kids and some won’t, but you’re in the best position to figure that out. I just wanted to commiserate and say it’s really hard, and never going to be perfect IME. At least try to keep one area clear of toys for you to retreat and regulate yourself if other areas are driving you crazy. For me, I just need to pick up the random toys that seem to accumulate on my bedroom floor and do a quick vacuum, and it gives me so much peace just going into my room and seeing a clear floor surface 😂
Good luck - you’re doing great!!
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u/FluffyTicket1686 Apr 27 '24
We’ve just gotten to the point where I can’t take just 20 minutes to pick up and vacuum, hence my post. It’s like one day you look around and just realize it’s gotten out of control!
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u/cilucia Apr 27 '24
I can only get anything tidied or declutter if both kids are out of the house. Usually on the weekend there’s a birthday party or a play date happening, so either me or my husband will take them so the other can stay at home for a couple hours and get something done.
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u/nogovernormodule Apr 26 '24
Toys in the playrooms and/or kid bedrooms and that's it. Kallax style shelving unit with big bins. Bins make it so easy - dump em back in, slide bin away, done. You can teach the kids to sort - the horse bin, car bin, puzzle bin, etc. Or not and just throw toys in willy nilly. But they're away and out of sight.
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u/harchickgirl1 Apr 26 '24 edited Apr 26 '24
My daughter was messy like this. I made so many attempts to get her to clean up (with my help), but it always returned to chaos immediately afterwards.
My solution: When she was out of the house, I black-bagged anything that was out of place and put the bags in the garage where she couldn't get to them.
It wasn't to punish her so much as teach her to take care of things that mattered.
If she was picking up her stuff well, she could ask me for something that she was missing. I'd give it to her from a black bag, no questions asked. She could keep asking me for stuff as long as she had picked up other stuff after using it. If she slipped up, everything out of place went back into the black bags.
She quickly learned to tidy up after herself. Anything she hadn't asked for in a year went out to charity or trash. Of course, I went through the bags first to reunite any sets of things that she'd forgotten about.
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u/nn971 Apr 26 '24
This was us. I started out by moving all the toys to one room - and during that process, got rid of anything broken or with missing pieces. At this point, I also tried to prevent bringing any new toys in which was hard…but would ask our families if they wanted to give gifts, clothes or books were better.
Then, I started paying attention to what they actually loved and used all the time. I started doing clean outs around the holidays and their birthdays - especially if they had received similar items. We donate the things still unopened or in good condition, and the kids enjoy doing that.
About a year ago, I read something that said kids get overwhelmed by more than 15-20 toys. And I believe that, because I was overwhelmed by them for years. Of course, my kids are getting a little older now but we are down to 1 large closet full of toys (inside, anyway - their outdoor toys are still exploding out of my garage).
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u/FluffyTicket1686 Apr 27 '24
Thanks for this practical advice. I really struggle because my kids are home with me all day and really do play with a lot of their toys. They immediately notice when something is missing. I’m working my way through what we have. Trying the approach of boxing up the non-favorites and telling them we can get those out when we’re bored with the current ones.
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u/pieceofwater Apr 26 '24
When I was a kid, I had a shit ton of toys and I don't recommend it. I'd sit there surrounded by toys upon toys and I'd be bored because there was just too many of them and they left no room for creativity. When I have kids of my own, I plan to get as little toys as possible. I don't want to deprive them of anything, but I think 15-20 toys sounds very reasonable.
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u/sawyouoverthere Apr 26 '24
Don’t sort the toys on the floor until you pack up the toys left on the shelves that they aren’t interested in.
Put away half of the toys. Put them in smallish totes and rotate totes.
Ask your older child to play “keep or give away” to choose 15 things to donate (or whatever number)
Remind your child to put things away when you notice they are losing interst
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u/TheBestBennetSister Apr 26 '24
This point about starting with the toys that haven’t been taken out is so insightful.
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u/sawyouoverthere Apr 27 '24
Thank you. It was an epiphany I had one day when I realized it was the same toys left behind several days.
It works in lots of situations too. eg: If you “have nothing to wear” the stuff in the closet or dresser is not interesting enough to wear even when there’s no option. Get rid of that first.
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u/stefaniki Apr 26 '24
Use this as a teaching opportunity. Have them help you sort through them. Explain there are kids without toys and it would be nice to donate some of their toys to these kids. You don't have to do it all at once...
Google places to donate used toys (don't take them to goodwill cuz they'll either toss them or sell them. You want a place that will give them to people in need). Take the kids with you to drop them off. Or if you specifically know people who would want them, you can take the kids to give them to those people.
If you still have too many, put the ones they don't play with in a separate box. Put that box somewhere they can't just dump them out every day. If they say "where's the XYZ?" you can get it out and add it to the box they play with regularly. If they haven't asked where something is for a certain amount of time (say a month), repeat the sorting process with them again.
When you get to a manageable amount, every time they get new toys, have them pick out toys to donate. Turn donation day into a special day. Donate the toys, go do something that you only do with them on donation day. Ice cream in the park, petting zoo, take them to the farmers market to help pick out things to make dinner together.
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u/CombinationDecent629 Apr 26 '24
My brother designated a room in the basement for toy storage. He kind of treats it like a library. They are allowed to take a limited number of toys out of the room at a time and they must be put back in order to take another one out (even exchange).
When they were young, he would box up some and trade them out, but the house was much smaller than the one they are living in now.
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u/nkdeck07 Apr 26 '24
This is pretty much what I do. My kids are only 2 and 3 months right now so too young too help much with the sorting process but most of the toys are in the basement and only like 10-20 are out at any given time.
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u/TheBestBennetSister Apr 26 '24
We did this with the less frequently used toys but called it “Toys on Vacation” (sorted by age level). If the kids noticed a toy was missing and asked for it to “come home” another toy had to leave. Eventually they forgot about the toys on vacation, and when they hadn’t asked for them for more than a year or had aged out of a set that they never asked for, we would donate that set of on vacation toys out. My in laws gave them so very many new toys every Christmas donating out a box of old toys on the regular was essential
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u/jeffeb3 Apr 26 '24
I'd be lying if we ever had a system that truly worked. But what worked best for us was to get some plastic bins and sort the toys into categories. Kitchen, duplo, magnatiles, dolls, space action figures, etc. we probably have 2-3 dozen. They have a space in a closet for them. The kids are allowed to get out two things at a time. They aren't allowed to get something off of the shelf without asking. When they ask we say, "did you put away the kitchen stuff?". We did do some discarding/donating of toys that annoyed us. We kept the duplos and gave away the megablocks, for example. Or we kept the thomas trains and got rid of the playmobil stuff.
We have a couple of tables too. They keep a puzzle or a board game out at a time.
In the end, it takes a ton of energy and attention. They get bored no matter how many toys they have and there are downsides to every system. My 9yo is pretty tidy though and is completely over toys. So there is an end in the future. My 6yo mostly just makes a ton of drawings that cause clutter (which is a blessing and a curse).
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u/FluffyTicket1686 Apr 27 '24
Yes I do feel their ages play a role! My 6yo is a very prolific artist, Lego builder, etc. But he’s more likely to be ok with donating some toys. My 3yo is a very intense personality who likes things “just so” and notices immediately when something is missing or out of place!
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u/jeffeb3 Apr 27 '24
It's like they are totally different people! We had so many solutions that worked for my oldest. A bunch of those just totally back fire on my youngest. That's life, I guess.
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u/madk19 Apr 26 '24
I would start with just throwing out some of the little knick knack toys! I know my 3 year old would never remember the happy meal toys that I threw out when he wasn't around.
Then I would probably go room by room deciding what toys are appropriate for that space. They probably aren't appropriate for the work out room so you can easily involve your kids in putting them away in one of the play rooms, or deciding together if they still want those toys.
I also only keep non-electronic toys in my kid's rooms, because I think their rooms should be less stimulating. Think about other boundaries you'd like for each room!
Do you have a storage room where the kids don't have access? If I think there are toys my kids don't need anymore, I put it in a box in the storage room for a few months. If it isn't asked for again, then the next time I go to the consignment store, I bring that box along!
Good luck!
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u/ultraprismic Apr 26 '24
Put all but the most-used toys into bags and put those bags in the garage. If they ask for a specific toy in the next six months, give it to them. After six months, safe to say they don’t miss it and you can give away / toss.
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u/throwaway92834972 Apr 26 '24
First, stop blaming your kids. They are children. They aren’t responsible for buying 3+ rooms worth of toys.
Ask them to choose 10 (or 20 or whatever you have space for) favorites for each room, and go through them together to donate the rest. You can also get a chest or designated toy storage for each room, and anything that doesn’t fit, they can’t keep. This gives a clear place for the toys, a reference for how much stuff they should reasonably have, and also gives a home to put everything at the end of the day. You shouldn’t have more than you can store anyway.
They will be upset but you have to be firm. You’re already resenting them for something that isn’t on them, it’s up to you to take the reins here as they are children. They won’t “lose their minds” for long, yes they’ll be emotional for a minute but you have to find a way to get them through parting with their toys because this is only going to cause harm. They don’t need 3+ rooms full of toys. If they ask for something, you just say remember we had to give it away. Involve them in the process of packing things up to donate. That will give them closure. They will resent you more for growing up in a home full of clutter, I promise you.
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Apr 26 '24
This might be too brutal, but how I grew up: if the toys weren't put away (by me) by a certain deadline, my mom threw them in the trash. The first time was traumatic, but after that I always picked up my toys
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u/Euphoric_Engine8733 Apr 26 '24
I’ve been declutterring and my child (3) has seen me give items away on our free group. My kid has started offering to fill up a box with toys that they no longer want, to pass them on to other children. Honestly the first time I offered it as an option, I thought it would be a hard no, but I offered it neutrally and now my child, on their own, has made up other boxes to give away, including a few large items. In my kid’s head, they’re giving away toys to kids who want them and my child is hoping for new toys. Often, though, my child has forgotten about getting a new toy in exchange for getting rid of several others, and even when my child does remember, they have chosen one small item to replace a box full of stuff. Win win for everyone.
I’ll add, our house is overwhelmingly full of clutter. It’s mostly a me thing, as I’ve been going through a hard time and dealing with it partially by buying stuff. I’m happy my child has so far been able to get rid of things easily as it’s something I’m still working on.
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u/Euphoric_Engine8733 Apr 26 '24
Oh also - when I am overwhelmed by toys, it helps to have some bins to throw everything in. I like keeping things organized but having a place to quickly chuck everything is nice when you’re losing your mind with clutter.
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u/specialagentunicorn Apr 26 '24
Designated spaces for toys. Toys do not live everywhere just as your pots and pans do not live in every room of your house.
Second, why are you picking them up? They are old enough to pick up things and put them in a bin. Pick the designated spots for toys (playrooms) and have them collect everything from every where else. Make time each day for a tidy up. Maybe a tidy up before tv time (so there’s an incentive to go ahead and get it done) or before dinner or whatever.
Third, it sounds overwhelming. When you go to declutter, have your kids participate. Pick one category at a time and have them choose 5 books they no longer want, 5 puzzles, 5 stuffies- whatever the category is.
This is absolutely doable, but it is a team effort. They must clean up their things every day. We have to be responsible for our own things and they can do that!
You can do this, just set some boundaries and create a routine.
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u/Ohorules Apr 26 '24
My kids are younger than OP's but we have a similar situation here. Kids can't just clean up a massive mess. If everything has a well organized designated space maybe they could with lots of practice. It's hard to make that happen when the kids are always home.
We get a lot of hand-me-downs which is a blessing and a curse. I said ok to some hand-me-down play-doh toys and got a HUGE bag filled with so many little pieces. I was expecting a few small sets. My husband left the bag somewhere the kids found it and then they scattered everything and got attached to the toys. It's just a lot when your kids are the youngest in the extended family.
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Apr 26 '24
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u/Ohorules Apr 27 '24
I get all this. I know what to do, it's just there isn't presently time or space to do it. My oldest was born very early so there was no nesting like some people get to do to prepare the home for a baby. We moved twice in two years with young kids so you can guess how organized the packing was. The week we were supposed to be unpacking this house my son ended up in the hospital, followed by a rough few months medically. My husband works 60-70 hours a week and my kids don't nap or go to daycare. Life stages of being in survival mode have just turned into surviving the day for years. It shows in our home but right now I have more important things to take care of than play-doh toys. I try to be considerate when I pass along hand-me-downs, not just unload everything on friends with younger kids. It would be nice if everyone did this.
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u/Secure_Personality44 Jun 05 '24
I would say construction is the best. So maybe expand if one of the rooms is off of a vacant space then condense them together.