The following is a guest post by Marci Lambert of Make Art Everyday. Marci is a stay at home mom with a part time photography business. If you enjoy this post, consider subscribing to her blog’s RSS feed.
About twice a year at my house, we have a toy purge. It is not optional. My two girls (ages 7 and 5) have large extended families and are blessed with an abundance of stuff. Even though we don’t buy our kids a lot of toys, they somehow seem to multiply as the year goes on. Between summer birthdays and Christmas, we could easily get lost in toy clutter in our small house if we weren’t on top of it.
The way it works
We take all the toys from throughout the house and put them in the den (where we have room to sort things out). From there, we sort into like piles: Barbies, stuffed animals, puzzles, games, etc. Then we begin to tackle each pile and ask the girls if they want to “keep” or “give away” each thing. The giveaway stuff goes into bags or boxes. Some things are kept for a yard sale; others are taken to Goodwill. And a few things end up in the trash.
Start early
My husband and I started this tradition when our first daughter was about two years old. We told her she could keep anything she loved but she should give away anything she didn’t so someone else could love it. She surprised us by giving away a fair amount of stuff. When her little sister was old enough to express opinions, we let her join the party. But you can also start with older kids. Once they’ve been through it a few times, they’ll see that you mean business.
Set rules
Our main rule is to keep what you love. I don’t want them to feel like I’m going to throw out all their toys. But I also want to impress upon them that they can make someone else happy with toys they don’t play with anymore. Sometimes we set limits on how many they can keep, like with stuffed animals (is there anyone who doesn’t have too many of these?). The last time we did this, I pulled out the dress-up clothes and had them narrow down to their four favorite purses and four favorite hats (among other items). Because they are used to this process, the choices were easy and now they have a manageable collection of dress-up clothes.
You may need to tackle some categories on your own.
While my husband helped the girls go through the piles, I worked on the art supplies. Basically, I went through all the supplies and threw out old paint, filled-to-the-covers coloring books and broken crayons. One part I saved for them was to test all the markers. I set them up with paper and while my husband and I boxed up the giveaways, they put the good markers in a box and tossed the bad ones. It made them feel important to have that job.
Prepare for it to take a while
When we do our toy purges, we start right after breakfast on a weekend. And it is not unusual for it to take all day to go through everything and then put the keepers back in the playroom. The upside is that we have a clean playroom and the kids can actually see what they have to play with (instead of baskets of stuff that never gets touched).
Lessons learned
- In the beginning, we thought we’d allow the girls to make all the choices, but we vetoed a few “giveaways” because of our own sentimentality. We’ve learned that we have to stick to the rules too.
- Be firm. If your child wants to keep everything (and this is more likely in the beginning), tell them that you will have to make the choice for them. That’s usually enough to get them going.
- Pick the right time to purge. We try to do ours right before their birthdays and right before Christmas. We remind them that this gives them room for the presents that are on the way.
- Remind them that they are helping others. My girls were very willing to part with some too-small costumes when I said that we could give them to a younger friend.
- Organize the toys so that this will be easier next time. In our playroom, all the art supplies are stored in a closet and all the puzzles are in a cabinet. We have several toy bins on a shelf, but we try to keep like items together. It also helps when it’s time to clean up the room.
Toy purging is a big job, but it does get easier with time and experience. If your house feels like a toy store threw up in it, it may be time to do your own purge. With help from the kids, of course.
A note from Lynnae: I do this with my own children, and it works really well. How about you? Do you do regular toy purges with your children?
September 16th, 2008 at 7:34 am
we live in a small town and we have to bring our trash and recycling to the transfer station aka the dump…within the dump is a ’store’….almost weekly we go through stuff that is insight and figure out if they want it or not….if not, off it goes to the dump store. if it’s too good for the store, we bring it to our little thrift store (which is on the way to the dump and has a garage little thing that you can put stuff in if it’s closed)
my kids do not have a lot of stuff. it’s easier on everyone.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Wow, I couldn’t have asked for a more timely post! Last Sunday I attempted this with our 7 Year old daughter. We were so overwhelmed with the stuff she had accumulated that i had no idea where to begin. Saturday morning, i will work on this by bringing everything out to our den and sorting.
Great information! Thanks so much!
September 16th, 2008 at 8:43 am
This is just what I need right now. Lately I’ve been thinking about the over-abundance of toys we have. I have an 8 month old and a 22 month old. I have toys ranging from newborn all the way up to two years in this house. Some of them I know we can do away with. I do have somewhat of a method however but it does not deal with getting rid of toys.
I have my daughter’s toys split in half. I change them out, I would say about every 3 weeks when they seem to be getting bored with the toys. When they start to get bored with the toys, they start messing with things that shouldn’t be playing with, like silverware haha. Though both sets of toys have been growing pretty big…I think it is time for a toy purge in my play room.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Oh my goodness yes, I do this about every six months with my daughter. Her birthday and Christmas fall right together, and she ends up with so much stuff that I HAVE to throw some of it out. We donate what we can, and get rid of the rest.
Teaching your children not to hang on to everything under the sun is one of the healthiest habits you can help them develop imo. For me it ranks right up there with cleanliness, exercise and eating right. It’s a basic life necessity.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I totally understand throwing out the broken pieces and used-up equipment.
But in my community, there are limited outlets for used toys. In fact, one of the thrift shops has on its front door “no toys.”
And the Christmas drives specifically ask for new, unwrapped toys; or for the specific toys on the child’s wish list.
So there really isn’t a practical way for a family in my area to purge toys through donations. It’s re-sale or the trash.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:15 am
We only have my husband’s kids every other weekend, and toys can still get out of hand! I did the first purge by boxing things up and putting them in the basement. Then, a few months later, I told the girls that they would get the money from anything they sold in our garage sale. Since they hadn’t played with the boxed-up toys for a while, they were more than willing to part with lots!
September 16th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I toy purge when my daughter is not around. Of course, not the prized possessions, but the ’stuff’ that piles up in the night. She has yet to realize that anything is missing from her room.
Then, we purge during a weekend, usually bi-annual. Goodwill or trash. I know it makes me feel better!
September 16th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I’ve purged and organized my whole life the last 10 months - -except for the kid’s toys in the basement which I haven’t had the courage to touch. A couple of times a year, we go through their rooms and secretly pitch stuff, but nothing serious that involves their stuff and it’s getting ridiculous. We have a Daughter who struggles with feeling out of control, so this would send her over the edge.
But after reading your post today, I decided to start small and told my 2 kids if they could each bring me 10 things to take to the thrift store, they’d get a bonus on their allowance.
My son schlepped down there and quickly came up with 10 discarded toys. My daughter came back up with a container of her brother’s often- used soccer stuff. *rolls eyes*
I finally managed to get 20 legit things out of them, but oy vey. It’s going to be a long process at this rate. I may have to resort to going through it when they’re at school. Less fuss and it would take them months to notice.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
My children receive gifts year round due to grandparents and a great grandmother. For every new toy brought into the house, my daughter has to get rid/donate two toys. It’s amazing that we still never run out of toys. Sometimes it’s a toy from a kid’s meal she chooses but it’s still purging.