When these declarations are made in our home, “I’m bored.” “That’s mine! Don’t touch it.” “There’s nothing to do.” I can’t clean up, I don’t know where it goes.”, and toys begin to take longer than 10 minutes to put away, I know it’s time to declutter the kid’s toys. In this blog post, I talk about the 3 Steps to Declutter Kids Toys (in an hour or less) that I use.
We currently are in a good place with the number of toys in our home; but birthdays happen, holidays happen, life happens and new toys arrive affecting the homeostasis of the situation. I revisit this system when necessary.
My 3 Steps to Declutter Kids Toys
My strategy for regaining some order when things become a bit much, is to wait until the kids are asleep and get to work in their playroom. I have a three step process that quickly regains control over the toy situation. Kids could also be involved in this process depending on age or personality of the child. For my children it’s better if they aren’t involved for now.
1. Remove the garbage
I start my 3 Steps to Declutter Kids Toys by quickly removing anything broken and no longer loved. This includes but is not limited to items such as trinket McDonald’s toys, random party favors, dried up playdough and used up craft supplies. These things will not be missed and go directly into the garbage.
2. Narrow down the toy selection
Next I box up toys that are currently less frequently played with, but might want to be played with again in the future. My intention is not to get rid of these toys entirely (for now), but instead have fewer toys available at once to choose from. I know it seems counterintuitive and crazy to take toys away when they say they have nothing to play with, but I have witnessed in the past that the more toys my kids have access to, the less they play with anything. Call it paradox of choice, decision fatigue, sheer overwhelm….not sure what it is, but it’s real.
I use whatever boxes, bins, garbage bags (doesn’t have to be anything fancy to store the stuff, just what I have) to contain these toys. I can do this quickly because I’m not worried about mistakenly giving away their favorite, beloved, sacred items. The goal isn’t to get rid of things right now, it’s just to get it out of the way for a bit. When I finish packing things up the boxes get tucked away somewhere out of sight. It’s a modified packing party for kids.
3. Create a designated place for everything
I finish my 3 Steps to Declutter Kids Toys by neatly arranging the remaining toys in a designated place in the playroom. They are easy to see and access.
The Results…
I’ve done these three or four times now and I am blown away every time by what happens the following morning. It goes something like this.
The kids come downstairs, go into their playroom and began to quietly play. That’s it. No one mentions any toys being missing. Seriously. Nothing. What’s even more exciting is I notice that my daughter starts creating beautiful art again and my son will play independently. They also play together without trying to kill each other. They still fight because they are human, but it’s definitely less vicious.
Here’s a disclaimer though. The playroom gets messy again….quickly…but I’m ok with it. The mess is happening because the kids are using the space to play wonderful and creative games. Their imaginations come alive. Magna Tiles houses, train tracks, Playmobil people and ninja turtle figurines come together to create perfection. That is the goal of this for me. Not for the space to look perfect and well put together all the time. However, I know it will be much easier to clean up now and that’s the piece of mind that I need to let them go for it in there.
Nothing to lose…so much peace to gain.
There is absolutely nothing to lose by trying this out…other than maybe an hour of time after the kids go to bed that could be spent doing something else. We all need some extra peace in our lives right now, especially our kids, so it’s worth a try. The worst case scenario is the kids notice their stuff is gone and ask for it back immediately. However; in our previous toy declutters, after months of things being tucked away with the exception of a few items, most things go unnoticed. At that point it’s time to consider whether or not these items would be better suited in another home.
