If your house is anything like mine, the toys can quickly take over! Well, we haven’t done a major toy purge since before our second son, Ben was born in May so we were very overdo! When I walked into the playroom it looked something like this.
Not so good! We are very blessed to have a bonus room/den off of our kitchen that we use as a play room to store ALL of the toys in our house. However, since this room holds everything, it can get cluttered fast.
I find that when there are too many toys to play with, Caleb gets easily distracted and also struggles with clean up time because it can be so overwhelming. I knew this desperately needed to be done before Christmas because of the major influx of toys that would be coming. I grabbed my 4 year old and we got to work!
If your child struggles to get rid of things, the following 5 step process may help. It’s what I’ve found that works well with my pack-rat 4 year old!
1. Have a conversation with your child about giving away toys.
Before we even start decluttering toys, we talk with Caleb about giving away some of his toys to boys and girls who might not be as blessed as he is. This can be hard for a 4 year old to understand, but just having a conversation about it and getting the wheels in his head turning gets him prepared and ready to give toys away.
I’m a big proponent of my child being involved in decluttering his toys with me. I know some moms and dads get rid of toys while their child is not around and that’s fine if that works for you. However, I like for Caleb to have ownership in his toys. In order for him to keep that ownership, he needs to be involved in deciding what toys stay and what toys go. Does this sometimes mean we end up keeping more than I would like? Occasionally. But it’s important for me that Caleb learns that we can’t keep everything forever.
2. Ask your child what his or her favorite 3 or 4 toys are?
For Caleb, I asked him to choose 4 toys because I already knew what he would say based on what he plays with ALL. THE. TIME. (legos, trains, cars, and superheroes). However, I asked him so that he would have a role in clearing out and organizing his toys.
These were the toys we decided to keep in rotation at all times. We tidied these 4 areas of the play room first.
3. Separate items into like categories, then declutter.
Caleb had 2 large bins full of cars. It was just too much. So we dumped the cars on the floor and separated them into 4 categories: large cars, hot wheels cars, diggers and dumpers, and his set of Disney (movie version) cars.
This did two big things that helped him in the process. It made the amounts of toys he was working with much smaller and less overwhelming. It also began to provide him with choices which is our next step in the process!
4. Give your child choices and set limits.
Sometimes I have to be firm, but give choices. I will tell him we have to get rid of one set of blocks. In the picture above, I asked him which set he wanted to keep and which set he wanted to give away to another little boy or girl.
We did the same thing with his cars. Once we had them separated into groups, I gave him a number that he needed to get rid of in each group. Sometimes I would say, pick 4 items and he would ask if we could only pick 3. I would always say that was fine because he was making progress and doing it all on his own. The numbers I chose were random, but the numbers he chose meant something to him. We talked through it and he was very good about making decisions once I set limits.
5. Use the “Half-Way Home” for toys.
When all else fails, we use the half-way home. Sometimes, Caleb really struggles to get rid of things that he doesn’t play with and is just flat out junk. (for example, McDonalds toys!) When this happens, we place it in the half-way home.
The half-way home is just a tub in our garage. We will put toys in this bin for 6 months. If he asks for a specific toy, we take it out and put it back in the play room. However, if after 6 months he hasn’t asked for or missed any of these toys, we consign or donate them.
4 Questions to Ask Your Child When Decluttering Toys
If you are still struggling with decluttering toys with your child, here are 7 questions that may provide your child with the encouragement they need to get on the decluttering train!
- Would you rather keep this toy or that toy?
- Can you pick out 5 toys you want to give away to another boy or girl?
- What are your 3 favorite toys?
- What are 3 toys you don’t play with anymore?
I’ve found that acting as an encouragement instead of a commander is much more fruitful in getting Caleb to get rid of some of his toys.
We finished the entire play room in about 45 minutes. We ended up with 7 empty bins, an empty drawer, and an empty basket which feels so good! Once it was all done, it looked like this.
Are you decluttering the toys around your home before Christmas?
Lauren T says
Where do you donate the toys when you are done? It is hard where I live to find a place that accepts toy donations.
Kaitlin says
Hi Lauren. We have taken our toys to our local church’s nursery for donation. We also have a Goodwill in town as well as a consignment store. If the toy is in good shape, I will take it to one of these three places. If it’s far past its prime, it usually heads to the trash! 🙂
Sarah @ The Teacher's Wife says
This is so timely b/c we need to do this in the next few weeks in preparation for Christmas this year! Great post! It can be hard for little ones to understand, but also good teachable moments. 🙂
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