Is your child’s room a bit chaotic? No worries, just follow these five easy steps to declutter toys! If they´re old enough, encourage your child to declutter with you. This helps them understand the importance of decluttering and organizing as well as taking responsibility for their belongings. Let´s get started!

Step 1: Make it easy

Don´t overcomplicate it. Create three categories – toss, keep or donate and explain what will happen with the things you will donate. If your child realizes that the donated toys will go to children that have nothing or much less, they are usually willing to let go of toys they don´t really play with anymore.

Step 2: Move quickly

Don´t overthink it. Go through the toys and belongings quickly and put them in the toss, keep or donate category. If your child has a lot of toys, divide them into categories, such as action figures, dolls, board games, building blocks, etc. This makes it easier to assess the volume of each type and decide what to keep, donate, or discard.

Step 3: Use the Container concept

Set a limit for how much your child can keep and let the container (for example a box, a bin, or a shelf) determine the number of toys that they are allowed to keep (the Container Concept, Dana K White). Let your child pick their favorites first and donate the rest. If this is too difficult for your child, toy rotation for some of the toys that don´t fit in the container, can be helfpul (see step 5).

Step 4: Limit sentimental items

I´m sure you will find some sentimental items, but try to limit the number of toys kept solely for sentimental reasons. Choose a few meaningful toys or other emotional items and store them in a memory bin. You don´t need more than one memory bin per person.

Step 5: Toy rotation

Consider implementing a toy rotation system. Store some toys out of reach and periodically swap them with the ones currently in use. This helps keep the excitement alive without overwhelming the space.

There you go, well done! I hope that you found these steps helpful and that you and your child are happy with what you have accomplished.

One last thing – don´t forget to take the donations and things for the recycling to the car as soon as possible (we don’t want anyone to change their mind about what they’ve decluttered, do we?)! Now go play and enjoy the decluttered space!

Do you have any other suggestions or questions when it comes to decluttering with children? Let me know in the comment section!

Love,

Malin

Reference

1. Dana K White “Decluttering At The Speed Of Life”, 2018