We shared some of our best decluttering advice the other day on Corporette, and I thought we might discuss the more parent-specific implications of the question over here: What are your best tips for decluttering with kids? Specifically, if you’ve got multiple kids, how do you walk the line between holding onto toys, gear, and clothes for the younger ones without your house feeling like a toy store exploded?
My boys are only three years apart, but my older one tends to be a bit of an “old soul” and a bit advanced in his tastes in toys and games. He’s also always been at the top of the height and weight charts. My younger one, on the other hand, is definitely young for his age, and he’ll sometimes get into toys years later than his brother did. He’s also near the bottom of the weight chart. So “decluttering” with toys and art supplies and gear like bikes/strollers/helmets tends to be a bit more difficult, and I hold onto things until I’m sure my younger guy won’t want or need them.
To make matters… more complicated, both sets of grandparents are always generous at birthdays and holidays, so we have a steady stream of new toys and gear coming into Casa Griffin. I also tend to be a “ooh good sale!” purchaser, and will, for example, randomly buy chemistry kits that are age-appropriate for 3–5 years beyond my kids’ ages. And, ah, I make a lot of “future purchases” for clothes. For example, H&M randomly had some really fun, bright shorts for little boys in their Conscious Collection, and I wound up buying three different pairs in three different sizes for my littlest guy to wear for future summers.
We regularly donate stuff (only about twice a year, though), and sometimes I’ll try to sell the bigger things, but the whole process of assessing what the kids want/need and wondering if I’m offending grandparents by giving toys away “too quickly,” takes time that I don’t generally have. Because some of our used stuff has special memories (for me, my husband, and/or my boys) it doesn’t lend itself to outsourcing either.
For clothes, I have things regularly controlled to a system, albeit a messy one: “Future” clothes for both boys go into their closet; we store the clothes my eldest has outgrown in a bin in my closet to await sorting. I used to use plastic sweater bags to sort and label the clothes (so there would be a bag of, say, “2T winter clothes”), but as the boys have gotten bigger, the clothes have too, so I’ve recently given up and just put all of the hand-me-downs in a huge laundry bin in my youngest’s closet, which I’m sure I’ll tear apart when he starts to outgrow his current size range.
{related: I wrote about how I organize kids’ clothing, especially their “future” clothes}
Readers, someone out there must have a better system with toys or clothes — what are your thoughts? What are your best tips for decluttering with kids?
Here are a few articles on point that I dug up, but I’ll note that a lot of these moms have small spaces, which kind of forces you into a certain minimalist lifestyle… I actually think the Simply Well-Balanced article has the best tips for dealing with a big purge, including some bright-line rules like “If it’s dried out, stopped working, or missing a piece, it goes in the garbage.” Kind of similar to one of the bright-line rules I shared in the Corporette post on our best decluttering advice — if you look at a room as only containing five things, it becomes easy to declutter: trash, dirty dishes, laundry, things that have a home, and things that don’t.
Readers, what are your best tips on decluttering with kids? What advice has been a gamechanger for you and your family? What have been your biggest decluttering struggles through the years with your kids?
- Marie Kondo’s Tips for Decluttering with Kids [PopSugar]
- How to Declutter with Kids; Real-Life Ideas that Work [Simply Well-Balanced]
- 21 Tips on Keeping a Simple Home with Kids [Zen Habits]
- 12 Decluttering Secrets from a Small-Space Mom [Mother Mag]
Stock photo via Deposit Photos / soleg.
Anonymous says
If your kids don’t spark joy, thank them and say good bye.
avocado says
If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t have bought anything ahead except during the first year when they outgrow clothes so fast. I ended up donating a lot of “bargain” science kits, clothes, and shoes that never ended up getting used. It would have been cheaper just to buy what we needed when we needed it.
I also wish we’d allowed a lot fewer toys into the house in the first place. We have very little storage space so I’ve been a ruthless purger all along, and I still get grief from my daughter for making her pare down her stuffed animal collection (and for getting rid of a stuffed animal from my own childhood because it didn’t fit into my one allotted bin of keepsakes). Now we are staring down a massive collection of Lego and American Girl that really needs to go. She certainly enjoyed the stuff when she was little, but I wonder whether she would have been happier in the long run if we had just let her have a very few pieces and hadn’t had to make her get rid of so much.
ElisaR says
my mom made me sell my barbie’s at a garage sale in 1986. i’m still not over it. kidding but not really….
Anon says
DD is almost 4 and will be heading to grandparents for a few visits this summer. While she’s gone I intend to purge (i.e. dispose of broken toys or random crap tchotchkes and put the rest in basement storage) a lot of the toddler toys she’s really too old for and doesn’t really play with, but if she saw me try to get rid of them, would lose her mind. And then try to corral all her toys in one or two main areas, as a year and a half of COVID home all the time means the entire house is essentially a playroom. I’d like to reclaim some spaces as grown-up spaces. And maybe if I do that, karma will give us #2, which we have been trying for over 2+ years (and for which I would gladly trade grown-up space).
Mrs. Jones says
I get rid of old/unused stuff when son is out of town. sometimes I’ll hide it for a few months to see if he misses it.
PistachioLemon says
+1
Anonymous says
So this is interesting to me because my 4yo DD is actually really good if I say “let’s go through your clothes/shoes and see what another little kid could use”. And then she’s pretty good with toys too. I think because she’s in charge it goes well. We also sneak SOME things out like McDonald’s toys etc…
Anon says
Same, my 3 year old has always been really generous with donating her stuff. She has to be in control, but if prompted she will sort through her old books and toys and give them “to the babies.” We give a lot of it to her daycare so I think it helps that it’s going to a familiar place.
My biggest decluttering tip is not buying stuff you don’t need. A bargain isn’t a bargain if the toy never gets used. For birthdays and holidays I buy my kid almost exclusively books, experiences or useful items like clothes or sports stuff. I have several close friends and family members that love to send a toy, but for the most part they choose pretty nice stuff (the exception is my childless SIL who *always* sends a loud, physically large toy that my kid doesn’t care about…I’m going to be downright gleeful when she announces her pregnancy and we can return the “favor”).
My parents saved way too much stuff from my childhood so my biggest cluttering issue right now is telling them they can’t show up at my house with all this cr*p. I want my American Girl dolls and a couple other sentimental things, but no mom and dad I do not want a copy of Candyland from 1985 that looks like the dog chewed on it. Fortunately my parents are relocating to live near me so all these toys will live at their house and my kid can use them there.
anonymommy says
I FEEL THIS! My mom, MIL, and aunts (who don’t have grandkids yet) all saved stuff and all are giving it to us! (Several of whom are moving/downsizing so they’re offloading!). A lot of it is actually really great and I appreciate the generosity, but it’s so.much.stuff.