Getting rid of toys

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  • May 14, 2015 at 7:36 pm
    rhondajennings68
    Participant

    I am constantly trying to purge my home of excess things but have run into a real issue with getting rid of stuff that belongs to my son.  Basically, he is a pack-rat and doesn’t want to get rid of anything.  I am going through all of his toys and books on Saturday and told him he has to fill one small bag with trash, one small bag with toys to donate and at least 5 of his books that are below his reading level.

    Any other suggestions?  If he keeps holding on to things, I will need storage unit for all of his stuff and he is  only 7.  Personally, I don’t have trouble getting rid of excess stuff.

     

    Thx,

    Rhonda

    May 14, 2015 at 8:05 pm
    Kayla
    Participant

    I don’t know what to tell you. I have gotten rid of almost all ours. We have dress up clothes, Legos, and blocks and the blocks are leaving as soon as somebody local wants them. It is so freeing!

    May 14, 2015 at 10:01 pm
    ReneeS
    Participant

    I have had the pack rat issues since I was a child. I remember it being a HUGE issue between my mom and myself, like balling thinking she hated me because she wouldn’t let me have my stuff. It isn’t until now that I realize how much nicer things are with much less stuff. My experience with my kids is slightly different for now, I simply watch and eleminate toys slowly which have no play time over 2-3 weeks, then its put in a donate bag. It’s been 2 weeks and they still haven’t noticed the bright yellow school bus is gone, to me it shows they really didn’t make a connection with it. I do not get rid of things they have connections with, the stuffed animal grandma gave them for their birthday, the kitchen toys they use constantly (but I did get rid of the old ones that were mismatched and they still haven’t notice they are gone), and so on. May not be the best way but it works for us for right now. Good Luck!

    May 15, 2015 at 4:37 am
    Melanie32
    Participant

    I always purged my children’s belongings every year before Christmas and birthdays. I made it clear that they had to make room for their new gifts.

    My daughter went through a brief pack rat stage. She seemed to have an emotional attachment to EVERYTHING she had! She is very artsy and would create entire play lands out of paper and then want to keep that play land out for months.  It was very hard for me as I am one who regularly gets rid of things that aren’t being used. At this time, I found it best to let her keep her things for the most part. That stage lasted a couple of years but she did outgrow it. 🙂 She still had to purge at holidays. I found this to be fairly easy because the kids were excited about the new gifts they would be receiving.

    As they got older, the rule became that for every new thing they brought into their rooms, they had to donate a similar sized item to charity. That worked as well because kids usually want something new over something old. They didn’t get new things often, but it helped when they did.

    My daughter is now super neat and keeps her room really nice so she did fully recover from her pack rat stage. lol. 🙂 She’s 13.

    May 15, 2015 at 10:09 am
    6boys1girl
    Participant

    We give our children a specified amount of space and then let them keep what they want (within reason – no food and such) in that space. If it gets too full (the lid not fitting on) or they can’t keep it cleaned up, they have to declutter it further. So far it’s worked great for us.
    My more pack-ratty kids need more direction/supervision but even they willingly stay within the limits.

    For our younger kids, under 12, they get an 18 gallon Rubbermaid container. When they are around 12, we add a bookcase for them (they usually keep books but some choose to display nature finds, critter keepers, art stuff instead). At 13, they switch out the Rubbermaid bin for a footlocker.
    This is just for their personal belongings. All joint toys, puzzles and games go in another area for everyone to share.

    -Rebecca

    May 15, 2015 at 2:11 pm
    homesweetschool
    Participant

    Good for you for taking this step, it always feels so good to thin down in my opinion! One thing that has worked for me at times is to go though my kid’s items while they are away or distracted and put them in the garage out of sight. I wait a month or so to see if they notice anything specific being missing and if they ask about it I say, “oh, I think I maybe know where that is” and I go and grab that item only and return it. Most often they don’t notice anything and then I go ahead and donate the bag.

    I recently moved and have written two blog posts on this topic if you want inspiration 🙂 http://www.faithtakesflight.com/2015/02/traveling-light.html and http://www.faithtakesflight.com/2014/08/possessions.html the second post has a few podcasts that were also helpful to me.

    Good luck!

    May 18, 2015 at 9:03 am
    rhondajennings68
    Participant

    Thanks for all of the responses.  On top of my son being a rat pack, he is messy. He is just like Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown.  Dirt follows him and he leaves a mess in his path. LOL

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