The Decluttering Toys Project
April 28, 2010 by Natalie · 12 Comments
The sheer volume of toys in our home has been driving me near to insane. Every time the kids play, we look like we’ve been burgled and there just seems to be so much of it. Despite pleas to 1) go easy on toy buying and 2) to spare us battery toys, our cries have been unheard. So I’ve embarked on a decluttering project.
Why declutter?
Quality over quantity wins every time. Better to have toys with strong play appeal that are actually played with as opposed to a load of stuff that’s not.
Let go of toys they’ve outgrown. It’s not until you go through the stuff that realise how many baby toys are still lurking about.
Put away and store toys for a future sibling if you’re planning on having more.
Get rid of broken stuff.
Organise. We’ve put missing stuff with their owners and have stuff reachable and tidied.
Make space.
Let them actually see and use the toys they own – we’d actually forgotten what they owned.
Spread the love and pass down to friends/family or give to charity – that’s good working stuff, not tat.
My tips for decluttering
If they’re old enough, you can make them part of the process but be careful, because for everything you tidy and sort, they might be right behind you undoing your good work. For older toddlers, do explain that their toys are going to a good home and why you’re doing it. Ohdeedoh even suggest photographing the toys which you can then put in a keepsake box/book.
I prefer to sort when they’re not around. Your sanity and sense of time will thank you later.
Put aside at least a half day although I have heard of people telling me it took them the best part of a day.
Try a grace period after sorting. Very difficult to explain to a 1 and 2 year old to play with stuff or else they get the heave ho, so I left out ‘refound’ toys to see if they got played with.
Whittle down soft toys. Decorative soft toys, very cool, but only so much you can have. Character led, oversized, ten million bears, or whatever you have, it’s unlikely that they need them all. I rarely see mine so much as touch theirs. Put away their treasured baby ones, any that have genuine sentimentality, plus hold onto those that are actually part decor, and say adios to the rest.
Sort toys into categories. Cars, animals, dolls, figures, bricks, blocks, whatever – also keep a pile for the stuff that needs matching up with lost pieces. I put the latter in a bucket and as I’ve been through the house, I’ve gathered up miscellaneous and lost pieces.
Focus on play appeal – stimulating imagination, creativity, learning new skills etc.
Consider the eco factor and keep batteries to a minimum. We don’t like battery toys because they’re annoying and most are not really that well designed but from an environmental perspective, losing the battery toys, particularly when they are so young, is certainly an incentive. We’ve found that most battery stuff we’ve been given has limited play appeal – battery stuff, is generally suited to older children.
Cherish wooden. We have some fantastic wooden toys by the likes of Vilac, Plan Toys, Pintoy etc. I’m not a ‘down on plastic’ person as I’ve picked up some vintage Fisher Price bargains on eBay that get me all nostalgic when I see the kids with them, but wooden toys are often beautiful, tactile, well made (often hand crafted), and more often than not eco friendly with toxin free finishing. They last plus you can pass them down.
Get to understand what your kids like. While they can be fickle, there are certain types of toy that have ongoing appeal such as little animals, cars, play food, dolls, jigsaws, figures, other pretend play gear etc. The most used toy in our home is their Habitat wooden bbq and play food – they just won’t leave the thing alone!
It goes without saying that there’s no need to give away something that they love and are still playing with!
Declutter regularly. Remember, what they hold onto now, you may be saying goodbye to in several months anyway.
Time your decluttering. Before or after occasions such as Christmas and birthday’s is a good time.
Storage and a place for everything is key. Those organised piles of dolls, cars etc, get baskets, tubs (also try them with lids), decorative storage boxes, and a good toy box (or two) are key – look out for our forthcoming storage feature. In the meantime, stores like Ikea, Habitat, Nubie, Little Baby Company, Little Childs (they make the deliciously contemporary toy boxes – right), Zara Home and Lula Sapphire. We got the spotty buckets by Rice DK from Pedlars.
We always have a declutter before Christmas that the boys do themselves. And as they have so many toys they don’t play with, I’ve started moving some away to go to the NCT Nearly New Sale, or pass to friends.
I got so mad at them last year I took a day off work and black bagged all the toys that were lying on their bedroom floor. They didn’t miss anything that was in the 6 bags I cleared out!
Really need to make it a regular thing. Think it would be better if they had a smaller bedroom!
As mentioned above NCT nearly new sales are a great way to get rid of things and earn yourselves a bit of money whilst giving the charity some too.
In fact it’s reminded me that we have one coming up so having a pre second birthday clear out sounds like a great idea.
Love the buckets, shall be adding those to my next Pedlars order.
Great post – I will be following your advice! I didn’t even get out of the boxes some of the ugly/annoying/massive looking toys that the kids got for Christmas. They went straight to a disadvantaged nursery in our area, where they are sold on for 50p to families in the community. Now, if you could write a post on how to STOP relatives giving so many presents in future, that would be invaluable!
kateinlondon – I have found a great website that enables you to create a wishlist for your child and then invite your family to buy things from it. It is free to sign up and costs nothing to run. You can paste links to anything so it gives you loads of scope. I have had several lists for a while (including one for myself!) and my family now only buy gifts for my daughter from the site. That way, they know they are not wasting money on things I don’t want for my girl. It’s great, you should try it!!
Very inspirational post, i try again and again a little here a little there, but will put aside half day now, hehe work you can wait
i feel very motivated now! thankxx
Nat. Buy a puppy. Who needs toys?
I’m ‘not allowed’ to get a dog until the kids are 4/5 as boyf is not convinced that I could cope. Sure I forgot to take of the Nintendog for 3 years….
Honestly it’s worth it. I’m finishing off the tail end of stuff at the moment but the charity shop has loved me over the past week.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the whole 6 bags being cleared out and them not noticing! That just shows how they had waaaaaay too much! Someone else will be tidying up that stuff now and agree if it’s done regularly, it’s not so stressful.
The buckets are great and keep an eye when they have a sale as I got mine for £4/£5 each. Think I shall definitely do a NCT sale although let’s hope I don’t come back with more ‘new’ stuff to fill the house with
PMSL! That’s actually a great idea about doing a post on the family. Mine drive me insane as they go TOTALLY overboard and it actually causes us to feel like we can’t buy what we want as they’ll be crowded out. Even worse, we say don’t buy something because we are and have specific tastes…and they totally disregard it and buy it! Outrageous!
Brilliant suggestion and I will be testing it out and featuring. Totally agree about the whole wasting money when it’s totally avoidable. Thanks!