Tips For A Quick Toy Purge

Christmas is almost here and toys are probably headed into your home in just a few weeks! This is the perfect time to do a toy purge. But I know we are all so busy during this time of year, so you may not have time for a full blown purge. Today I am sharing with you 5 ideas to try. You can do these in 10 minutes!

1. Make it a game!
   We can set the tone for a toy purge. We can make it seem like a chore, or we can make it fun and act like it’s something exciting! “I’m going to help you clean your room and we are going to make some room for the fun things you are getting from Santa!”
   Turn on some fun music and set a timer! Grab a donate box and ask them to see how fast they can fill it up! You can even plan something fun to do afterwards.
   

2. Pick your favorite!
   This is something that works well for my daughter. I grab 2 things and she picks her favorite. The other item is donated. I try to be strategic in the things I pick for her to choose between. If she can’t decide and declares she loves them both we just quickly move on.
   This way she is focusing on keeping her favorite things rather than what she is getting rid of.
   

3. Quick clean up - put away your most important things that you want to keep.
   This is something we just did a few weeks ago. I had noticed Elsie had been really struggling with cleaning her room up. She usually does a pretty good job of cleaning her room on her own at this point. When this begins to happen I know it’s a sign that we need to do a toy purge. I asked her if she wanted me to clean it by myself I would, but that meant we were donating things that she left out on the floor. I had forgotten I mentioned this to her and she came and said, “If you’ll clean my room I’ll donate all the stuff!” Of course, I knew she had some things out that she still enjoys playing with, she was just frustrated with the mess. I told her to put away all of the thing that are important to her and I’ll do the rest.
   I did not donate all of her things that were on her floor. But I did put them in a basket in the attic. 3 weeks passed and she finally asked for one princess dress that was in the basket. My plan is to let this go a few more weeks and then go through the basket myself and see what we need to keep.
   This may seem extreme, and if you feel it’s too extreme, try another method. The reality is that our kids enjoy a clean space, just like we do! And sometimes they know they need to get rid of things, but it’s overwhelming to them. (Just like it can be to us as adults!) This is an easy way to help them out and purged things that aren’t important to them.
   

4. Mama purge.
   This next method is one that I reserve as a last resort. While I firmly believe it is important to involve your kids in minimizing their things in order to teach them the importance of only keeping things that are important to you, it is also our responsibility as a parent to help our children not be overwhelmed by the things in their room.
   When my son goes to camp each summer I do a “Mama Clean” in his room. This is a deep clean I by myself. He is at the age now where he does not have as many things, but when he was younger I would purge the “junk.” I never got rid of things that were important to him. He also never complained. He loved coming how to a super clean space!
   

5. Pay them per toy.
   This last idea is a crazy one I came up with this summer. Elsie’s little cash register had broken. (It was a few years old and she played with it all the time. I was surprised it had lasted that long.) She saw one at Target for $20 that she wanted. This summer I was also trying to teach her the value of money, and I knew it was time for a toy purge. So I tried something out. “I will pay you $1 for each toy you donate.” Before I knew it she had filled a box with 20 items! It was also a great lesson to show her that things devalue greatly. A whole box of old toys only was worth one small, new toy.
   I have a friend who was already planning to purchase a gaming system for her kids. They were long overdue for a toy purge and she was overwhelmed by it. So she tried this method out. Her kids cleared over 300 items out of their playroom!

I encourage you to try one of these out and let me know what works best for you! Our kids are smart! They know they desire tidy spaces. We can help them out by making the process fun and easy for them!