Impending Doom….January Toy Clutter

No matter the age of your children, it is safe to say most households with 2 or more children under the age of 12 have mountains and mountains of toys and hardly any room to store them.  How many times have you walked into your child’s room and stepped on a Lego or Hot Wheels car and cursed the darn things?  They hurt!  Or have murderous thoughts towards that Tickle Me Elmo doll everytime it goes off?  I am so glad my kids were grown by the time that annoying thing came to being….

Children’s rooms are already stuffed to the max, but they still want the latest and greatest fads.  If you must cave (or have doting grandparents that don’t know when to stop), then it’s time to sit down with the kids and have a chat about the sheer volume of toys in their rooms with barely enough room for their bed and clothing.

If your kids are older than say 5 or 6, you can include them in the organization by saying simply “Santa can’t bring any new toys until you have room for them”.  Start by sorting out all their toys.  Are there things they no longer play with but are in good condition?  Packaging them up and donating them to needy children teaches them the concept of charity that will last a lifetime.

If there are toys that they absolutely must keep, then let them help you box them up and store them in the basement or attic for a while, then, when they are bored with their new toys, you can swap them out in a few months and they will be enamored with them all over again. 

Recycling toys is what I used to do with my own children when they were younger, this way the toys stayed in their rooms and were not strewn all over the house creating a minefield to try and walk through.  Thus saving my sanity!