my son likes his room again...

[Wonder Woman]

because I went in and cleaned out almost EVERYTHING. He'd down to 2 dinosaurs, 5 cars, a few board games, an entire shelf of books, and toys/costumes to be a pirate, a firefighter, cowboy, a doctor, and a policeman.

I moved all of his musical instruments up to a different room and made him a music corner, and all of his thousand and one pieces of train track are set up in another spare room upstairs.

He played in his room for HOURS today :jawdrop He said it feels peaceful now, and he's in control.

All of the hundreds of pieces of old toys and 50 dinos and a hundred cars, etc...they were overwhelming to me and so much more so for him. I've put my foot down as of today and we are getting NO NEW TOYS for a very long time. :P

He's so much happier with his room :heart

[ArmsOfLove]

I am so excited for you! I did something similar today with dd but she's older and has her stuff in her wardrobe--but we still threw away a TON of stuff, will find homes for others, and organized everything. We talked about how it *feels* to be in her room and she's so excited to keep it in such a way that it can be her favorite room in the house :heart

I keep thinking of that blog where the woman got rid of EVERYTHING except the teddy bear and the little boy played for WEEKS!

[ShangriLewis]

We once put everything in storage except for a stack of paper and those crayons you twist up. It was not my idea, but my dh made me do it. I didn't realize how addicted I was to them having toys. It didn't take but a few hours for their imaginations and brotherly love to soar.

Because of it our children are much more likely to agree to a big cleanup. Usually around summer time we have a nice garage sale or ebay stuff and let them keep the proceeds. I never learned what it felt like to have simple area. I was in my 20's when I felt that and it was a relief.

[illinoismommy]

and amen to that.... my kids play better (esp David) if there are less things out and around :yes

[AdrienneQW]

That sounds wonderful. :heart

We just purged the toys a few weeks ago, but I really think it's time for something more drastic. I keep thinking of when our contractor walked into Dexter's room, looked around for a moment, then quietly said "I remember when I was a boy I wanted so badly to have a toy of my own..." :bag

[Wonder Woman]

and amen to that.... my kids play better (esp David) if there are less things out and around :yes


I'm wondering how to follow up on this - do you bring back old toys in rotation, or are they happy just keeping what you chose to leave out? :think decluttering is SUCH a drastic step for me :shifty

[illinoismommy]

and amen to that.... my kids play better (esp David) if there are less things out and around :yes


I'm wondering how to follow up on this - do you bring back old toys in rotation, or are they happy just keeping what you chose to leave out? :think decluttering is SUCH a drastic step for me :shifty


We rotate toys... I keep down the ones he is playing with all the time. We have a loft where I keep the others. He will trade for the other toys.... come up to me with a truck and say "I want to trade for the vacuum" or whatever. Sometimes after he goes to sleep I just take some that he hasn't been playing with and put them upstairs and take down something we haven't seen in a while. If something never gets played with I either get rid of it.... or save it for Maya....

[poleidopy]

:rockon

We did the same thing on Christmas Eve. We got rid of four bags of toys. DS LOVES getting toys to "Borrow to the kids who don't have any." :heart He always wants to give away ALL his toys though and I have to convince him to keep some! It feels SO good to declutter!

So cool that he likes his room now and feels peaceful there. :yes

[allisonintx]

we also did a pre-Christmas toy purge. Got rid of every last stinkin' Barbie. I've never been so thrilled!

[klpmommy]

I def need to do a toy purge. :yes