Decluttering is hard enough without kids, but try to throw away your kids’ toys and it’s like pulling teeth. Mother and decluttering aficionado Emily R. has a simple tip for helping kids let go.
Photo by Iraia Martínez.
If your child is resistant to giving up any of their hard-won toys, try to reframe your approach:
One simple change that I made that has made a huge difference in how my kids handle decluttering is changing my wording. When I’d say, “What do you want to get rid of?” my kids would usually have a really hard time choosing anything to part with. Broken toys? Things they hadn’t played with in years? It didn’t matter. They wanted to keep everything they saw, and I get that. I have a hard time with that too because even the wording says, “You’re losing something.” and no one likes to have something taken away from them.
When I changed my words to, “What would you like to keep? What are your most favourite things?” my kids were suddenly able to get rid of a lot of stuff! Honestly, sometimes my inner hoarder struggled with their choices because I almost felt like they were getting rid of too much, but when we frame things in a positive light it’s a lot easier to evaluate our things based on what we really love and want to keep.
She also says you can help them understand that the less clutter they have, the easier it will be to clean their room. (Argument: won.) Check out her full post below for more tips.
How to Declutter With Kids [I’m an Organising Junkie]
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