Anyone else dreading Christmas because of THIS

[themadcatparade]

Anyone else dread Christmas with kids because they end up with a load of SHITE on January they haven't got room for?

We have two kids (one each) so naturally they have a set of grandparents each and another home to have Christmas at so they get spoiled. So we have the girls and then they go to my grandparents where Santa has been and then my partners parents for more presents and then their other home. Every Christmas, every birthday, Easter, Halloween, bonfire night etc we end up with a massive pile of crap that we can't find a place for or we need to Chuck things. Sweets, chocolate, plastic shite, every fucking year when we say every year not to spoilt them with too much and it's never adhered to.

I wouldn't mind but we live in a tiny two bed rental with no storage (we were due to move this year to a family home but 'covid') so we are stuck with another year homing gifts from two birthdays and Christmas and Halloween shite and we just can't do it. They will come home Christmas Day with a big bag from my mums and a bin bag from my partners parents because they refuse to keep the stuff they have bought the kids in their tidy homes when we struggle to find places for the stuff we have got them for Christmas. Hence the effort of a massive clear out every year and my stomach drops with how much money in material we have to throw in the tip every year because it's been played with once or not bothered with.

It's my DDs birthday and my mum told me she bought her a sowing machine for some reason and as great as it is that she's encouraging such activities I absolutely lost my shit when she said that I can take home her small dining room table to place the sowing machine on when our house is literally cramped! I sent her a picture of the corner of the living room (where the bloody tree normally goes no idea how we are going to manage that too this year) and there's a large armchair, a large cupboard full of their shoes, two large cardboard boxes of sport stuff we don't have room for, a cabinet we can't decide where to put, a gymnastics mat which keeps marking the wall as we have to cram it behind the armchair, a Henry vac which won't fit in a cupboard and two boxes of books and documents we can't find space for. Do you know what she said?

"It will fit under the window still surely..."

NO!!!

I still have a large LOL house which is just over waist high from last birthday which was bought for them and expected to be kept at ours (I begged them not to buy as it was an 'extra' present) which is blocking the couch and the doorway you have to squeeze past it when you come in the front doorway. We have a cupboard full of sweets and chocolate from over the year which they haven't eaten or else they would be having sweets and chocolate every day (SD's mouth is full of fillings at 7 year old and the reason why we only let them have chocolate and sweets as a treat) and they will still come home with buckets of sweets and crap for Halloween, which is pointless because we are taking them trick or treating and they will come back with loads anyway. I'm literally clearing out bin bags and then the house is filling up again.

I know I sound like a right Scrooge but it literally is every single year this happens even though we warn them not to because it's all expected to come home with us and it's never listened to. I know grandparents want to treat their kids but do so at your own avail and don't expect us to accommodate crap they will not use when we physically can't in the first place. We have our own Christmas shite to deal with.

My DD even got sent home from her dads the other year with a bag full of stuff from his house that he didn't have room for in his three bed new build, it was impolitely declined.

Please tell me I'm not the only one but I'm dreading it this year again. I don't know it it feels worse as in now work from home and I don't have time or energy to sort out all the rubbish and find a place for everything before Christmas just to go through it all over again, but it's my working environment and I can't work when it's so messy and full of junk that other people keep bringing in to our lives 😭😭😭😭

@lollipoprainbow

How awful for your children to be given presents by loving grandparents. My dd doesn't have any left now and she's only 9. Maybe be grateful for what you have ??

🙄

@Drinkingallthewine

So you keep every item of clothing...every pair of shoes... Every dress up set... Old bikes...Baby toys...outgrown wellies.... You have their old puzzle books, colouring in books etc...

After all, they were given to DC they belong to them.

My mother was a ruthless declutterer with our stuff and threw out some things of great value to me as a child. It was horrible and I've never ever forgotten how she lied and watched me hunt high and low for a treasured item she gave away or burned behind my back.

For DS, his stuff belongs to him and he gets to say whether or not he wants to keep stuff, and I'm certain it's because of what happened to me as a kid with my things.

We still declutter and cull his toys - but with his input.
He's got a keepsake trunk in the attic for mementos and also has one for toys that he loved, so anything he wants to keep goes in there. He was actually pretty good at getting things together to donate and he knows that we only donate full sets/working toys, and wearable clothes, nothing stained, torn or broken.

"We still declutter and cull his toys - but with his input."

So you waited until he was old enough to have a true say to get rid of his baby clothes, his dummies, his first crayons, rattles, bouncy chairs, etc?

You kept EVERY SINGLE ITEM that was given to him for years, so he could be included?

So you waited until he was old enough to have a true say to get rid of his baby clothes, his dummies, his first crayons, rattles, bouncy chairs, etc?

You kept EVERY SINGLE ITEM that was given to him for years, so he could be included?

No, not every single item. When he was too small to do it, I did - I've kept some of his baby toys, and clothes that were special. From when he was a toddler we kept his toys in storage as we had the space to do that, unless they were broken or things like used, and even then I'd ask him if it was ok to throw away a broken toy from when he was a toddler.

When we moved recently we needed to downsize so I explained everything needed to go into his new bedroom so it was up to him what he wanted to keep, store, discard or donate and I helped him with that process. In the end we threw out about one bin bag of broken stuff, and donated the rest except for a trunk in the attic of toys he no longer plays with but would like to keep. And everything fits in his room.

The house will be left to him so whatever's in the attic after we go is his problem!

But we had three things going for us that enabled us to do that- we put our foot down early when giddy grandparents rocked up with piles of stuff and put a stop to it, we had only one child so less of it anyway, and also we had attic space. It's different when you've got a few kids and no storage to put stuff away.