Managing kids toy clutter

[Titsflyingsouth]

Looking for some good tips from parenting pros here.

How do you stop your house being overwhelmed with child clutter? DS (8) has autism and is emotionally very young for his age. He hates the idea of parting with old toys - goes nuts if I try and get rid of any and, due to autism, has a ridiculously good visual memory so can tell immediately if something is missing (hence I can't just get rid of things by stealth.) We are just getting swamped with toy clutter and with Cmas around the corner I'm fearful of more stuff arriving.

How do you keep on top of toy clutter? His room is chaos and our dining room is chaos. It's really getting me down. Short of buying more kallax units, I don't know what to do.

Is there any way he’d tolerate some toys being ‘on holiday’ (ie packed up and put away) and then get them out again in the future? We have a small flat and regularly rotate DS’s toys so they’re not all out at once.

Would he be able to get involved with the sorting and there being some ‘rules’ i.e. He can only keep one box of cars and one box of art supplies etc..?
You could choose the categories and box sizes.

can you rotate the toys? And work with him to come up with a schedule of the rotation so he’s involved?

If you have room for more kallax, buy more kallax. If you can’t get rid of things at least you can hide it all?

Stop buying more stuff would be the first thing. Don't buy magazines with stuff on the front. Don't accept party bags full of crap. Ask relatives etc. to buy him experiences or clothes or books or something he needs or to just give him cash to be put away for the future, but no more toys.

If his understanding is up to it, I'd explain to him that there is no space left and it's a one in, one out policy. If he wants something new, one old thing must go. You can maybe emphasise that it will go to another child to play with if that will help him.

Other than that I think it is just good storage solutions. Under bed boxes are good. Kallax units are good. Make use of space on top of cupboards/under things/in the loft. Make stuff as easy as possible to tidy away so it can at least be kept neat.

He would struggle with a 'choose x number of cars/trains etc'. But a toy rotation could work, I think. If he thinks toys are still his - even if not physically present - that might relax a little.

Have already asked for vouchers for our local trampoline centre and Clip and Climb for Xmas. But judging by my reaction, I think I broached that a little late and some family members have already bought him toys...

There's definitely no more room for any Kallax!