How to declutter when kids love most of their toys…

[HappyLittleTreeFriend]

I want to declutter the kids’ stuff before it gets to Christmas and we inevitably get an influx of more stuff but am finding it hard to get started and also to utilise the storage we currently have. Think I need some help and suggestions! First off we have a small house anyway, they share a bedroom and there is a big cupboard that we cleared out in there set into the wall that has a lot of toys and board games and jigsaws in it. They have a small 4x4 Kallax as a bedside unit and have half of that each for some of their ‘bits’ like notebooks, other toys stacked etc - the cupboard sections in this are a mess, lots of little bits and notebooks etc - and all the space on top is always covered with small toys, books, a jewellery box and so on. Then in the living room there are lots of board games and boxed games stacked in shelves, another cupboard of toys, and then in our other room (kind of a combo utility room/study/playroom it’s very small) at least four big boxes of toys just stacked up and loads of craft stuff too. Writing it out like this is making me feel like it’s so much but they do genuinely play with all the stuff at different times and also there’s the problem of some of the stuff that my older kid is growing out of is going to be fun for my youngest soon - I don’t know how to get rid of any of it! And it’s like they just seem to end up with so many bits, little gifts from grandparents, little toys from parties etc and I don’t know how to organise things so they can access the toys to play with without me having to be moving stuff about constantly. All their notebooks and stationary and craft stuff is a lot but I don’t want to throw out nice notebooks that I know they will eventually use or like? And so on 😭 just feels impossible! So any ideas or pointers welcome 🙏

You need to categorise. Get all the toys/games in the house together and lay them all out. Then you can see what you're dealing with. Perhaps start with something like board games , sounds like you have quite a few. Lay them all out, there's bound to be ones that have missing bits or are broken or just don't get played anymore. Then cull. And repeat!!

How old are your kids? Because depending on age,, I would also involve them, we did this recently and I was surprised how enthusiastic they were, they got rid of 2 big bags of stuff.

Feel your pain with the little 'bits' - dd is terrible for this. It has helped to introduce some nice desktop baskets for her drawers which all the miscellaneous little bits get put in so at least they're tidy.

Focus on broken, stained, games with missing bits etc first. That will probably fill a bag or so! And it's a good start.

Once toys are sorted you then need to look at storage. Kallax is good - would you be able to a fit a decent sized kallax in your extra room, you can then label up the boxes. And once the boxes start getting full, you know its time for another cull.

Good luck - we have 3 kids and its never ending - toys and 'stuff' seems to multiply overnight.

I have this exact problem, I clean the house they come home and get all there toys out and so many little bits, I wouldn’t say we have loads and loads of toys as I do regularly clutter but I could still do with getting rid of more.

• I bagged up all Playmobil Into the correct sets and hid some for a rainy day.
• We put all board games and puzzles away (5 and 3yrs) they always need our help so will get them out when we play with them (easy puzzles kept out though.
• I got 2 boxes one for arts and crafts they can use and one that I don’t want them using without me being prepped like glitter/glue and a million Pom Poms 😂 I also hid this box.
• They were not cleaning up the play kitchen accessories so I took a load away and left them with the till and like 5 items (played sooo much with now)
• we bought 2 trofast one for a living room and one for bedroom of 5yr old - toy cars, costumes, nerf guns and action men al go in them.

this has all helped and we didn’t do it overnight, also I find cleaning out the drawers is always good as they will find anything and drag it all over the house, and if I notice the same toys being left on the floor and not played with we donate them.

What do they play with least? I would then box it up and see if they miss it, if not then get rid of it. We had loads of cars and cheap toys and without dc knowing I boxed them up and they were never asked for so went to the charity shop.

I think its sweet they play with all their things, so many posts about screens and babies with iPhones on here . Why not just let them keep them and ask for less toys at 🎄

@Morven7 yes I agree I think it’s more about unnecessary mess, I find my kids play much better with less toys so hiding and removing toys for other days works a treat :)

Thankyou @TwistedSisters and everyone else for your helpful responses - I still haven’t really made a start on this proposed declutter/reorganisation but there are some good ideas here to get me started! I think a Trofast unit with the baskets would help a lot with the craft stuff and I’m looking for a little shelf sort of unit that could attach to the top of their little Kallax, I think a scout of FB marketplace and failing that a trip to IKEA is needed!