Hi everyone,
We are moving in the summer (to a smaller house) and I'm trying to declutter ahead of thinking about packing etc. We have a 5yo and a 3yo and I've always struggled with toy storage - I'm quite a minimalist person and don't like hanging onto things but even with that mindset I find toy storage/maintenance takes up so much of my house/mental space/time! I saw an Instagram 'influencer' talking about how she just threw all the toys out and honestly I feel like I could do the same. I don't understood where everyone keeps stuff, we have a really good sized house and I don't know what I'll do with it all when we move. I'll summarise what we do now and appreciate any input.
We have a kitchen/living area and in the living area are 2 sets of 4 x cube kallax boxes (I like each 'thing' to have a box without mixing).
these contain:
- playdoh
- dressing up stuff
- jigsaws and puzzles (condensed into zip wallets)
- farm stuff inc tractors and animals,
- Magnatiles
- dinosaurs
- cars
- then there's one with a couple of my daughter's Lego sets and her schleich unicorns.
On top of each kallax unit is bulkier stuff, like pop up pirate, hungry hippos, a big jigsaw, a basket where I keep 'lost' items until I return them to their home.
In this room there is also a craft trolley with paper and pens, paint and colouring books etc, as well as a basket of Duplo, a rolled up car rug thing, magnetic sand kit.
We're very lucky to have a cellar playroom (which they never use) with another big kallax unit. In this we have:
- Babies and accessories
- Barbies and accessories (these have all been gifted and not requested)
- More puzzles which I rotate with the ones upstairs
- Books which I rotate with the ones in their rooms
- Peppa pig stuff
- Schliech riding school and associated horses etc
- 2 x boxes of Wooden track and trains
- 2 x boxes of play food and utensils to go with the play kitchen that's down here
- Box of random stuff that doesn't fit into the above categories.
- Also downstairs are a toy buggy each.
In their bedrooms they also have some toys such as dolls house but not much.
We've found that they don't play with the kitchen now it's downstairs but there's no room for it upstairs.
Stuff like play doh, we barely use as the kids are at wrap around/full time nursery so we have about an hour in the evening. They tend to play imaginary games, build a fort from sofa cushions etc in this time. On the weekend we tend to be outside, out and about doing gymnastics/parties/ visiting family etc.
Jigsaws and puzzles we barely do. Perhaps it's the age gap but often when I try to do one with the eldest, the youngest gets involved and we end up with arguing, eldest being upset because he gets it wrong/messes it up etc. I feel very guilty about this and try to be there as much as possible but when I'm also tying to get dinner on the table etc it's hard.
It's all tidy organised but it just feels like so much!
I feel like getting rid of 80% of the jigsaws but feel bad that they were gifts and have hardly been used.
My daughter has also just had a birthday so we've got two big bags full of gifts from that from family and she had about 6 friends over for a play (Lovely that she had gifts of course).
Help a mum on the brink of chucking it all on a bonfire!