To wage war on the kids clutter

[JustSomebodyThatIUsedToKnow]

I know I’m not, but please egg me on / suggest ways to tackle this.

We are literally drowning in stuff. Lovely toys, many hand-me-downs from generous friends. Less lovely toys. Numerous plastic figures. Tat that came free with magazines. Hair clips (everywhere!). Beads, plastic jewellery, so much Lego. Enough dressing up clothes to put on a Pantomine. So many kids books that we could start our own library. It’s all over the place. I’m sure that it migrates of its own accord during the night. We’ve got a decent sized house - including a playroom - but the stuff is in almost every room, including my bedroom. The kitchen table is always covered in fiddly things. Children are 10 (with some issues so not as responsible as many 10 year olds), 8 and 4.

I just can’t keep on top of it. I think I need to systematically get rid of about 3/4 of it - even the nice stuff that is sometimes played with. I’m not organised enough to do the toy rotation thing. The children will object - but I’ve just spent hours trying to tidy and have barely made an impact.

We moved countries when DC was 7. We didn't have movers move any of our stuff. We wanted a fresh start. So before the big day DC had a decision: whatever he wants he can put it in the luggage after the clothes are in. We moved with 1 piece of luggage.
In the coming months we had 3 microwave sized boxes posted by my parents with toys and books.
So: put everything away as if you were moving. Take photos/makes lists of what is where. Then you take out only specific things that they want to play with. Anything that doesn't get played with in 3 months can go to a charity shop.

We are huge boardgame fans and have 60+ board and card games. We have the same rule: anything we haven't played with in 3 months goes to ebay.
The only thing I cannot part with is our 40 kgs of lego :)

I’m ruthless. And it’s amazing. We have one small cupboard of toys in the living room and then a dressing up rail and books in dd1 room and just a few books in dd2 room.

It’s hard when you get started as there’s so much to get rid of but after you’ve cleared out 75% of it it’s much easier to keep on top of. I still clear out monthly pretty much but it’s usually only a small bag or 2.

To start have a bag/box to chuck/donate/sell. If you don’t think you’ll get round to selling then just chuck and donate. Don’t do it when the kids are there and have everything gone by the time they are home. You have to be ruthless. Anything broken/not played with/too old or young get rid of. Anything you’re keeping because it cost a lot or was a special present but fits in to one of the above categories get rid of.

Any toys from magazines or McDonald’s get rid of. If you have multiple toys get rid of all except one unless having more adds to the playing such as Lego or dolls. Even then, you don’t need many.

Try to remember that your kids are probably not actually at home playing that much. My kids are at school and preschool where they have toys, they go round to friends houses where they can play with toys and we go out to parks etc a lot. When we’re in they like doing arty stuff a lot and watch tv. So I’d say they spend an hour max a day playing with toys. Some days no time at all. Do they really need all the toys in the toyshop just for that? Plus since having so few toys they really play well. They get engrossed. They don’t get distracted by mess or too many choices. Try to tell yourself that while you’re clearing out.

If we had a play room all the toys would be contained in there but it would still be uncluttered and organised. Maybe start in the playroom and clear it out as much as possible then start moving the stuff from everywhere else in there and getting rid of as much of that as you can until there’s nothing anywhere else and you’ve got lots of room in the play room for dc to actually play. Have fun! It will feel amazing when you’re done!

I need to do with with DD's stuff. She did have a mid sleeper bed, but she hated it and didn't sleep well so decided she wanted a 'normal' single bed. She had all her toys in ikea units under her old bed- this means there's not as much storage space in her stupidly tiny bedroom. She hardly played with her toys anyway as she couldn't lift the boxes out from the unit. Anyway, It's currently all piled up in her brothers (much, much bigger!) bedroom. We're off to ikea soon to get her new furniture, anything that doesn't fit in will have to go!

As a volunteer school librarian, I am sure that your DC's school would happily accept donations of books, either to the library if their is one, or to enhance classroom stocks.
Get rid of the junk models, and stuff that comes free with Happy Meals and magazines.
Gather the hair clips, and keep them in one box.
Just a few small things, but they might make a difference!
Or, if they are old enough to understand the concept, book a car boot and tell them that they can keep the money from anything they sell. Think of something that this money can buy beforehand, so that they don't buy more junk with it!

I am doing this at the moment. We have a skip on the drive for some garden stuff and at the weekend I went feral on a couple of rooms. I donated about 6 bin bags of stuff, and another 8 went in the skip. The kids held on very tightly to the stuff they wanted and the rest was fair game!

Its storage and having a home for everything. I have shelf's and big boxes for:
Cars
Lego
Duplo
Barbies
Random figures
My little ponies
2x playmobil
Play food
Play doh
Paint
Puzzles

Then two boxes under bed 1 for dressing up and one for babies and dollies

1 small chest for teddies. I told each child to choose 15 teddies each to keep and the rest to the charity shop. Sounds a lot but most of them are the small teddies like ty

The house is often a mess but doesn't take me long to get bedrooms and playrooms straight at the weekend

After birthdays and Christmas if they can't put the toys away they have to make space but giving to a chalet shop

Before birthdays/ Christmas you have to clear out and get rid of all the things you are now really too old for/ don't play with/ have broken, or no presents .

Have me over! I'm fantastic at decluttering/organizing toys! Seriously I should set up my own business at it.

You have to be exceptionally ruthless. If you haven’t seen them playing with it for months it means nothing to them and they won’t notice it disappear. not to make a problem for you but your issue is the 4yo, you won't know yet what he likes/ doesn't like so yes to chucking out the broken stuff but maybe keep any big good condition stuff aside if you can? I'm at the same point and am trying to keep the stuff I know they gravitate towards, and sneak out other stuff, but have a 4yo too so second guessing myself on anything. I do have a box for small figures and stuff instead of throwing them out as kids do randomly seem to come back to them after a time but the middle sized stuff is where I do my culling

Do your kids have a completely free wall in their bedrooms, or could you free up a wall? We put the Ikea Trofast stuff up over a whole wall on each room, plus a couple of the lower units on the side. They revolutionised our tidying up when we got those, you can label all the drawers and every toy (even the magazine freebies) can have their own drawer. Now that the older one doesn't have so many toys we bought more shelves for it instead of the drawers and he likes to put his artwork and crystals collection and stuff on it. You could also deck out the playroom in it, maybe coloured coded drawers for each child? Then in your room, lots of smaller boxes inside a cupboard/wardrobe for all the little bits - hair clips in one, etc etc. Maybe set yourself a small task every day to get everything a home, so that at least you know where to put stuff when it gets left out.

My top tip is not to ask them what they want to give away / keep. That is is too difficult. Just quietly remove what you know they don't play with and they will never notice.
Quietly bin all the art and junk models as soon as the next item arrives home.
If they ask for a toy that has moved on suggest they go and look - they will soon be bored and forget.

I clear out all the magazine crap about once a week when dd is in bed. I've always sneaked old toys etc to the charity shop or the bin once she has lost interest in them after a few weeks. She's 5 and not once has she noticed anything missing.

Need another clear out though as my livingroom is full of crap. Might be a job for tonight.

We have shit shelves in DDs room. They're actually Mosslanda picture ledges from Ikea. When they're full of Happy Meal toys, stuff made at school, etc. they have to be cleared. I send lots of homemade stuff to Grandma's...

I've come to realise that I just have to do this myself when everyone is out as it just ends up with tears otherwise. I would move everything into the play room (I would LOVE a playroom!) and then sort it into piles. Hair stuff, art stuff, jewellery etc. If it's all strewn around the house then chances are they don't know where to find it anyway. Then tackle each category and be utterly ruthless. Some stuff will be obvious but if I'm not sure it goes into halfway house storage for a bit. Usually when I've tidied they're so pleased that all their art stuff (or whatever) is together and tidy that they don't miss anything.

I also have to avoid taking DC to the charity shop as she once spotted something I'd donated the day before - even then she didn't put 2 and 2 together.

If they want anything new then they have to decide what to donate in return, it sounds mean but we just don't have the space. Then you need a plan to stop it getting like that again - though it always seems to eventually. Good luck! Oh, I'd also recommend Ikea's Kallax, you can have individual drawers for stuff but you don't have to see any of it.

My dd had a ridiculous amount of soft toys on her bed.when she was about 9, I took out 10 or so that i thought were not special to her and put in a bag in my wardrobe. She didn't notice for a few weeks and i said if she could name or describe the ones that were missing she could have them back. I think she got 2 or 3 back ! The absolute bain of my life is lego!! It appears EVERYWHERE!! (I'm sure theres a lego breeding farm somewhere in the house!!)

Our house is definitely cluttered and DD has too many toys. One thing that's helped is making the dining table (no kitchen table) a toy free zone. DD has a large play table and can use the desk space in the office, so it's not as though she has no table space. But it makes it much easier to have space to eat (!), for her to do homework, for me to study etc. The dining table is large, so for a while there were toys at one end and we ate from the other, but the no toys at all rule works better for us.

I did a kondo approach - gather everything of each 'type' in 1 place. I used the landing. Then everyone inc kids can see just how many teddies / cars / dress up clothes they have.

Then agreed a number that was acceptable to keep ie 10 cuddlies each. They then chose 10 and the rest were very quickly swept up into bin bags for charity.

Thanks all, great advice here. You’ve motivated me to make a start at clearing out - and no toys on the kitchen table is going to be our first rule.

Such good tips on here! I think I’m going to cut and paste them into word and save them my DD is only 18 months so we haven’t amassed a great deal as yet.

I know myself that ‘less is more’ when it comes to toys and open ended items are better but I still feel bad when I see one particular instamums DD’s playroom absolutely stuffed to the brim with toys. The DC is just two and has EVERYTHING and then more.

With what little my DD has I already rotate them around eg. She has four stacking/sorting type toys (that she just hurls around the place ) so if the shape sorter and the stacking cups are out I put the big nesting blocks and the other stacking cups away. No point having them all out and just more fiddly bits to pick up.

She also has a pram and a little work bench thing that I alternate (work bench is on wheels so she can push it around).

She hardly plays with toys anyway so hopefully I can keep up the less is more approach.

Really enjoyed this thread. I’m nine months pregnant and throwing out a black bin bag a day at the moment - I’m unstoppable. It’s obviously the nesting instinct, but nobody has noticed anything missing, they just say how much space there is. My middle child did say how nice that preschool got new toys - they had been in the garage for so long she had forgotten they were hers.

Ahoy She hardly plays with toys anyway
That's because she is only 18 months. The time for toys will come.

My top tip is not to ask them what they want to give away / keep.

Yes to this! ' But I've had that fluffy bit of dirt got years now, it's my favourite thing-I play with it every day'

'Right kids, we're going to do a big clear out so I need you to find some things that can be rehomed!' is a great way of keeping them occupied on a wet afternoon though, as they determinedly find and fall in love with stuff they've not played with since Boxing Day 2015! Even if it's just for the afternoon, before they promptly forget abut it forever...