When is the best time to declutter your kid’s toys? Before or after Christmas?
After!
Here’s a short and simple explanation as to why. If you declutter your kid’s toys before Christmas. It’s going to be harder for your child to detach from their toys. opposed to you decluttering their toys after Christmas. Your child is going to be focused on their new toys and will not be so attached to their old ones. Making the process of eliminating toys much easier.
Also, a lot of times during Christmas you will get duplicate toys of the same type, especially from friends/relatives that might not know you already have specific toys.
Here are 5 steps to decluttering your kids toys after Christmas
Step 1.
Give your little one a heads up. Prepare them that you are going to be going through toys getting rid of ones they no longer play with, making room for new ones, etc. You can even give them a heads up before Christmas so they are prepared.
Ex. “After Christmas, we are going to take a day and go through all the toys you own. It would be a good idea to start thinking of what toys you want to keep or no longer play with” Obviously make it age-appropriate.
Step 2.
Pick a day and time where your little one will be most receptive to this process. Aka, not hungry or tired lol.
Step 3.
Before you start the process, explain to your child why you are decluttering and where the toys are going. A lot of people donate old toys. That’s what we do! This is a great teaching moment to explain how important it is to give and donate to the less fortunate. You can use examples such as “there are little children who don’t have any toys and you are blessed with so many”, etc.
Not only is this true and a good teaching moment. It also helps your kids not think “mom’s throwing all our toys out”.
Step 4.
Time to declutter! Go through the house and take ALL your kid’s toys out. Place them all on the ground in one area. This will not only help with the visualization part of seeing how many toys your child has. It helps with organizing once you decide what toys you want to keep.
5 tips how to declutter kids toys
This step is really important to let your child go through and decide what they want to keep and what they would like to donate. Don’t forget to remind them of the donation part if there is pushback. You will be surprised how much your little one will care about other children not having any toys.
Step 5.
Replace the toys your child wants to keep back and pack up the items that need to be donated. Continue to involve your child in these processes. Let them drive to the donation center with you, etc. This is all part of the teaching process so they can see and feel the good of “giving” to others.
That’s it! The biggest part is teaching your child why you’re donating toys and letting them be a part of the process.
If you have any questions. I would love to answer the! You can send me a message or leave a comment below.