Tips on how to reduce clutter in the form of toys, books, games. We even give you tips on how to scare relatives into give you fewer toys!
“Christmas is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” said the hopeful and expectant child, upon seeing catalogs appear at the door or feeling the chill in the air or venturing into a walgreens and seeing the decorations that my cheap-ass will likely buy rather than going to Menards and getting something cool looking.
“Christmas is coming…” said the bewildered father who looks at 200 square feet of toys piled into 120 square foot room, knowing that each and every grandparent, aunt, godparent and loosely affiliated cousin is warming upon their Amazon fingers to unleash a plastic-shit-from-China-surge through my front door until my entire family asphyxiates under 12 feet cardboard packaging which is now incredibly difficult to open and when the hell did they add all of these ties which require surgical dexterity to free a $7 Hot Wheels from it’s casing and isn’t all of this “security” more expensive than the actual toy. No? It’s all 5 cents and you charge $7? Cool.
Never in the history of civilization have toys been less expensive and easier to obtain. Every store sells them – Pep Boys now gives out an Oil Change Oliver action figure if you upgrade to synthetic – and they’re cheap enough that a solid argument + a little bad parenting will get my kid something each time I make the mistake of bringing her on my errands. This leads to an actually sickening amount of garbage and waste. Every parent in my situation bemoans the fact that they have too much stuff, not enough space for it and kids that now expect a toy every time they leave the house.
This thing is $20. When I was growing up in the early 90s, it would have been $300 and worked 1/40th of the time you wanted to play with it (Buy on Amazon):
This is the situation I find myself in and we’re still 6 weeks from the day Santa died for our sins. If you’re reading this you’re probably looking for ideas on how to get yourself out of a similar mess. I won’t say any of these things solve the underlying issue – toys are everywhere and very cheap, grandparents are weak, toys are a great way to buy affection – but I think we can get a little of that square footage back that you paid so dearly for.
- Donate – This is a good place to start, especially with the holiday season approaching. Tap into your child’s natural (certainly not inherited) altruism. We made it clear that anything we donate will go to children that don’t have many toys to play with. This got her in the mood to think about what toys she’s not using and other children might like. I was surprised how little she cared about the things she was giving away. She certainly had a few toys that she didn’t want to part with, but for the most part, if she hadn’t played with it recently, she realized it would be better off in someone else’s hands.
- Send “The Email” – With the donation phase complete, it’s time to bring the hammer down on your immediate and extended family. Craft an email making it clear, in no uncertain terms, that toys are not welcome Christmas gifts this year. Books, puzzles, art supplies and clothes are all on the table are the acceptable gifts this year. This is a completely reasonable request and I would certainly accept it if it were asked of me. This will work on about 80% of your relatives. Of the 20%, 10% will be respectful in their defiance and try to get your kid to open their gift when you’re out of the room. The other 10% will look you dead in the eyes as your kid opens a 100 piece Paw Patrol tower. They may even add that they “saw your email.” Thank them profusely and give them a “no worries,” because you’ve still managed to eliminate 80% of the toy junk you would have gotten otherwise.
- Addendum to “Send the Email” – The other issue that I’ve found is that family members don’t just buy a toy and stop. They’re typically trying to reach a dollar threshold for gift spending. That means they might find something perfect for $25, but since they want to spend $50 on your child, they pile on the crap until the check out lady tells them they’ve reached $50. If you’re not quite ready to say no to toy gifts, at least put a limit on how many each person can buy. Where the clutter really gets bad is the ancillary $5 gifts that not only come on Christmas, but also birthdays, every time a relative visits or pops by walgreens. If you can keep those toys on the rack and out of your house, you’ve at least got a fighting chance against the clutter monster.
- Get your kids really excited about getting clothes – Most kids have a favorite article or style of clothing. Use that to your advantage. You can go online, find something that’s of interest to them and get them excited about receiving it. Unlike a toy, they can take their new clothes out into the world any day they wear it. That alone has gotten my daughter more excited about receiving clothing and stems off a bunch of toy purchases.
- Ask for experiences – There are so many ways you can go with this.
- Start by googling every museum, aquarium, planetarium or movie theather within 50 miles and ask your relatives for a gift card/passes. Winter is coming people, it’s best to have multiple morning/afternoon plans carved out.
- Have your relatives pay for dance, skating, gymnastics classes if they’re game, get them to come to the practice to watch. It’s a great way to see how this purchase was so much better for your child than another action figure.
- Asking for tickets to a sporting event, kids concert or play is great way to spend an afternoon and your child is much more likely to make a memory than with whatever near-disposable toy they’d receive in its place.
- Find kid friendly restaurants in your area and ask for gift cards. Let your kids hold onto the cards so they can “pay” when the time comes.
Hopefully this helps. If you have any additional advice, let us know in the comments.
Interesting Links on This Topic:
- Great Tips on How & Why to De-Toy your Home
- Why Having Too Many Toys Make your Kids Bored
- 5 Steps for Dealing with Toy Overload
Chris Jordan