My son is 10 now and getting really good at letting things go of toys as he's seen the rest of us decluttering and how much easier it is. Which is amazing as he's one of those sentimental kids.
I totally feel you! I enjoy buying toys for my 3 year old boy, like really enjoy! However, about a year ago we moved across the world, and I had to severely limit what we were able to bring with us. We don’t live in a place with readily available nice toys to purchase, so I had to be very selective and intentional with what we brought with us. Only the highest quality, most loved things could come. I sifted and sorted, and decluttered up until the very last few days of our departure. Doing this has really brought perspective. As well as the fact that we live in a rurul, third world area. Kids come often and play, and our kid’s bedroom is always a shock to the kids and parents who come. They would never dream of owning so much. And I think we are pretty minimal! HA! However, I also want to balance those feelings of guilt with the openness of having toys and being willing to share with others when they come. A few tips that you can take or leave or whatever: I have selected certain categories of toys and we only purchase what will fit into those categories. Some categories for us include: train set, magnetic tiles, lego duplo, hot wheels sized cars, animal figures, play food dishes (we don’t have a kitchen, just a tea set and a few dishes with a set of fruits and veggies. Its plenty and my boy really enjoys it), dress up clothes and a few accessories. and what I label “sensory” (a pop it, spinning tops, odds and ends like that which also serve as travel toys). This doesn’t include play dough and some art supplies, and of course, books. If it doesn’t fit into these categories, we don’t buy! I also try to be consience of the amount in each category. I realized he wasn’t playing with the lego duplo as much so I dumped the box, and took away a bunch of random sets/pieces he doesn’t really play with. I put them away for now. He has been playing alot more with it now! But like, he propably owns like 20 trains for the train tracks, but he plays with all of them so I left them alone. With the toy rotation, we don’t do it anymore. When we were moving around more at first, I had each of the larger categories in boxes and I just got them out on request. Say he wanted the trian set, then I would tell him all the magnetic tiles have to be picked up and put away, then I could switch it out for the trains. It worked pretty well. But now that we are more settled, he has access to all of those things. Unless its been a crazy time and people have been over, it doesn’t take very long to clean up even with all of it available. Another advantage to the categories, is that I love the idea of having a category, then building on it over time. Say for magnetic tiles, its one of those things that having like 200 peices is actually really fun! And there are so many cool sets these days. So you can easily build onto the collection you already have. The train sets are also a could build on as time goes buy type of toy. Another part of toy buying for us is buying quality. Especially when it comes to open ended stuff. I would much rather spend more money and get less items. It discourages people from buying more if they are spending like $50 on a BRIO train peice or a magnetic tile set. If you have less, you tend to value what you have more! And if it turns out to be something that isn’t played with or liked, you can typically sell higher quality items like that online and get your money back. I mean but also, you just can’t go wrong with magnetic tiles, lol. And if it stresses you out, don’t keep something that the next kid may like in 5 years. Toys will always be available to repurchase if you choose to do that. Your mental capacity for inventorying stuff is more important than $20 you may end up spending rebuying something awhile from now. Maybe limit yourself to one storage box of some favorites and leave it at that? I know this is a long comment, but I just feel really passionate about minimalism and toys. I understand the struggle! I hope this helps!
Thank you for all the advice! Your comment does motivate me to declutter more. I do think categorizing would be good. I think I need to rethink my playroom and have more things like magnetic tiles and train sets always available. At the same time, toy rotation is still working really well and my son asks for a new rotation occasionally so I think I’ll keep that variable for now. Thank you!!
My son is 10 now and getting really good at letting things go of toys as he's seen the rest of us decluttering and how much easier it is. Which is amazing as he's one of those sentimental kids.
Oh wow! Thats really cool.
I totally feel you!
I enjoy buying toys for my 3 year old boy, like really enjoy! However, about a year ago we moved across the world, and I had to severely limit what we were able to bring with us. We don’t live in a place with readily available nice toys to purchase, so I had to be very selective and intentional with what we brought with us. Only the highest quality, most loved things could come. I sifted and sorted, and decluttered up until the very last few days of our departure. Doing this has really brought perspective. As well as the fact that we live in a rurul, third world area. Kids come often and play, and our kid’s bedroom is always a shock to the kids and parents who come. They would never dream of owning so much. And I think we are pretty minimal! HA! However, I also want to balance those feelings of guilt with the openness of having toys and being willing to share with others when they come.
A few tips that you can take or leave or whatever:
I have selected certain categories of toys and we only purchase what will fit into those categories. Some categories for us include: train set, magnetic tiles, lego duplo, hot wheels sized cars, animal figures, play food dishes (we don’t have a kitchen, just a tea set and a few dishes with a set of fruits and veggies. Its plenty and my boy really enjoys it), dress up clothes and a few accessories. and what I label “sensory” (a pop it, spinning tops, odds and ends like that which also serve as travel toys). This doesn’t include play dough and some art supplies, and of course, books.
If it doesn’t fit into these categories, we don’t buy! I also try to be consience of the amount in each category. I realized he wasn’t playing with the lego duplo as much so I dumped the box, and took away a bunch of random sets/pieces he doesn’t really play with. I put them away for now. He has been playing alot more with it now! But like, he propably owns like 20 trains for the train tracks, but he plays with all of them so I left them alone.
With the toy rotation, we don’t do it anymore. When we were moving around more at first, I had each of the larger categories in boxes and I just got them out on request. Say he wanted the trian set, then I would tell him all the magnetic tiles have to be picked up and put away, then I could switch it out for the trains. It worked pretty well. But now that we are more settled, he has access to all of those things. Unless its been a crazy time and people have been over, it doesn’t take very long to clean up even with all of it available.
Another advantage to the categories, is that I love the idea of having a category, then building on it over time. Say for magnetic tiles, its one of those things that having like 200 peices is actually really fun! And there are so many cool sets these days. So you can easily build onto the collection you already have. The train sets are also a could build on as time goes buy type of toy.
Another part of toy buying for us is buying quality. Especially when it comes to open ended stuff. I would much rather spend more money and get less items. It discourages people from buying more if they are spending like $50 on a BRIO train peice or a magnetic tile set. If you have less, you tend to value what you have more! And if it turns out to be something that isn’t played with or liked, you can typically sell higher quality items like that online and get your money back. I mean but also, you just can’t go wrong with magnetic tiles, lol.
And if it stresses you out, don’t keep something that the next kid may like in 5 years. Toys will always be available to repurchase if you choose to do that. Your mental capacity for inventorying stuff is more important than $20 you may end up spending rebuying something awhile from now. Maybe limit yourself to one storage box of some favorites and leave it at that?
I know this is a long comment, but I just feel really passionate about minimalism and toys. I understand the struggle! I hope this helps!
Thank you for all the advice! Your comment does motivate me to declutter more. I do think categorizing would be good. I think I need to rethink my playroom and have more things like magnetic tiles and train sets always available.
At the same time, toy rotation is still working really well and my son asks for a new rotation occasionally so I think I’ll keep that variable for now.
Thank you!!