I tried to get a lot done over this past three day weekend, and some of the worst clutter was the stuffed animal collections in the kids’ rooms. I’ve tried putting them up in nets, or on shelves, but the fact is there’s just way too many of them. So this is what I came up with to help the kids help me get some of their space back. It’s not very original but I did have good results with it, so I thought it might be helpful to someone else. (I did most of the real PITA stuff myself but I needed their help for this one.)
First I had them bring out ALL their stuffed animals and throw them in a pile on the living room floor. It was a pretty impressive sight! I’m estimating maybe two hundred toys altogether. Then I had them separate the things into piles:
Best Friends (limit 3)
Stays in the Room (limit 10)
See You in 6 Months
See You Next Year
Goodwill
The rules were that the owner of a stuffed animal made the original decision as to what pile it went in. The other kid could alter that decision, but only if they moved the animal into a higher pile, such as taking it from See You Next Year to See You in Six Months. That way, no one gets separated from his or her beloved, even if it “belongs” to someone else. The limits on the top two piles made for a lot of tough decisions, but they worked it out. (Also, I fished some things out of the pile that were definitely not going anywhere, such as my beanbag Kermit frogs.) Eventually, the kids got it whittled down to the point where we can manage to get their closet doors shut, five Hefty bags full of animals went into storage, and a paper bag full of animals went to Goodwill. And it really wasn’t so hard! Now if anybody knows what can be done with six thousand toy vehicles…
Got a glue gun, a big sheet of plywood, and paint in the shades of green, white, black and yellow? If so, you can make an “art project” out of them that can be hung on the wall afterward. Of course, if it’s a big sheet of plywood, make sure you’ve got wall space for it in the kid’s room and that you can secure it to the wall properly and safely before you start this project.
The basic idea is that you paint streets and sidewalks and grass or whatever in between all the streets, then glue all the toy cars onto the road, off the road, wherever the kids want them placed. Knowing me, there would be lots of random scenes in the finished product that’d take a few minutes to find. You know, little car collisions with Lego trees, or a family having a picnic with their monster truck next to them by a lake or something. Have fun with it.
If, by any chance, this is not a solution for you, maybe try just hanging them from the ceiling or just gluing them up there in an odd arrangement. There’s something you can do with them to get them out of the way and still make them fun.
How old are the kids? If they’re older, try talking to them about what vehicles they don’t play with any more. Tell them that other kids who don’t have any toys would love to have the vehicles they (your kids) don’t love any more. To drive the point home, perhaps you could have them collect up some and take them to the homeless shelter or shelter for battered women/children. This seems to give kids a more direct sense of giving than donating to Goodwill.
If the kids are young, try taking the vehicles out a few at a time while the kids aren’t looking. Put them up where the kids won’t see them. If they don’t miss them (as in “Hey, did you see my police car anywhere?”) then they probably don’t need them. Feel free to donate them.
Another idea that can work well is to gather up all toys but a very select few, and set up a “store”. Make the kids earn “money” (Monopoly money will work, or make your own) by doing extra chores, being extra nice, completing homework in a timely fashion, etc. with which to “buy” the toys back from you. By doing this, you can easily see which toys they really like. Which ones are they willing to work to keep? Others can be donated. This is a little more work for you, but also helps to teach the kids to prioritize.
One last thing (sorry this is so long): It’s really hard to talk to kids about letting go of excess clutter if you yourself hang on to every bit of twine and rubber band you ever come across. Set a good example by letting your kids watch you clear out some of your clutter.
I don’t care for this idea the way it’s presented here - the toys already belong to the children, and taking them away and “selling” them back “just because” seems mean. On the other hand, there’s a variation on this theme that worked wonderfully for us when the Terrible Teen was a Tot: when she left her toys and books out instead of putting them away, we’d gather them into a basket and make her earn them back. We laid out the ground rules ahead of time - we would not tell her what toys were in the basket, she had to actually miss it on her own and mention it. The chores she had to do to get it back were small and age-appropriate, and if she didn’t miss something within two weeks, it got packed away for Goodwill.
And I agree about letting your kids see you de-clutter your own stuff and about making donations - once a year we take the Girl Scouts down to the Crisis Center with their bags of donated toys and clothing, and that’s by far the most rewarding thing for the girls. They are willing to spend more time and energy on that activity than any other.
Yeah, I can see your point. I guess I was thinking that if the OP is complaining about too many stuffed animals, vehicles and such, that they are laying around, not put away. So what you say makes good sense.
You know, I think the hard part of getting rid of all these little cars is because they all belong to the same kid. (So far I’ve been using norinew’s idea of swiping them a little at a time.) To really be fair, I’m going to have to come gunning for Barbie too. Thanks for the responses!