When my girls were little -- about a month before Christmas we cleaned up their rooms.... cleaned sorted AND got rid of toys they no longer played with.
That is not a tradition that has ever happened in this house. The lil one does not give up toys for any reason. Back in the spring/summer I got her to help me organise and sort out the toys in her bins... throwing out a lot of old colouring books ... broken crayons... and baby toys. I thought we did a good thing.
The lil one though didn't have the same opinion and told her mother that I had made her throw out her toys! What a shit storm! The only time after that when I wanted more sorting done I insisted Sir Steve was with me while we sorted and tidied (trust me when I say this child had more toys/stuffed animals than any other child I have ever met!) he brought all the toys assigned to "GO" up to her mother. (let her figure out what to do with them!)
But the room still had major sorting to do....... I refused to venture into her cupboard .. it was full of boxes of god only knew what!
Yesterday when I was cleaning and I virtually by-passed her room for the umpteenth time...... I threw a little hissy fit. Sir Steve promised that when the lil one got home from school they (her and him) would sort and clean.
We had a talk with the lil one about Santa coming -- about children who don't have toys -- about her having way tooooo many and most of them she 1) never played with or 2) were 'baby toys' and she had outgrown them.
'Daddy took a firm stand and said that she could keep 6 of her stuffies (not including the favourite ones she sleeps with) and that they would empty all the boxes in her cupboard.
It didn't take them too long -- maybe an hour or so -- but at the end there were 3 HUGE garbage bags of stuffies.... a whole box filled with baby books ..... brand new crayons and markers and colouring books never used...... and two HUGE plastic bins of mega blocks! (one was kept)
Sir Steve loaded up his van to take them all to one of the charities that collect gently used toys before Christmas.
The cupboard floor is virtually empty -- we put her box of dress up clothes in it -- and the huge bin of mega blocks and there was still room to put a furry blanket - turned into a rug - in. Now she has a 'clubhouse or secret hidey hole' whichever she prefers to play in.
I can't get over how much room she has in the room now! and as we reassured her lots of room for more toys from Santa..... and room to play. She wants a 'big' girl bedroom for Christmas and there is gobs of room for the new bed that is hidden away in the back shed until the 25th !!!
Some old traditions are a good thing !!
Love it. We also have that tradition and are slowly working through room by room. Good for you for reinstating an old tradition.
ReplyDelete--Baker
That does sound like a lot of toys. wow.
ReplyDeletei like cleaning out the house before Christmas too. we used to do that when we were little, cos the end of the year meant we'd get new school stuff for January when our academic year begins.
it also meant we had to chuck out old school stuff we no longer wanted/needed, and along with that, all the clothes / toys / bits and pieces we had gathered over the year.
it's a tradition i've kept up. so year end is always "spring cleaning" for me even tho it's no where near spring!
(not that i get any seasons in where i live anyway... it's always hot and sunny. too hot sometimes.)