Tips for Ruthless Toy Declutter

The kids' room-aka my nemesis. Over and over again I have organized it and organized it. If you have been following my blog for a while, you'll know a while back I did a deep overhaul and clean-out of his bedroom. A year and countless times organizing it later, and it was still a disaster. Part of what made it an even bigger headache than before was that both Christmas and my daughter's December birthday brought more toys than I had estimated. So much for my no-toy preference for gifts! haha! Another factor is that my 14 month old loves to bring random objects from around the house and dump it into the play room, as well as being a little tornado when she plays. 

Something had to be done. I had tried to allow the kids to keep a lot of their toys and not be the 'bad guy'. Finally I was overwhelmed, as well as my 5 year old son. I took the advice of the Minimal Mom and decided to be ruthless! Here are some tips that helped me scale down on the kids' toys and not hurt my 5 year old's feelings in the process. 

I started by allowing only a certain number of categories to stay in the room. 

In her toy declutter series, The Minimal Mom talks about how she allowed a certain amount of categories for toys. When the kids get new toys, they need to fit into those categories for them to stay. I also don't allow the bins to get full. Once that happens, it's time to go through and figure out how to minimalize the toys again. 

Our Categories:

Little Man

Cars

K'nex building toys

Figures 

Baby Girl

Little People

Wooden toys and animal figures

Baby dolls

Together they have a dress up box and the play kitchen. Baby girl has a Little People's kitchen, and they have a few larger toys that didn't quite fit into the bins, but fit into the cubbies. They play with these toys often, so they are staying...for now.

When decluttering with kids, focus on what they love, not on what will be donated

Okay, so I am reiterating a lot of what the Minimal Mom says, but it really works! I told Little Man (who really wants to keep everything!) 'Which of your Spider-mans do you love?' Out of the 5! that he had, he picked his favorite, and easily let go of the rest. If you make it feel like they are apart of the process, while still being in control of the amount kept, it really helps the process to be smoother. 

Clear the space

Before when decluttering this room, I was too apt to allow the 'big items' to take over Little Man's floor space. He had big trucks, giant stuffed animals, Nerf guns, etc. that took valuable real estate in an already small bedroom. Outside of what fit into the top cubby space, I wanted to get rid of all the 'awkward' shaped toys. It made the room feel twice as large!

When deciding what to keep and get rid of, I remembered how hard it is to keep organizing. It helped me keep the number of toys as low as possible. I also made paper labels that I hope to replace with nicer ones. I just wanted to see if it helped (I drew a picture of the toy category on each card) the kids keep the room up. So far it has seemed to help!  Below I am giving you ideas and inspiration with my favorite organizing tools. Links are affiliated. 

What are your favorite tips for decluttering toys.