“What if you guys only had ten toys?”
“Oooh! Ten more toys? Like from Christmas?”
“No, like ten total toys! Only ten!”
“I’m not getting rid any of my stuff!”
Challenge accepted.
Over the past pandemic months, I have cleaned my house more times than I can count. I have “quaran-cleaned”–cleaned thoroughly and with abandon, because it was one of the few activities I could do while under quarantine. I have decluttered like a mother. I have culled and purged.
It’s been a good time. For me.
To be completely honest, I have taken several van-loads to various donation centers. Much of the contents has been kid stuff. Toys. Clothes. Books. Stuff my kids don’t really use. I have minimized the toy selection dramatically.
And they haven’t cared. And they have played with what they have. Amazing!
It’s been a good time. For all of us.
I know I’m not the first one to “discover” that kids do better with less clutter and less choices. It is my opinion that when they can’t see a toy, they don’t usually think about it, and could probably not care less about it.
What would happen if you just had a few things to play with that are available at pretty much all times and are not buried or packed away or stored on top shelves in pretty opaque bins? I’ll tell you what will probably happen. Your kids will play with the toys they have, and be fine with it.
I find that this principle is especially helpful in reducing a stressful environment for my kids who struggle with anxiety and/or have sensory challenges. Too much visual stimulation stresses my kids out. A calm space can help promote a calm kiddo.
It can be helpful for kids with executive function challenges to have less choices. Some kids just struggle to make choices because that is part of executive functioning. If we can remove some of the stress of choice-making, we can accommodate our children’s needs and allow them to actually enjoy playing with the toy they have.
At all costs, I want to steer away from providing opportunities for my kids to commit what I like to call the “big dump”–that dreaded act where your kiddo dumps the whole bucket of toys out because they have no idea what they want to play with…and then they walk away. I’m cringing typing it. Let’s try to avoid the “big dump”, shall we?
So don’t have a whole bucket of toys. If they don’t have a whole bucket of toys, they can’t dump a whole bucket of toys. Am-I-right? My suggestion is to have smaller containers which fit fewer things. The smaller containers also allow kids to more easily see what’s inside the container without having to rummage to the bottom or commit…dare I say it again…”the big dump.”
So, while we do certainly have more than just ten toys, we have way less toys than we did in February. Decreasing our toy quantity and clutter level in the home as been one of the means by which the stress level in our home has dropped. I have sought to love my children in one way by modeling for them a simpler life. I have sought to shepherd them to see that stuff is just stuff, and often more stuff just causes more problems. Having less stuff can allow us to focus better on what matters, and can cause our gratitude to increase if we remember that we have exactly as much as God wants us to have. And it is enough.
