Friends, I need somebody to lament with me. Surely I can't be the only one who feels at war every day with the clutter that plagues my home. And today I'm not talking about yesterday's pile of unsorted mail, or the stack of year-old magazines. Today I am talking specifically about child-clutter.
You know what I'm talking about! The McDonalds happy meal toys, two month old Sunday School crafts, birthday party treat bag remnants, and puzzles with missing pieces. Things that surely don't need to be saved, at least in my eyes.
However, Emily disagrees.
She argues that somebody GAVE HER that bear with a jack-o-lantern for a mid section, and that picture of Solomon and the pillars is of the CHURCH HE BUILT FOR GOD, and that puzzle has BARBIE on it for goodness sakes! All reasons not to get rid of the aforementioned garbage.
Scott and I just finished a battle in her closet. We will call it, "The Battle of All Things Stuffed." Of course Emily had a reason for keeping just about every item we tried to put in the Hefty bag. We resorted to a new battle tactic: distract and stuff! I distracted Emily's eyes while Scott stuffed the bag full of all the useless stuffed animal toys that she has accumulated.
There has to be an easier way. I've talked with Emily about how important it is to share her toys with children that don't have them. And she's all about that, until I pull out a specific toy. Then she goes into a five minute diatribe about the history of that toy, and its importance to the household. Ugh.
Anybody else have some ideas for getting rid of, or managing children clutter?
5 comments:
Honestly, I do it when my kids aren't here and get rid of whatever I think needs to go. I've done it since Hanna was tiny - at first, I'd fill up a Hefty bag and stash it in the garage for a month or two. If something was missed, I'd pull it back out and replace it with something else...and eventually get rid of it.
99% of the time, though, they never even noticed anything had disappeared.
Maybe Em could nap in your room while you go through her things?
That is good idea. I have tried to do that before, but didn't hide the hefty bag well enough, and she found it in the garage. Though had she not, she would never have known the contents weren't right in her closet.
Umm... Have you been in my house? Have you met Korianna?
you dont know me but im your blog stalker :)
i agree with #1 comment. also i notice that the old the child get the easier it is. my daughter is 5 and is very good at getting rid of stuff now. i usally tell her she can keep X amount of any like item. 5 baby dolls, 3 baby blankets, 4 balls, ect...
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