purging children’s rooms

Time is flying, and we’re back with our next installment in this series, y’all!

This is the hardest part. At least it feels that way for us.

{But first, a little housekeeping note: If you don’t have to / need to purge children’s rooms, totally skip this and purge somewhere else you feel inspired. Someone mentioned on #lazygalsguide that they would use a little time to purge their digital stuff when something didn’t apply to them. So brillz! Yes, I just wrote that. The 12 weeks of purging is designed to handle just a little at a time, for a realistic lifestyle change.}

At first, we were all, Yes. Let’s do this. For Narniiiaaaaaaaaaaa!

{expectation}

{reality}

And then this.

I was basically sucked into another dimension with possessed toys a-la poltergeist.

So scary.

In other news, if someone ever brings my children a clown that looks like that, I will kill it.

With fire. Twice.

So, if being sucked into a possessed dimension with serial killer clowns isn’t really your cup of tea, here’s a few pointers we recommend before diving in.

Purging children’s rooms:

1. Let go of perfection and stick to your vision. {We talked a little about our vision in our first post here} Children’s spaces are children’s spaces. It is what it is.

As much as I would love to live in an all white minimalist jump-on-the-tiny-house bandwagon with only two wooden handmade toys and a beautiful view of the windswept Alps in Switzerland, I’m being real here. We have birthdays. We celebrate holidays with families. And the truth of the matter is, I would totally go batcrap cray and jump off a cliff if my home were under 100 square feet with three rambunctious children and two growing pups. We would always be touching. And sometimes, I need to not be touched. I need them to go play with Legos and not scream. About someone touching them. But now I’m totally off in left field on a train wreck of thought, thinking about how cool those tiny houses are, even though I would end up on Nancy Grace. For murdering someone with a whole 30 gluten free granola bar.

So, with toys, at the end of the day, I have no one to blame but myself. While we can whittle it down, and while it has drastically changed for us personally over the past few years, I think a big part of working with your children and your home is remembering that they live here, too. It’s about finding joy in their childhood, while gently teaching them all the important things.

We can become a little overzealous sometimes, and forget that.

The simple truth is one day we will miss this. All of the Legos. All of the Barbies. All of the Christmas toys they really didn’t need. I think we can allow ourselves to soak up the wonder of childhood, while maintaining a healthy view on toys and their collections, all while not beating ourselves up. {We have to repeat that mantra a lot around our home.}

We can threaten them when we jump on our purging mantras for the new year, and make them feel ungrateful and make ourselves feel worse in the process. OR we can accept it for what it is, and do better as life goes on. Just remember it won’t be perfect. If we start out by lowering our expectations when we’re wading through the mid-purge disaster, it will make things a whole lot easier.

So, be realistic. Cut yourself, and your entire family a little slack.

2. Look for the problem spots. This goes hand in hand with the whole letting-go-of-perfection thing. Find what works for all of you, and stick with it. Sometimes that takes a couple of rounds to figure it out. For instance, the toy box above is great in theory. Until it becomes a dumping ground for all of their things with no thought whatsoever as to what goes where. We have to keep it in check, or children will be lost in an avalanche of incrediblehulkcaptainamericamylittleponymariobrotherspalooza.

And once upon a time, we color coded all of our legos. Yep, I actually sat there with my oldest and divided all of them out into little boxes. I think that took an entire day. Guess what? Aintnobodygottimeforthat and it doesn’t look like that anymore. It doesn’t work for us. So now we have a couple of big tupperware bins, they dump them out when they want to play and they put them away when they’re finished. Finished pieces are now stored on the playroom bookshelves {more on that next week} and in their closet. I would love some big complicated pinterest-worthy table with awesome color coded bins to make people jealous of my mad lego organization skillz. The truth is, our home doesn’t have the space for that. Sometimes it’s all about little things that really work.

3. Divide and Conquer  

a. Take it one space at a time. Our posts are slow and steady, so that you guys can tackle it as you need to. Don’t be afraid to take a step back if you feel overwhelmed, or to divide the process into many days. It helps with the whole keeping-your-sanity thing.

Rinse and repeat. Kids have an uncanny ability to store things in their room in a manner eerily similar to that a packrat. It builds up over time. But we’ve found that the more often we tackle it in small areas {Maybe once a quarter?} the less there is, overall in terms of lego pileups and maintaining it all.

b. Enlist their help. Each family is different, and we believe that age can make a huge difference. But get them to pitch in, for longer lasting results. {For more thoughts on purging with your kids check this out, here} When they were younger, it was easier to do it without them. And now we involve them. When we were finished cleaning out the boys’ space a few days ago, our oldest looked at us and said, “My room is so much cleaner now!” While our five year old fusses over that happy meal minion we’re ready to toss. Accept them with where they are, and guide them along the way.

They’ll grow with you.

4. It gets worse before it gets better. You may feel like you’re drowning in it all. That’s kind of what it takes before it starts to get better. It’s a million little exhausting decisions. There are things everywhere. I may or may not have lost my sanity at one point, thrown away an entire box without even looking at it, and then felt bad enough to go back and make sure I didn’t toss something they love. Stay with it, and remember you’re not alone. Speaking of not alone…

5. #thelazygalsguide There’s strength in numbers, so don’t forget to share on instagram with a hashtag. This is a judge free zone. You’re seeing our messes. Now we want to see yours! Post the pretty and the ugly. You guys inspire us, and we can’t wait to see your struggles and your triumphs! Go ahead and share.

So on to the zones:

Clothes: Dressers and chests, drawers and boxes. Clean out and donate the items that no longer fit. Purge it. {This doesn’t really apply to us anymore because we took on a family closet, as it made sense with our layout and their ages and freed up their dressers for things like Barbies, weapon arsenals, and all that other fun stuff that drive us bonkers when it’s left out on the floor, so we’ll be covering more on the clothing aspect, later.}

Labels can really help in getting your little ones involved with putting away that laundry. Game changer. Check out our clothing labels here + here!

Sentimentals:

See last week’s post for what we choose to do with those. But for the things that are not on display, or even those teeny outfits you have trouble parting with, find a system that works. We’ve donated or handed down most of them. But for clothes, baby blankets, and things that are of sentimental value, here’s a little secret: I allow one tupperware container per child. Forever. It sits in our attic, and when they’ve outgrown something I’m particularly fond of, something that grandma made and just feel like it would be sweet to keep, up it goes. Maybe I’m ridiculous, but I think that one day, they may want that for their littles. Or they may burn it in their back yard and do a happy dance. At least I tried.

Don’t be afraid to reevaluate over time. For instance, you may feel differently about something when it’s out of sight out of mind. And if you run out of space in that container, purge the container. Stay limited so you have to be reasonable. It’s so hard, I know.

The older they are, the easier it gets. Everyone is different, but if you need it, give yourself some space and time and work through it when you can. Mamas gotta do their thing.

The Closet:

We have closets and clothing organization coming up on another week, {and again, we don’t store clothes in their closet – currently} if you don’t feel like tackling that now, skip it. What we’re referring to here is freeing up the floor of that closet with all their things, and finding a system that works. Look for rogue toys and trash {for some reason, we always have old balloons hidden there} and get rid of it. And whether it’s a collection of baskets, containers or different shelving, find a system that works for you and your littles.

Toys:

All of them. It’s exhausting, but we recommend finding a system that works. This round, we found things they’d officially grown out of now that our youngest is five. Those are perfect for donations. Purge it all, and keep your head on straight. You can do this.

We keep a system of baskets in their closets because their rooms are a little limited on floor space. This means we have to get things down for them on occasion, but it’s worth it in the long run.

We had a hard time finding boxes to fit all the nerf guns palooza our boys love. So their chest of drawers now stores all of their arsenal. Beware, zombies. If nerf bullets are the secret to survival, we’ve totally got this.

Stuffed Animals:

Because we feel like this involves an entirely different category, and may be reason for a covert operation. Find somewhere to put the ones they want to keep {We have a trunk so they’re not always taking over their rooms} and work from there. When in doubt, store some of them away secretly, to make sure they won’t be on the hunt for a beloved lovie you toss and now regret. Tread carefully, friends… and whittle it down when no one is looking if this is an issue. This section needs to end in good luck, because stuffed animals are satan.

Under the bed and furniture: You’ll be amazed by what you can find there. Clear it all out, and while a few things will still sit, keeping the floors clear are a great, fast way to feel better about a space. A place for everything and everything in it’s place.

We hope you’re ready to do this, and our tips helped a little with dividing it up, in a realistic way! You’ve got this.

{reality}

It does get worse before it gets better. But the truth of the matter is, it looks awesome again when you’re finished.

And it feels like you lost about ten pounds.

Do lists make you feel better? We have this weeks’ collection for kids spaces, ready to go! {kids spaces blank, donationsheet-kids, organization-kids}

We’ll be fine tuning said freebies each week to go hand in hand with each post, and we love the fact that they work seamlessly with our free planner printables! Be sure to check those out, too with getting your booty into gear for the new year.

Don’t forget to share your inspiring photos, messes and triumphs on instagram with the hashtag #lazygalsguide! There is encouragement and accomplishment in community!

We are inspired by you and can’t wait to see! We hope you’re ready to knock out those kids rooms!

As always, let us know if you have any questions or suggestions, and we would love to hear from you, to see what you’ve done as well. What are some of your problem areas in your kids spaces?

Have an inspired day!