Comments on: purging with your kids

By: handmade savvy saturday - the handmade home

handmade savvy saturday - the handmade home

[…] – it ends today! • Then and now: purging with your kids and what that looks like for us a few years later in another installation of The Lazy Gal’s Guide. • Shared our fave recipe for stained glass […]

By: Rose L.

Rose L.

Good article! With my son we would always do a purge in November to prepare for Christmas. We would say we were going to give toys for Santa to have enough to give to all of the children (did not want to dash his belief in Santa) and he was very happy to do that. We never had any confrontations. Phew!!!

By: Amanda Hes

Amanda Hes

I love this! I love this series, I love your blog and I love this post!!
My boys are 3 and 5 and we are just learning to minimize the toys so they can enjoy everything they have. By removing all the tiny pieces and meal toys and broken things from the closet they realized they had about 10 dinosaurs from the PBS show Dinosaur Train that all talk and interact with each other- they played happily together for hours (unheard of in my house!) and return to them to play again.
Another rule is all toys from meals must remain in the car- yes this keeps crap in the car but…… It keeps things from making it into the house shoved in any container, corner or under the bed, and it forces them to keep a few they like (we have seat covers that have small nets in them- what fits stays, what doesn’t goes directly into the trash). It may seem silly or backwards but it works for us in a semi-manageable-non-crisis sort of way.
Thanks for always inspiring and always being good for a large laugh at myself since we are not alone in the quest:)

By: CatQ

CatQ

In reply to Susan. AWESOME POST!!

By: CatQ

CatQ

In reply to Megan B. I LOVE the graditute journal. I wonder if I can start that with my 4.5 year old once a week, and he can draw a picture of what he is thankful for, and I can write the words. Being thankful in life is so important, and if they can learn early, how much easier thier lives will be if they start learning now. On another note, I have always said to my little guy if he grows out of a piece of clothing, or doesn't want to play with a toy anymore, that there is another little boy that would like to have it. Now my son comes up to me and says, Mom, I think another little boy might light this. Or if he finds a baby toy, he says, can we send this toy to my baby cousin? Now it's the Momma, ME, who has to follow thru and purge!

By: Susan

Susan

Well! I sure did enjoy that, we go to exercise downtown, it makes
Me sad, parking the car, you plainly see, the Haves & Have Nots.
There is a shelter & food pantry in the area & it seems so
Shocking to me, I see people walking into the gym & some seem to
Be able to block out those who, Have Not.

I was looking in my closet & found some things I have not worn
This winter because I have too much. I started at 1 end &
Pulled out sweaters & dresses & skirts & sweats.

When I took them into the mission where clothing donations are
Accepted & given by size to match up the person with the need.

The volunteer who took my things pointed at the side of the room
Where there were rows of empty clothing racks. She told me the
Need was so great & our weather so cold, they were down to
Bits & pieces of clothes. I had brought a new dress I wore to
A wedding once & it could easily double as a prom dress or
Party dress. She told me teenage girls sometimes find suitable
Party clothes & the girls are so happy when they find it.

I am so happy that you thought to donate those things, there are
Almost 400,000 people in our city & the clothing racks were empty.
At the same time, 1 of our big dept. stores is having their seasonal
Clearance. I hope more people will take time & thought to let
Go, there is such need.

I know, because I see the people downtown who look so beat down.
I hope some of my excess will brighten someone’s life, as it’s obvious
All your bags of things will be put in the hands of those who need them.

Long post xx

By: Hillary @ The Friendly Home

Hillary @ The Friendly Home

In reply to Jennifer Fawbush.

Jennifer, I’ve totally been there! I actually had to go BACK to the Goodwill trailer to search for the “special” bear that my daughter insisted I must have given away when I did a minor purge in her room while she was at school. We couldn’t find it in the trailer. I felt terrible…until she found it misplaced somewhere else in our house a week or so later. Agh! It’s not easy including them in every purge, but I really don’t want to go through that again.

By: Sara

Sara

my household suffers from this, and I am still trying to find a good answer. I too do sneaky purges and then donate to big brother/big sisters. One problem here is that my 7-year old will ask about 3 months later where a once forgotten toy went and I really kind of have to lie about it. I mean, if the toy was to being used it’s got to be fair game, but I can’t help feeling uneasy about it. The second place I take other trinkets to is to work, which is good for me and my kids don’t seem to notice the loss of teeny tiny items. My 7 year old was enthusiastic about donating to make more room for birthday presents:) The biggest problem is that we have multiple buyers: dad, grandparents, birthday presents, etc. It gets hard to empty the house because it feels “rude”. My husband is getting better, now I have to work on my mom who can go overboard, mostly b/c she buys things at yard sales in the extreme, like huge boxes of duplos that would be appropriate for a daycare. But this is not really a “problem” just a side-effect of our affluence of our society and something we should be grateful for. It is a privilege to be able to donate and it is much better for our kids to be playing in messy rooms with too many toys than sitting perfectly in a pristine house watching tv.

By: Jennifer Fawbush

Jennifer Fawbush

I try to involve my children in the toy purging but recently I grabbed a few (seemingly forgotten) things out of the bottom of the toy box and threw them in with other items I was donating. Just a week later they were enthusiastically creating an elaborate My Little Pony world in which the crowning jewel was to be their “Princess Celeste” pony… that they just could NOT find ANYWHERE… You guessed it, I had donated it. Talk about feeling guilty! I vowed to never do that again. Of course, when they were two years old it was fine.

By: Megan B

Megan B

My son’s birthday is a few days before Christmas, so he spends a week completely obsessed with what he’s going to get/what he got/what he still wants. My husband and I keep the gifts to a minimum so he’ll actually play with everything. Unfortunately, my in-laws go absolutely crazy with the gifts–13 birthday presents to open this year!? My son was opening them and setting them aside without even looking at them. It made me sick because he’s usually so appreciative and this made him just look greedy. But he’s little, what can you expect? Both my husband and I told my in-laws that they could absolutely not go crazy next year. We just won’t allow it. We don’t want to be ungrateful, but it just goes against what we’re trying to teach our kids. We have half of the gifts on a shelf in my son’s closet and he hasn’t even asked to see them yet. Ugh. Next year we’ll suggest a zoo membership instead.
Because of all of the gift craziness, we reminded him to focus on what he has, not what he doesn’t have. I told him that we’ll never be happy if we’re always worried about what we don’t have. Just enjoy what you do have, and maybe you’ll be happy. He also started a gratitude journal (btw, he’s 6) and each night before bed he writes down something he’s grateful for. Sometimes it’s silly like his calculator and sometimes it’s sweet like ‘my dad because we both love to watch Star Wars’. It’s been amazing to see the change in him though. He rarely talks about what he hopes to get next, and he just enjoys what he has.
And you better believe I’m going to start reminding my in-laws about the gift situation by September!