Before the kids finish school I like to have a sort through their toys see what they have, give them a clean and donate any unwanted toys to charity. For one of my daughters, I have to be ruthless and throw things away while she isn’t looking (she can’t bring herself to part with anything). However, the other 2 kids are really good at taking a bag into their room and filling it with rubbish and unwanted toys. Prior to Christmas is the perfect time of year to do this, before they receive an abundance of more new toys….less work for us!!
Have a look through your kid’s toy boxes and bag up any unused/unwanted toy’s. Hand down to brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, neighbours or donate to your local charity. Now you have just created more space and less clutter!
11 comments
Challenge completed! I have just gone through my boys toys as a lead up to christmas and January birthdays. Our toys have gone to some of the boys younger cousins, charities and prep classes at their school. It is nice to know their toys will be loved by others!
I tend to organise by emptying every single toy box in the house into one huge pile. Then sort into 3 groups – bin, giveaway, keep.
The bin pile is easy and it goes straight out before the children can see it.
The giveaway pile I then go through, clean the toys and bag them up so that all the pieces are together. Anything in really good condition with all the pieces still I take to my daughters early intervention centre and ask if they need. The rest goes to St Vinnies.
Toys to keep get cleaned up, anything broken is repaired, then they are sorted into the appropriate toy box.
It is a mammoth job as my girls are the youngest of 16 cousins and get *heaps* of hand me downs. I've found that so long as the toys I'm throwing in the bin go before my girls see them then all is okay. They cope better with giving things away to be loved by other children.
Donate all unwanted toys to charity shops, this is what i have done in the pre-christmas clear out!
I go through all my boys toys every few months and i puts some away and pull them out later so they think they are new and exicting again 😉 , but if they don't play with them i use online sites to sell them so i can buy them new toys that are for there age.
Challenge and likes completed!
I do a sort through on my own and anything the children don't use anymore donate to family/friends, the school/creche or charity. Always make sure to do a sort through books as we tend to get overrun with them as I love them so much, as do the kids.
I put a big box or tub in the middle of the toy room and then sort from one end to the other, neatening as I go. I also have an extra box for bits to be sorted/mended/relocated. I then move the boxes/tubs around to the other rooms in the house to pick up toy bits and pieces that also need to go, as well as things that need to be returned to their place (which i put in the second box).
After I have gone through everything, I then get the kids to go through as well and see if there is anything else they are ready to part with.
thanks heaps for this challenge and also getting me onto Two monkeys – her fabrics are gorgeous!
Challenge and likes done!!!
Stage One: Bury the Broken. I throw out anything with missing broken pieces.
Stage Two: Charity Cull. Anything I think that has been outgrown or is no longer played with I "secretly" put in a box.
If it is not missed after two weeks, it goes to Charity. I then ask Master Three to choose five toys he would like to give to someone who has no toys. (simplified explanation for him about Charity)
Stage Three: Organise and Label. We label all toy boxes with a name and picture so that it is easy to pack things up at pack up time.
IKEA is my friend. We only have a small house and therefore I dont have a "toy room" we have a "toy space". So I have the ikea stacking and storing tubs. Dress ups and reality play in one box, puzzles in another, drawing and paper in another, barbies in another, so on and so forth. I did this on Sunday thanks to the challenge and we got rid of so many things. I did it with Olympia (2 1/2yrs old) and gave her the choice to see how she would go. I must admit she did well, she only kept a handful of things she had not played with in a while and said we could give the rest to charity.
The house looks like a house again and not a toy shop.
Thank you organised hosuewife
Challenge accepted 😉 and compeleted! have been going through all my 2 and half year old toys for a few days and have thrown out all the cheap and nasty kids meals toys broken one are gone missing pieices have gone in a bag just incase we find the rest (will only keep for a little while) have even sold some of his very good toys that A ither annoyy me (too noisey haha) or B he just dosent play with
My best tip would be to put some toys away and bring them out on a rotation then they never get bored and you dont have 100 toys lieing around. i also keep his most played with toys in the lounge room in containers nice and tidy
Challenge completed 🙂 Now we have a nice little stash for our upcoming garage sale. Normally I just leave the toy room alone (yes we have a whole room lol), but your blog post inspired me to get in there and do a cull.
My best tip – get a dedicated toy space. My hubby has built a wonderful set of built in cupboards just for the toys. Such a fantastic way to keep them organised, and out of sight. I am planning on making felt boards and blackboards on the doors. Also I allow my kids to have a very small box of miscellaneous toys each, the ones that I would like to throw out, but they just love. That way we both win 😉 They only keep a few things, and don't try to keep everything.
Lisa
Message received by email from Lauren – I have completed the organised housewife challeneg about the kids toys.
Thanks for all the advice and support!
Message received by email from Zoe – 20 PUZZLES AND OLD TOYS HEADING TO THE PRESCHOOL ON TUESDAY :d