The Spooner kids don't have a basement or a playroom full of toys.
We have one toy closet, 2 baskets of dress up clothes, 2 small baskets in the main living area, a toy kitchen, a dozen or so stuffed animals/dolls, several outdoor riding toys, plenty of books and games, and some crafting supplies. We also have 4 extra large stuffed animals, gifted to us by my parents with the birth of each child.
We have a huge yard and mild weather year round. I realize what an advantage this is!
That pretty much sums it up.
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Kids don't need tons of toys. In fact, the quality of their play is much better the less they have.
There are countless articles and research out there supporting this, but I'm speaking from my personal experience.
Without a bajillion toys...my kids are more creative, they play outside more, they read, they craft.
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Fewer toys is for their well being, but even more so....it is for
my well being.
Over the years, as we have pared down our toys, I have become a better parent!
I have become a better parent because our home is more manageable.
I have less to pick up. Also, my children can actually play a valuable role in clean up because it's not overwhelming.
But let's keep it real...it can still get really crazy. And my kids are not always contentedly doing a puzzle with classical music playing in the background. They whine, complain, fuss, get bored. They are human.
A low point over the weekend.
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Here are my three nuggets of advice. This is what my 33 year old self would tell my 26 year old self....
-Don't have more toys than you can comfortably store.
-Don't have more toys than your child (or children) can reasonably clean up.
-Declutter the toys until you are not constantly irritated. You'll know when it's the right amount.
Take these tips with a grain of salt. Kids go through phases and stages. You do what works. You do your best!
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Here's how we store what we have...
The building toys - Legos, Magna Tiles, blocks, and trains are stored in clear plastic containers.
These containers are stored in our toy closet in Laurie's room.
I'm pretty conservative on my purchases of storage bins and containers. I repurpose shoe boxes, plastic ice cream tubs (the gallon size for smaller Legos), and other sturdy boxes to round up all the odds and ends that children collect.
We have one basket of girls' dress up and one boys' basket. I regularly go through and throw out torn or stained dress up clothes though I try to keep enough for a group of 4-5 friends to play and all have a costume.
This toy kitchen is mostly abused, but I'm keeping it long enough to see if Caroline will play with it.
These baskets hold the toys we keep in the
teen room. I use them as a catch all if I'm doing a quick clean up and don't feel like sorting everything.
We do birthdays, Christmas, and gifts from grandparents. There are surges when we have more toys, so I will store things away or do a purge or find plenty of forgotten or broken toys that can be trashed.
There is an ebb and flow.
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Please share, do you struggle with the amount of toys your kids have?
How do you store your toys?
Advice? Questions?
Here's a list of what stayed:
Legos
1 basket matchbox cars
3 stuffed animals
2 baby dolls
3 - 4 tractors
magna doodle
train table and trains
play kitchen
1 set toy sandwiches
1 pot
1 spoon
1 knife
1 tea kettle
a few bath toys
box of art and craft supplies that contains construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, crayons, & water colors
2 boxes dress up clothes (boys and girls)
outside toys (bike, tricycle, scooter, cozy coupe)
As you can see there are still plenty of toys to play with. But to give you an idea of how much I put away, I have 4 large boxes of toys packed and stored to rotate later.
The neatest thing I have observed since packing up so many of the toys is how hard they play with what they have. Stephen (age 4) has fallen in love all over again with his alligator, Shaun (formerly known as Jean Bordeaux). We take Shaun to the park, to speech therapy, to the store. We put Shaun in a seat belt. He gets a snack, an occasional bath, and he has been known to dress him up as Super Shaun a time or two, sporting a cape. His imagination has run wild with Shaun. I believe there is a direct correlation between the toy overhaul and his new found friendship with Shaun. Quality over quantity.
My daughter (age 3) loves her Melissa and Doug sandwiches and often they double as "pancakes." She flips them with her one toy knife.
Less is truly more. And it does not take me a long time to clean up. In fact, it is such a reasonable amount of mess, I actually get them to clean up. And they do it!
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