How to Declutter With Kids
Organization and Action Steps to Declutter WITH Your Kids
It helps to involve your kids in the decluttering process. That way, they can get in charge of their own things. Kids do not need more things to play. They need spaces that are set up for them. And a big part of that involves reducing overwhelm through too many toys. Give your kids a treasure box, for example, for the small things they love to collect like rocks and leaves. Look to The Uncluttered Life’s Declutter Deck® for tips and tricks about home organization.
Organization
Once kids hit preschool age, they get very attached to the things they own. Their items bring them joy. So, we need to respect that and involve them in the process of tidying and letting go, or decluttering, editing and sorting. We also need to involve them in the organization process. Their brains may sort items a certain way and we want to make things accessible to them.
Spatial limits refer to a set amount of space that can be used to store or hold their items. It can be a shelf, drawer or container.
Having more toys does not equal deeper, high quality, independent play. In fact, it will often lead to overwhelm, making it harder to settle into play.
When we are specific about where our donations are going, our children will have a bigger buy in to letting things go.
Action Steps
Start with low stakes items. This helps our kids trust us and to feel autonomy over their things. These may be things that they’ve outgrown or broken, books that they no longer want to read and art projects.
Give them spatial limits. When the space is full, sit down together to make decisions about what stays and what needs to go.
Be specific about where donations are going. Let your children know where the things are going in their next iteration. Involve them in the process of selling items and earning their own money.
Allow your children to see you letting go of things that are hard. Talk through your thinking process with them.
Remind yourself that we have control over what comes into our home. For birthdays and holidays, maybe ask for experiences over more things.