31 Days Of Organizing & Decluttering: Day 27

It’s Day 27!  This challenge is just about over!  I’ve been saving this challenge for later in this series because as I’ve been organizing and decluttering my home, I’ve found toys in about every area of our house!  I’ve been collecting these toys so I can properly organize and declutter now that it’s about over!  Today’s organizing and decluttering challenge is your toy area or if you are out of that season, your craft or hobby area.

Here are a few tips for decluttering toys:

• Do not get rid of their favorite toys even if you hate them.  Kids are much more likely to be generous weeding out things they don’t like to play with.  If you get rid of the things they love, they are going to be suspicious and not want to get rid of anything after that.
• If it sits on the shelf and never gets played with, it’s time to go!
• Kids actually will sit down and play with their toys when there are less around to play with.  Each time, our toy area is clean, they really play with their toys.  As soon as it’s messy and cluttered, they no longer want to play.
• If your kids are old enough, include them in the process.  My kids are still young and it never fails that as I’m putting the unused toys in the bags to donate, they decide they are the best toys around.  This is a problem because after that, no toys go in the bag and I have an even bigger mess than I had to begin with!  As they get older, I think it’s great to teach them generosity and giving by letting them decide on what they like or don’t like.  (Just be prepared, they may not find your She-Ra Princess Of Power doll nearly as cool as you did when you were a kid!)

• You don’t have to keep the toys from when they were a baby!  If your kids have developmentally outgrown them, you can let them go!  I know there’s a lot of guilt over “Mom gave them this” or “Aunt Sally bought them that.”  However, I highly doubt these people gave them the gifts with the intention of you keeping the toys until your kids are 60 years old.
• If stuffed animals are a problem at your house, consider giving them to local firemen.  I know in my area these can be donated to children who have lost their toys in a fire.  I also know of a school in my area that uses the really nice ones for prizes for an after school program.  Be creative.  It’s fun to bless others.  I know after I explained to the twins how kids whose toys burned up in a fire were getting some of their stuffies, they actually went and found some more.  Kids have great hearts!
• Remember there are options besides just donating, you can also sell them or choose to keep the best of the best but to store them away.  Also, if they toy is broken, just throw it away.  No child wants to receive something that someone else already broke.
• When you organize the toys to keep, sort them into categories.  We have a tote for blocks, a tote for dolls, play food, etc.  I used google images to print out a picture of a tractor for the boys’ tractor tote.  We’ve done this on all of the toy totes, Legos, Tinker Toys, etc.   It has worked wonders because without reading they know which tote things go in!
• For anything with small pieces, keep them high on the shelves to keep little ones out of it.  This will save you from messes and choking hazards!

Here are some tips for your craft area:

• Out of your craft supplies, which are you actually going to use?  If you aren’t sell the stuff or donate it!  I’ve sold a lot of scrapbooking supplies online.  I love scrapbooking but I am not in the season of life to do it now, and don’t have the room to store the stuff!  When my seasons change, I can easily buy what I need at that time.  By releasing the supplies, you may be releasing yourself of a lot of stress!
• Keep your supplies in one area.  Do you have duplicates of things you can get rid of?  Do you have dried up supplies that need thrown away?  How about supplies you’ve purchased that you ended up not liking?
• Sort the like items together and sort as a category (scrapbooking, sewing, etc).
• Do you have a place to store these items or do you need to buy a container?  Clear ones are best because you can see what is inside.  I like to use the label maker then to label the outside of the tote.
• Have a few extra clear totes for projects “in progress.”  We have found this to work great for 4-H projects.  Everything is kept together and when the project is finished we put the items such as scissors, colored pencils, etc back into the tote where they belong.

I’m excited to know what you find to declutter today!

(Have you missed the previous challenges?  Don’t worry you can jump in right where we are in the series and go back later if you want to catch up or just finish out what we’re working on with us!  I’m so happy that you are joining us in organizing and decluttering your home!)

Day 26 Update:   Day 26:   Day 25 Update:    Day 25:    Day 24 Update:    Day 24:    Day 23 Update:   Day 23:   Day 22 Update:    Day 22:    Day 21 Update:    Day 21:    Day 20 Update:   Day 20:    Day 19 Update:    Day 19:    Day 18 Update:   Day 18:   Day 17 Update:    Day 17:    Day 16 Update:    Day 16:    Day 15 Update:    Day 15:    Day 14 Update:   Day 14:    Day 13 Update:   Day 13:    Day 12 Update:    Day 12:    Day 11 Update:    Day 11:     Day 10 Update:     Day 10:    Day 9 Update:   Day 9:    Day 8 Update:    Day 8:    Day 7 Update:    Day 7:   Day 6 Update:   Day 6:     Day 5 Update:     Day 5:     Day 4 Update:     Day 4:     Day 3 Update:     Day 3:     Day 2 Update:     Day 2:      Day 1 Update:     Day 1:  

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