Our semi-annual tradition is to clear out toys in the kids' rooms! We do it in June {for Adam's birthday} and January {for Rachel's birthday}.
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| Adam's closet needed a little help, but it wasn't all that bad since getting his closet organizer! |
We go through all their stuff and get rid of as much as we can! The idea is that if they don't get rid of stuff, they have no room for new stuff {you know, birthday presents?}. But, I still make them go through it even if it's their siblings birthday - it's just every six months!
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| Adam surprised me by wanting to give up his magic set. |
Adam is now old enough that he did virtually all of it by himself! I really was impressed - he got rid of a bunch of stuff that I didn't expect.
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| Rachel counting up one of her piles of books. |
Rachel still needed help, but I limited my help and had her really do as much as she could alone. I stayed in the room but out of the way, and would give her a task and then step out whenever I could.
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| Deciding which ones are most important to her. |
For instance, she had way too many books so I had her count them. If she had 30 books, she could keep her 15 favorites and that was it!
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| The magazines are great to give away for another child to use them. |
I also had her sort and organize her own stuff. It's so simple, but sometimes just teaching them basic stuff helps a lot.
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| Trinkets....bleh!< Then, there is the trinkets...
Yep, those are terrible too - I had her count the total and let her keep about 1/4 of what she had.
Her brother stepped in to help - which she was glad to have - putting all the CDs back in their cases.
In the end, they both got rid of a ton of stuff! We put it all out at Backyard Thursday that week and let them have first crack at all the kids' stuff then the leftovers went to charity. My kids were SOOOO excited to give away all their old toys!
Here is your challenge: Before the end of THIS summer get your kids to go through ALL their toys - don't do all the work yourself - you must teach them. It may take a short time for several days, or one really long day! Next week, I'm going to reveal how things are looking now in my kids' rooms! I am going to have a LINK PARTY {yes, finally} on August 12th, with a party button below, for everyone to link up their toy clean out! If you don't have a blog you can email me pictures of YOUR kids' rooms. I'll post a feature the following week {August 19th} of the BEST clean ups! Don't worry, if you don't have kids, there will be another challenge coming in the fall! AND, you can still clean up YOUR bedroom! 
Parties:
Tater Tots and Jello
Serenity Now Iheart Naptime Don't Waste Your Homemaking Ask Anna Organizing with Sandy Heavenly Homemakers A Bowl Full of Lemons Thrifty Decor Chick Far Above Rubies Women Living Well  |
