As your children get older, you’re probably going to need to declutter fairly often as they grow out of the toys and clothes. Rather than you taking it on and ending up accidentally throwing out a stuffed toy they still want, get the whole family involved by making decluttering fun. 

Set Challenges

Kids can be pretty competitive, so make decluttering a challenge. Set them a goal to get their room tidy in the shortest amount of time possible. If you know they have more toys than they can possibly play with, set them a goal to find ten items that they can donate or throw away. Ask them to sort out their wardrobe and have no more than five of each item left (five dresses, five t-shirts, five pairs of trousers, and so on). Set timers and make decluttering a timed challenge. Making it a game can make it much easier. 

Do Some Good

Children can find it hard to let go of their toys. Help them to feel like their toys that they get rid of will help someone else. Choose somewhere together to donate their old toys, whether to a charity shop or somewhere like a women’s shelter that helps young mothers. Explain to them that children who don’t have many, or even any, toys of their own will get and appreciate their old toys. Feeling like they’re helping someone in need might help them to let go of the toys that they have grown out of but don’t want you to get rid of. 

Give Them A Maybe Box

If they’re finding lots of things that they aren’t sure that they want to get rid of or not, use a maybe box. Get a large box and write ‘Maybe’ on it. Anything that you aren’t sure about goes in the box. Put the box somewhere out of sight, like high up in a cupboard or in the garage or search for ‘storage near me’ for a storage unit, and wait. 

You’ll probably find that you quite quickly can’t actually remember what is even in the box and you certainly won’t miss most of what goes in there. After a few weeks, if you can’t remember what you put in, or you haven’t missed the item, out it goes. 

If you do decide to rescue something from the box, try not to look at anything else in there, or you’re sure to start second guessing that item too. If you can’t remember what you put in there, you don’t want it. Throw out the box without looking inside it to avoid temptation. 

You might find that just tackling the big decluttering project together as a family makes it more fun. Choose a playlist of songs you all like, tune the music up and get tidying together, singing and dancing along as you go. Don’t approach it like an annoying task and instead focus on how much nicer your home will be when you’ve finished sorting everything out. Work together to make your home nicer.