Purging BEFORE Presents

Presents may not be the reason for the season, but they are a HUGE part of the holidays. Adding toys, books, and clothes to an already packed space causes nothing but stress. Taking the time to purge the unused, broken, or unwanted items before receiving new gifts will help you and your kids understand what you have and what is actually worth taking up the space before adding anything else to the mix. 

GET YOUR KIDS ON BOARD

Understanding the WHY of purging is important for kids to get on board with clearing the clutter. Explain that the toys they decide to purge will be donated to children who don’t have many toys of their own to play with and maybe even let them choose the Toy Drive to which they would like to donate.

The Texas State Guard Toy Drive, the Community Partners of Dallas Toy Drive, and the Santa’s Heroes Toy Drive are all local drives that benefit those in need in the state of Texas. You can also find nation-wide drives like Delivering Good that benefit those in all 50 states!

EMPTY THE SPACE

The first step to ANY purging project is to completely empty the space and lay everything out to go through. You want to be able to put your hands on every item. If your kids are old enough, have them do this independently!

DUMP OUT EVERYTHING!

Literally get them all out and start going through them - this is always the kids’ favorite part because they get to make a mess on purpose. Spread everything out so that they can see all of the items collectively. This will help kids find toys they’ve lost track of, forgotten they had, and sometimes never even opened. It will also get them familiar with what they have and like before adding new toys.

PURGE PILE

Make specific piles for toys your kids want to donate, broken toys that need to be thrown away or recycled, and toys they want to keep. The process becomes obvious for them when they see a toy they feel attached to, versus one that has definitely seen better days.

CATEGORIZE WHAT’S LEFT

Once you’ve gone through everything and you know what your kids would like to keep, have them go through and make simple categories- ideally, these would be easy for them to identify when it comes time to clean up. The more independent they can be during this process, the more independent they will be every day when it’s time to put their messes away! Easy categories to follow would be:

Stuffed animals

Actions figures

Barbies

Baby Doll Accessories

Electronic Games

Etc.

Setting aside the time to get this done will help so much when it comes time to add holiday gifts. You will be thanking yourself come January when it’s time to put all the new toys away for good and they actually have a place to go 🙌

With new toys, comes new need for storage. Here are some of our favorite playroom storage options!