Go Ask Mom

5 tips to reduce toy clutter before the holidays

To avoid pulling your hair out during this over-indulgent season, here's a proactive approach to tackle the chaos as your play inventory grows.

Posted 2021-11-15T20:20:52+00:00 - Updated 2021-11-16T11:00:00+00:00

Kendall P. Gilbert

, MORE SPACE

Editor's note: Kendall P. Gilbert is a local mom and creator and founder of MORE SPACE. Go Ask Mom featured her in July.

The holidays are around the corner which means we’ll be filling our houses with even more toys over the next two months. The excitement of watching kids open gifts is such a treat, but once toys arrive, we quickly feel overwhelmed by the clutter. To avoid pulling your hair out during this over-indulgent season, here’s a proactive approach to tackle the chaos as your play inventory grows.

Purge Low-Hanging Fruit: Quickly walk through your house with a trash bag and place any toys that are damaged, no longer needed or not age-appropriate in the bag. Throw away or recycle the broken toys, donate the remaining ones.

Rotate Existing Toys: Survey the remaining toys and select a handful (or a large bag) that are not currently being used. Throw these in storage bins, label and set them in permanent storage (attic/garage). Periodically swap the toys in permanent storage with the ones in your living spaces to keep the inventory fresh.

You should feel an immediate sense of visual relief from purging a select few and putting others in permanent storage. Now that the clutter is eased, try adopting these new habits to keep the toys at bay.

Create Designated Areas to Store Toys: Keep a toy bin in living spaces and a couple of bins in bedrooms. This allows for quick areas to toss play items while tidying rooms each day to relieve the visual frustration. It also serves as a signal that it’s time to purge. When the containers are full, toys should be removed before more are added.

Remove a Toy When You Buy a New One: As new toys come into the house, make room for them by donating old ones. This is a great habit to adopt for any new items brought into the house.

Choose Quality Over Quantity: When shopping for new toys and gifts, select ones that are durable, educational, and playable. Avoid cheap or trendy toys that won’t last or keep interest for long.

Let this approach be a sanity-saver as you welcome the holidays. You’ll enjoy the magic of the gift-giving season without the overwhelm of collecting more stuff!

Kendall P. Gilbert is the mom of two and founder of MORE SPACE, helping local families carve out more space in their lives and homes.