Our house is pretty small by American standards--1500 square feet. Let me tell you... it's plenty of room. The problem is not the house, the problem is that we have too much stuff in our house.
Today, we focused on organizing and editing our boys' toy collections. Here is our dirty little secret: Our kids don't play with many toys. How could that be? It's been difficult to admit, and hence I've been holding on to a bunch of toys to not face this fact.
A few years ago my mom asked what she should give our 6-year-old for his birthday. For some reason, I steered her to these large cardboard blocks. They're not plastic, I reasoned. He will build forts and castles and other wildly creative creations. Well, not so much. They have been in a corner of his room collecting dust. Today was the day we admitted defeat on these blocks. Sorry, mom.
As you can see, these blocks take up a lot of room. I feel a little bit bad passing them off to Thrifttown... they are as pressed for space as anyone. But they will find a home... that is the beauty of thrift stores.
My kids just aren't big builders, at least in the way toy manufacturers want them to be. We gave up on Legos a while ago, and today we passed a bunch of Knex toys along, too.
Another toy fail.
So after our purge, what are we left with?
We saved the Bey Blades. Not because my boys play with them, but because I feel like we need some sort of typical "boy toys" around for when friends come over.
We saved their stuffed animals because my kids actually play with them! We did come to an agreement that we would not acquire any more without getting rid of some of these first. Yes, some of their stuffed animals are from thrift stores, which is a big no-no for some thrifters. That's a topic that deserves its own post.
I love this post! I'm still trying to get my kids to agree on clearing out the old before more toys come in, but they don't seem emotionally capable. Oddly, there are so many they don't seem to notice when a few evaporate... ;-)
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