Thoughts before sitting down to write this post:
My house is a mess, my house is a mess, oh my goodness it is such a mess!
A sea of Lego blocks, books, plastic tea cups, play-doh crumbs (again!). A few I don’t know where this came from and I’m not exactly sure what it is? Those usually are pieces broken off of something I didn’t know the kids were playing with.
As fall blows in, and the rain pours down outside today we are spending most of the day in close quarters. I think to myself what is the solution?
I always come back to the same answer. It is incredibly simple.
Get rid of more toys!
You don’t have to throw them out. You can put them in a bag somewhere the kids can’t reach (if there is such a place) and donate them.
In my opinion too many toys are not a good thing. There are several reasons behind this.
First, my kids spend way more time dumping them out and strategically spreading them all over the house than they do actually playing with them. In fact, I often wonder if they are ever ‘really’ playing with the toys or just enjoying making a mess of them. I think most kids enjoy making the mess part most of all.
Second, no matter how many toys they do or don’t have they would always rather be playing with stuff around the house that is not meant to be a toy. For example, we have a toy tea set but Little Sister much prefers taking out my favorite mugs one by one.
Also, my children love to move furniture around. Now they come by that honestly because I also re-arrange things often. It makes me enjoy my home more, and freshens things up. My kids love to show each other how strong they are by pushing furniture around the room. OK, so if you don’t like your carpets, and you want a new perspective to look on the bright side, they do make it harder for kids to re-arrange your house.
Way more than playing with any toy my son would rather be outside playing with his $10 tennis racket or riding his bike.
Little Sister just wants to follow her brother and his friends around, with the occasional break to sit in-between the bushes and dig up dirt.
It begs the question – Why have so many toys?
I can’t think of any good reason. Therefore whenever the tsunami of toy mess hits my house my first reaction is to scan for things that would be good to permanently remove. Less stuff, less to clean up. Also, when there are too many toys I believe kids get overwhelmed with choice, kind of like I did at the tea shop. Maybe if they have fewer toys, they will actually play with the ones they’ve got? Or maybe not? I’m sure they will still prefer playing in the dirt or simply ripping paper.
As your kids mature new more age appropriate toys find their way in, but are you removing the older ones? If you don’t a toy tsunami will almost always hit. When they do, and you inevitably ‘help’ the kids clean up, decide right then and there what can go, never to be cleaned up (by you) again!
Kids find happiness in simplicity.
At least I think they like that much better than cleaning up!
What do you think? Are having a lot of toys helpful or hurtful?
