We’ve been buying quite a bit of books for the babies lately, especially when we find ones that talk to issues we’re currently dealing with.
E.g. Dion came home with about 5 books the other day all talking about kids staying in bed at night 🙂
So it’s time to declutter.
I gathered the two of them and started with my standard speech about giving some books away to kids who don’t have any.
They still have a lot of board books and a lot of them, don’t really read (as far as I can see).
Poor things – I wasn’t a very mean mother 🙂
I let them keep the ones they’re very attached to.
It’s interesting – I’m already seeing differences in their organising personalities (I talk more about this in Live Organised).
Connor is more of a hoarder and Kendra is quite brutal.
(We decluttered some of their stuffed animals the other day and Kendra was very clear about what she didn’t use anymore – I even found myself saying, “Kendra! Aunty so and so gave you that ____.” “But I don’t want it anymore,” she said)
So four of her stuffed animals are living in the study for a month to see if she changes her mind – so far she hasn’t and we’re two weeks in – and then we’ll wash them and donate them to Kids Haven.
Is decluttering easy for you?
How do you deal with your child/ ren’s decluttering styles?
PS I always get this question – they’re wearing bath robe ponchos. I bought them for about R90 each at Mr P Home when they were “real” babies of about 9 months 🙂 I haven’t seen them there since then. The rule with Mr P Home is if you love it, buy it when you see it.
Tell me more about the new books, the ones about kids staying in their bed!!! I am having that problem too…
Decluttering is never easy for me. I have two kids that will start acting like they like the books I want to declutter even though before that they showed little interest in them, and therefore I am left with the option not to declutter at all.
LOL Jean, have you tried rotating their books?
Otherwise something I tried once was I took the books away that needed to be decluttered but kept them in a different room (my study) out of sight. When they asked for one of those, I took them out but there were still 4 that never got asked for so those were genuinely decluttered!
We just went through this a few days ago- my kids have so many stuffed animals! I made the pick four to keep each- and we still had two trashbags full to get rid of!
Jayme, you’re strict! I need some of that 🙂