THE TOY EDIT
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Welcome to the awaited Small Steps Series. This series is where you can find a simple system for building your home, one small step at a time. It is where you can have access to a new resource each month to help make a small step towards a more cohesive interior to your home, a small step in homemaking so your interior decorating can actually shine, and a small step towards making a home that is intentional, beautiful, and yours.
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My sons have entered their Lego era. It surprised me, and I didn’t quite realize they were there until my oldest son asked for lots of Legos for his birthday - and then suddenly, we actually had a substantial number of Legos. My middle son loves the idea of Legos, he isn’t quite ready to follow the instructions, but he happily makes little creations of his own. My oldest son can independently follow the simple instructions, and it honestly amazes me.
Before his birthday, I had been doing inventory of our existing toys. I do this before most every gift-event as I know we will need homes for the new additions to our kid’s toy collection. Not having a home for them leads to the new items being left around the house, with no one to blame but me for not having a home to teach the kiddos that their new treasures belong.
As I watched my oldest son, laser-focused on his latest Lego project, I realized, we have graduated from the chunky puzzle phase. You know, the sweet wooden puzzles like these. One Christmas a few years ago, we gifted my oldest with quite a few of those puzzles. They featured Dinosaurs, Construction Trucks, and other things little boy toddlers love. He was so happy to get them. And then, slowly, he didn’t have any interest in them.
But in that moment, I sat there, watching his little fingers turn the Lego booklet pages, find the right piece and secure it correctly in place, watching his eyes, so focused. And I didn’t want to give the chunky puzzles away. I realized I missed his chunky toddler hands finding the correct piece, I missed his awe at the simple puzzles, and I missed that cute phase, of which my second son went through much quicker so that he could keep up with older brother.
Long saga of my emotional realization aside - this is one of the things that makes decluttering children’s toys so difficult. It is what makes finding homes for all the toys such a challenge, because it’s not only our kids that get attached to things, we do too. And if we don’t stay alert of what we have in the toy department and what is used and arriving at gift-giving holidays, it is all to easy to find ourselves in a sea of toys.
And when our home becomes a sea of toys, it is harder to clean up and the end of the day. It is harder for the kiddos to find something to play with, because there are too many things distracting them. It is harder to feel a sense of order in the house when random things are stuck in random places. It becomes a sea of chaos.
A sea of chaos that doesn’t allow room for them to grow and thrive in the season they are in. It is a sea that creates restrictions on their play and imagination because they are tripping over clutter. It is a difficult thing to navigate, and it is difficult to keep up with. However, when our heart strings are pulled at the thought of throwing away a random tree-trimming business card because our toddler loved having us read it to them (ask me how I know that one) it’s a good time to evaluate what we are allowing to stay around the house and what needs to go.
For the things that have a special memory for you, sometimes it helps to give them to family or friends that are in the life-stage that could use the items. Most of our chunky wooden puzzles went to our sweet nephew who is loving chunky puzzles right now, and I know he will love them just as much, or even more than my kiddos did. Other times, just donating the items is the best move, and when it really holds a special place in your heart, take a photo! Either have a photo of the kids playing with it, or just take a photo of the item to remind yourself of those special memories. This way, your home isn’t bursting at the seams with things you just can’t bring yourself to get rid of, but they aren’t serving any purpose other than being a memory trigger.
It is not easy, but I am saying the simplicity of your home when you keep the toys in check will be worth it. I often do the best decluttering when I am a little angsty, it is easier to not feel super sentimental when I am on a mission to remove extra clutter from our home!
So, today, for our October Simple Steps Series - let’s focus on The Toy Edit. For paid subscribers, I have created a decision tree for determining if it is time to keep or part with a children’s toy. You can use this independently of your children (let’s say for those forgotten toys in the back of a closet that haven’t seen the light of day in months) or use it with your children and make my checklist the bad guy!
Small steps towards a cleaner home. Small steps towards a healthier home. Just as my sweet children are taking small steps, learning to run, I am taking small steps in my motherhood. Small steps towards making a home that is intentional, beautiful, and ours.
If the monthly subscription isn’t something that is accessible to your budget right now, no worries, I get it! Every monthly PDF will be uploaded to the Shop on my Space Stylists & Co. website, so you can pop on over and just get whichever downloads you need without the monthly commitment.
I hope this resource is helpful - don’t use it as a comparison metric, or another layer of pressure to your life. It’s a Small Step - and when you put a bunch of those together - progress follows.
If you are a paid Substack subscriber, you will see your free download code available below:
