Totally agree, Victoria! I saw that play out with my children for sure.

Yes! My 6yo just said, "Mommy, there's too many toys, can you help me?" She's really enjoyed the pared down toy selection and how easy it is to keep her room clean❤

So so so welcome

I found her several months after I had my first, and I've been following ever since! She's so lovely and has been such an encouragement through my motherhood journey 🤍 Congratulations on your little one!!

I did this a few years back, we never looked back..life changing

Same 😭

Totally agree with you!!! I’d love to see her “toy list” for the first year or two. What did you save? What will you buy? Or what’s worth buying again in your opinion? I think it’s hard to be a new mom with “Montessori” marketing being shoved down our throats. Do we really need EVERY SINGLE toy?

Yes on just shoving the sleeping bag back into the bag. It’s so cute Margaret how you fold it. 😘 Impressive that it worked too.

I love this idea. Sleeping bags are so stressful

Keep going. Scale deeper maybe. You don't have to keep sets! That piece was revolutionary for me. Keep byhthe bits they use, declutter the ones they don't.

Same here...not that we have so much different toys but those we have have so much peaces (Lego, Duplo, Puzzles, Tiny animal Family dolls...) and they play with it a lot but they are everywhere...

Don't be afraid to break up sets. I really like sets. And used to buy things just because they went together even though I didn't need all the pieces. For toys I definitely get rid of the small pieces that they don't use. I know if my son uses the tiny little spiderman pieces that his 12" doll goes with, but he never did besides the once it came out of the package. Those just can go. My daughter has baby dolls and she had 3 bottles. We just kept 1. We also had a little package to hold 4 small bunnies but she never used the case (which was supposed to be their home) so that went and we just kept the small animals. Put what you're not sure in a box in the basement or garage for 3-6 months and if they don't ask for anything by name you know after that time you can get rid of them.

I get rid of any small pieces. If it’s at the bottom of the toy box, more than likely they don’t use it. I put them in baggies off of Amazon, let them know they’re in there and see if they use them. If not, declutter!

You can get rid of sets! Big deal deal for me: my son played with his trains and never the train tracks so I ditched the tracks! Amazing!!

Ottoman is from Albany park!

And hahaha, so glad I could get you out of bed!!! Happy decluttering!

How big is the drawers

It's about what is best for your child. If someone thought your child should have drugs, would you fight tooth and nail? Of course you would. Over stimulation from toys is the same. No one has the right to tell you how to raise your child, not even if they are grandparents, not even if you are renting from them. You can talk to them about the research on how beneficial this is for children, but ultimately, it's no one's business

Oh, hmmm that's strange. Maybe reply to this response here!

@Margaret Matheny oh it happened again. You must have the word amaz0 n filtered or something. Suggested maybe you could get a remote from there for the truck ?

Sell it and let her keep the money for future 'wise' purchases. Don't beat yourself up over it, we've all made big purchases that didn't work out 😊

Suggesting the same thing, have a conversation with her that she doesn't use it and that if you sell it she can have the money to buy something else she will use. If she likes and uses the furniture, she could always keep what fits in a shoebox size bin with a lid. That way she can still use dolls with furniture wherever she wants to play.

I thought this too, it’s so big, they’ll definitely notice. But they Didn’t notice it was missing. They noticed how much space they have now and they were excited and bewildered and they were actually completely blind to the things that were taking up all that space. Haven’t asked for it, not even once and it’s been months

I always tell my children it's okay to feel frustrated, but we open the conversation to the things that matter in life and talking about quality time with mom always helps the conversation!! Experience and quality time are what they crave most, even if they don't know it. Hope that helps!

I only had 1 child for the first 3 years before we welcomed our second, but at that time we were living on the road for my husbands job and we honestly couldn't pack many toys at all. So I can only speak to the first few years, but we played outside all the time, went on walks, hikes, he cooked with me, and adding more toys into his life when he was older didn't make him "less bored". It just make him distracted and wanting more....that's from my perspective! And all I can share are from what I've experienced in the first 3 years with him. I just read so much about how children don't need toys to fulfill them, and I'm seeing it with my children and it's amazing. I hope some other mommas with one child will share their experience, I'd love to hear. thanks for bringing this up!

@Margaret Matheny this is so good. I am just embarking on my journey and learning as I go, but I find myself having these kinds of conversations with other moms. I'd like to have some more insight to maybe help and encourage them to start too.I love how you always emphasize the special time with mom. Them helping you with things because they're not distracted with toys and TV all the time. They're spending good quality learning and fun time with mom. Keep doing what you're doing.

That's what I'm always thinking watching these videos. I'd love to declutter more of their toys but our kids play with all of them. We don't have anything they don't at least play with weekly (and those are the wooden blocks, everything else is much more frequent). They play independently for hours, coming up with all kinds of creative scenarios. They are 4 and 2 years old, know where everything is and clean it up (or no screen time). So I just can't find it in me to declutter just because it's more than my personal clutter threshold would prefer 😂 so I keep watching these kind of videos hoping to stumble upon some helpful advice for my situation just to always be surprised that other kids don't play with their toys. And that all the toys did not facilitate deep, creative, independent play when it definitely does for us 🤷‍♀️ Oh and for reference, we have A LOT of toys - guests always remark that we should open a daycare 😂 no toy rotation either - I tried and it failed due to the same reason as decluttering further, because they play with all their toys. And it was so disruptive for their play when I tried to rotate random things (when they play with everything mostly equally, rotation becomes tricky), always "mommy, where is XYZ". But for us, every toy has a home and all the containers aren't even half full and all are shallow, so easy to see everything in it (shallow trofast bins). We have different "stations" throughout our apartment (dolls, small world & building, puzzles, play kitchen, dressup & pretend, gross motor, games, arts & crafts, books), so the different categories don't get mixed up with each other which makes cleanup a breeze, even for small kids. So I wonder if the overwhelm from too many toys comes when they are all crammed in one spot and they cannot find what they want and all categories are mixed together. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment in a horrid humid climate in a major city and we only have one car, so I am often without in a city with poor public transportation - so we go outside in the mornings for a couple hours before it gets hot but it's just not feasible to be outside more than that. Their play was just so much less independent when I tried fewer toys, so while we are minimalist in everything else, I just don't see a way around keeping the toys or I'll loose my sanity - independent play is more important to me than enforcing my clutter threshold on them. And what she says regarding helping, I think doesn't have anything to do with toys. Our kids always loved helping in the kitchen and cleaning. They always come running to the kitchen the moment the lights go on in there, they love being kitchen helpers, from making pancakes to empanadas. They also love cleaning with me. The 4 year old is responsible for Dusting since she wanted her own chore that only she does 😂 and they both take turns when we mop. But I can see that if there is overwhelm for the grownup with toys, that there is more urgency to be done fast with these kinds of things and not to involve the kids. But as long as you take the time to involve the kids, no toy in the world will keep a kid away from helping, especially in the kitchen. Sorry, that got long. Your question just really resonated with me - it's what I always wonder 😊