Continuing on from my last Declutter This post about cutting back on toys and stuffies, this post is all about decluttering the crafting and activity supplies kids use.
Any crafting supplies, any partially used craft kits, and any experiment kits are all things you can easily get rid of or pair down on!
Pull out those activity kits. Open them up and see what has been used. If any of the ingredients are dried out or if any parts are missing or even if the parts are broken, toss it! Donate or sell them if they can still be used properly.
Make this March break an opportunity to pull together all those things and let the kids either try the kits, pull out all the random craft supplies, or use up any materials from experiment kits, especially if you have full unused kits. If the kids have no interest in the kit, then why not donate it, sell it, or even give it to someone else as a gift, if it’s in a giftable condition.
As you pull out all the craft supplies, talk to the kids about what crafts they enjoy or find out from them if there are any supplies that they no longer want to use. Foam stickers, for example. They are great when the kids are young because you can get so many at once, it can kill a lot of time as kids fiddle trying to get the backings off, and then, they can stick them all over various papers. My kids quickly outgrew them, though, and I was left with more than a hundred unused stickers!
Craft supplies are a great thing to sell on Marketplace or give away on a Buy Nothing group on Facebook. All of these supplies are so appreciated for moms of toddlers, and yet if you have older kids, these supplies are likely just taking up space in the house. It can be surprising just how much space these things can take up – like, key real estate in the house. You could even consider donating them to a kindergarten teacher!
The reality might even be that you could get rid of furniture after sorting and decluttering these supplies! Have a craft table that used to be used for random gluing or stamping time with the kids? Who needs that if you no longer have the supplies?! Get rid of that the same way you get rid of the supplies!
Set up a supply testing station – check out paints and toss any dry ones, check markers and pens and toss any that don’t work anymore, toss broken crayons (or check out Pinterest for creative ways to use up crayons), I would even recommend going to the extreme, and tossing or donating any and all markers and pencil crayons and crayons. Most of the time as kids get older they don’t use them much – unless they’re little budding artists – and if they do actually want to use them, they may buy themselves new sets where the options of colours are better or maybe the quality is better – new art supplies are also great gift ideas for birthdays or other holidays!
Same goes for paint brushes and any construction paper. If the brush is wonky or if the paper is ripped, just get rid of it! If it’s all still useable stuff, donate it or give it away! Again, these are things that I know moms of young kids very much appreciate! Anything that can kill time, right??
Get rid of those old sticker sheets! Especially if the stickers don’t stick to anything anymore! If you have any colour with water supplies, they’re another great thing to sell or donate. Got any popsicle sticks, pom poms, cotton balls, sequins, pipe cleaners, or are you holding on to toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls? All of these supplies can be put together as a fantastic donation set or you could try selling a bulk amount all at once!
You could even contact a local children’s hospital and see if there’s anything they would accept as a donation.
Go through your house. Find all the places that you have random kids craft stuff! Have some family fun with it all and make a day or weekend of the projects and supplies. Whatever you do, go through it in some amount of detail so that you toss the things that aren’t worth selling/donating. It may be time to just get rid of it all! It will save you SOOO much space!
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