Hopefully your kids managed (or you helped them) to go through some of their clothes last week during the closet and the clothes week. If your own closet took too much time, then here is your chance to get their closet under control too.
On top of getting rid of old outgrown clothing, it’s also a chance to go through all the nooks and crannies of the room! Yes, even the desk drawers that contain who knows what that your kid has been stashing in there.
Go through the books on the shelf. Are they still interested in the books? Will they read them? Do the books have colouring in them or notes? Are the books ripped or broken?
If your kids are old enough, get their help with the whole process for at least a few items start to finish. If they are younger, get them involved a bit to practice thinking critically about their things. It helps build the skill of decluttering even if they don’t know what it really means yet. Ask them things like “Do you still play with this toy, or do you think someone else could have fun with it now?” Or remind them of how excited they were to get it and that you haven’t noticed them playing with it recently. Let them know that they could help another kid feel just as excited! You could also sugest they pick three items to give away from a category of toys they have a lot of, like stuffed toys – I mean how many stuffies does one kid need these days???? Again, it will start laying the groundwork for them to consider donating stuff when they’re done with it.
Younger kids often have the best compassion. Talking to their ability to make someone else feel what they have already felt from a toy generally makes them excited to give. It allows them to feel special when they make another person smile. Zone in on that! Give them the opportunity to feel the gift of giving! Enhance it by having them physically give the item to the other person. Maybe it’s a friend from school or the neighbour kids’ younger sibling. Maybe it’s even a cousin. Maybe it’s just some random kid who is having a tantrum in the store! Your kid gets the chance to make someone else’s day better, how many of us adults could use that occasionally, right??
If your kids are older, you could give them a few structured rules. Like for their clothes for instance. You could say to them, ‘if it doesn’t fit, has holes, has stains – put it aside for donate or trash!’ Or, for toys, ‘if you haven’t thought to pull this out for a year or more, is it really worth keeping it?’ You could even start asking them what activities or items they would rather be able to do or pull out easily, and help them start to prioritize activities they are interested in now as opposed to keeping everything.
You can also use some time this week to sort through some school papers or random art projects the kids have done. You could consider snapping some photos to make an “I created this” photo book rather than keeping the originals somewhere in a file drawer – even though it “hardly takes up any space!” It’s still space you don’t need to reserve for these kinds of things.
If you don’t have kids and if you have a guest room this is a great chance to freshen it up too. Tidy up and put away anything that has been stashed in the room. Test any lamps, tidy the closet, fluff the pillows, and open the window to let in a bit of fresh air. To keep it feeling like a real guest room, make sure it doesn’t slide into a storage room!
This is another big week, especially if you have lots of kids. Get them all on board and break it down into little jobs so they are excited to help and you don’t get too overwhelmed with it all!
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