I've seen it over and over among my fellow moms on facebook—frustration and feeling out of control over the number of toys in their house.
I'm generally pretty fortunate in that, while I'm not at all a true minimalist, my kids have far fewer toys between them than many of their peers. Still, toys have a way of creeping up on you, especially when your kids' birthdays are within a month or two of Christmas.
Two weeks ago tomorrow, a friend posted on her facebook page that she needed ideas for decluttering her house of toys. My response:
(Just to clarify, "fly into a rage" was hyperbole; in my case, it does not mean yelling and carrying on. More like channeling frustration into determined action)
To give the kids credit, for being 4 years old, they are usually fairly good about putting stuff away (with reminders). I think the combination of the influx of Christmas toys plus cabin fever put them into an "at loose ends" mode in which they got out one thing after another, playing with each item for mere seconds before abandoning it for the next thing. I'm a patient person, but after several days of seeing chaos and constantly repeating "pick up your ___", I'd had it.
Literally, aside from a few favorite stuffed animals, and a couple other small items that escaped the purge due to being out of place (like the soft football), these are the main things my kids were left with:
These [easels](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00II021GK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mtnmeadowmomm-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00II021GK&linkId=66a88e3b4e3efebac6805fae0f70e91a) were a gift from a relative two Christmases ago, and have barely been touched this year.
[Flybars](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0I3GXE/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mtnmeadowmomm-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01M0I3GXE&linkId=210dc6a02d8f32e8e14cc611114f2a93) work like pogo sticks, and my kids have had off-and-on interest in them, never really mastering them.
These [Royalbaby BMX style](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HXGSBXC/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mtnmeadowmomm-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00HXGSBXC&linkId=b1e2b43736629e8e22efd6e22dc7f7ea) bikes were their Christmas gift from us, so I wasn't about to put these in the attic, even though they were one of the chief offenders in that the kids kept leaving them parked in inconvenient places...
I'll admit that I started to feel guilty later. Did I overreact? Was it mean of me to take away their toys? No, I told myself, I was simply following through on a previously, very clearly, stated boundary. The house rule is that things need to be put away when you're done with them. I had further (repeatedly!) warned them, "If you keep pulling all your toys out and leaving them on the floor, I'm putting it all in the attic." So they already knew what the consequence would be of violating my boundary, or rule, that toys are not to be wantonly scattered all over the floor. Now they had to experience the consequence, if my word was going to mean anything to them.
Oddly enough, the kids didn't freak out, just watched with great interest (and tried to rescue or hide a couple things), and then they even started participating! Afterward, I told them, "if you show me, for a few days, that you can remember to put THESE few toys away properly, then I'll let you pick one thing to get back out of the attic. You can earn your toys back one at a time if you keep remembering to follow the rule."
Stay tuned to see how it turned out :)