Decluttering – Mission 2021

After the avalanche of Christmas toys, it's important for children to realize that you can't accumulate things forever. It's crucial that they learn to make choices from an early age, to determine what is truly relevant, and to choose their favorite toys, as well as appreciate them. We are officially on a decluttering mission for a more organized and clean 2021.

This requires maturity and parental supervision. We know very well that it's not easy to make choices about our own belongings, and there are even adults who simply can't do it. Ultimately, the inability to make choices in this context can even culminate in compulsive hoarding disorder .

Teach your child to be organized from an early age, to put their toys away in the right place, and you'll have an easier life at the end of the day. But this is a lifelong mission and needs to start somewhere. Here are some suggestions on how to begin:

Check the recommended age for the toys and books available.

Due to emotional connection, the first toys are always the hardest to let go of. However, after a certain age, they become merely decorative and are no longer up to the task of stimulating the skills your child needs to develop. Review together the appropriate age for each toy and store or donate those that are no longer particularly useful. As a general rule, boys even enjoy participating in this task because they feel grown-up when they admit that a certain toy is for "babies".

Birthday accessories and party favors

Over the years, parties accumulate, and so do the party favors that result from them. It's quite likely that most of these party favors are useless, and so these "trinkets" end up gathering in some corner or box. Reminisce with your child about past parties and choose which party favors you'd like to keep and which ones it's time to discard.

Hygiene Products

Babies have a great need for special hygiene products, given their sensitivity, which often end up in the cupboards until almost adolescence! This includes that mineral sunscreen you've been saving since your child's first summer. It's not as fun a task as others you can do together, but it's crucial. As a general rule, these products have a maximum shelf life of two years, so it's something you really shouldn't use after that time. Most pharmacies have a deposit where you can leave your expired medications and hygiene products for proper later disposal.

hardened plasticine

How many jars of modeling clay end up forgotten without lids and become completely useless? The logic here is simple, applied to modeling clay or any other material/toy: if it's never going to be useful again, if it can't be fixed or reinvented, it's not worth keeping.

Make a list of these and other useless materials/toys and don't hesitate to get rid of them, for the sake of organizing your daily life and your mental health. And what do you have at home that you're getting rid of in 2021?