are you pulling your hair out with messy kids?

[QuinnP]

actually, my husband is pulling his hair out because I am a packrat & a huge mess. my messiness is making me feel bad.

 

[Jkioneil]

Quote:
Maybe have them pick out what to donate so it is ot as much a punishment as a giving act. and if you do that to avoid any oh no my toys! crying and what not put a number on it like you keep x amount of your stuffed toys and blah amount of your cars or whatever so they have a fixed number that is about them. that has worked for me in the past when i was up to my ears in toys and the need to clean out and donate was a must!

please let me know how it goes.

As much as I would love to give them the option of helping with the donations, its not something I can do...

I have tried this before and guess what they wanted to keep everything. so what I do is take all the favorite toys and placed them aside, then I take all the toys they no longer play with or haven't touched in months and stick them in a bag. If they really want to keep something they tell me why and we reason on it but usually all the ones that I give away aren't any longer played with. Before Xmas on top of the three full garbage bags of toys I gave away I also gave away 7 garbage bags of clothing. To which my daughter cried and stomped her feet because she didn't wan tto give any of it away, let me tell ya, nothing fit her and hadn't fit her in months/years....so I will let them help me out at first, but if it turns into a whine fest, I continue on my own. they like to hang on to things even if they don't fit or haven't playd with it in ages...my little packrats!!! lol I will say though I never get rid of any favorite toys or stuffies because my kids will use a different sutffie every night to cuddle with..hence why my daughter has like 100 different stuffed toys...lol..

thats how it used to be with mine too! t sounds like you have a lot of toys! not sure it would work as well with 100 stuffed toys.

You know what used to drive me nuts? grandma would take the kiddos to fast food and bring home tons of those little kid meals toys! OMG they were everywhere! drove me nuts they never played with them and it was just clutter so they could not find their real toys! those got thrown ito the donation box as soon as they got home after a while. man i hate those things!

 

[ParkfieldFarm]

We use www.chorewars.com. You can put in all of your own criteria/chores/etc. If you have kids who are really into video games this works great! We choose at the beginning what rewards will be when someone levels up--a new toy, a trip to a favorite restaurant, ice cream at the zoo.

 

[ParkfieldFarm]

Oh--and I also hate certain chores, like washing floors and folding laundry, so I'm in on it, too. If I level up I can treat myself to a new book or maybe extra time at the dog park.

 

[Qi Chicken]

Check out Flylady.com---Especially you QuinnP! THE guide to getting your life in order. Also has a book about weight loss that I recommend to a lot of people.

I love your ideas OP.

Ema, Maybe you could just point out that there just isn't ROOM, and to make room for new things in our lives we have to get rid of the old. I do that with my closet, I can't have new, nice clothes that fit if I insist on keeping all the crap clothes. For my children we have a giant cabinet with 8 baskets. All the stuff needs to fit in there. If we can't fit it in we have to purge before we get new stuff. We do have play areas in their rooms and stuff that are not quite so organized but this helps. I also have my 6 year old that draws 1000 pictures a day sort her stuff into keep, send or recycle. That way the relatives get drawings, we have a few to keep but most get recycled. She used to really hang on to stuff but is better now.

 

[Jkioneil]

Quote:
thanks! and this is a great idea!