Here’s a small thing that slowly taught my kids the basics of Decluttering.
We go to the library 2-3 times each month. I give the kids each a bag and tell them they can bring home whatever fits in the bag.
After a week it will be clear (to me) which books got more attention and which did not.
But before I go back to the library, I pile all of the books together and we go through them one-by-one.
“Are you done with this book? Do you want to keep it or return it to the library?”
Our understanding with the kids is that if even one kid is still interested in this book then I will not have to return it. Unless we have already renewed it and it truly is “due”.
This is very interesting to me; the decluttering is built-in because we all know that library books are borrowed, not purchased to be kept forever.
The kids are so comfortable with this routine that they can do it on their own now. And I always remind them that if one person still wants it then we keep it. (Abundance mentality).
I love seeing the kids take charge of their book collection this way.
Here’s where I have started taking the practice into other arenas:
One evening during bath time I felt like the bath toy collection was becoming unruly. I asked my son if he was up for playing “keep or return” with me. We went one-by-one with each plastic figure in the tub and he picked what he was done with and what he wanted to keep. It went surprisingly well!
I’ve also started to include my oldest (7) in combing through her closet each season before we buy anything new.
It’s really hard to let go of control (I could probably just end there ;).
But I feel strongly that a kid’s sense of agency is important in this process. They see the direct cost and benefit of “keep or return.” They get that moment of soul searching to ask themselves what they really want. And that is reward enough for me.