P.S. Are your kids doing their own laundry yet? It’s not brain surgery and it’s a fabulous way to get them to keep track of their clothes and get you out of the “Mom, where’s my shirt?” routine!

My kids are 13 & 9. They get so much stuff from their grandparents and that’s another post. ;) I go through books and toys regularly and purge but now that they are older I am tryong to involve them in the process. I want them to feel in control and not resentful because I’m making unilateral decisions about their stuff. . My son is pretty good at figuring out what he doesn’t need and can part with, but my daughter (who is also on the functional end of the autism spectrum) wants to hang on every speck of stuff even pre-school toys. I have tried to reason with them, helping them understand that their excess can bring joy to kids without, but they can’t get past their own attachment or value of it. I can only get them to move some “less-played-with” toys to the basement (their rooms have their few most favorites).

Once stuff goes to the basement it rarely if ever gets played with. If after 3 months of something sitting there do I just make a unilateral decision and thrift store it, or how do I handle this? I don’t want to disrespect my kids by going behind their backs and getting rid of stuff, but no matter how much de-cluttering we do, the toys always seem excessive and it’s hard to get them to part with things. We’ve stemmed the flow coming in as much as we can without stifling the grandparents or the kids freedoms with their allowances, but I’m trying to figure out how to discern how to handle this.

i try to recycle anything i can. i’m to lazy to sell most things, unless i am upgrading something like my bike. i sold it for 80 and bought a folding one that takes up a lot less space. i’ve used free cycle a few times but its a huge hassal and i prefer just going to goodwill. if we had the landfill thing like you i would probably do that too.

I took a long time to be ready to get rid of all my kids baby clothes…it was emotional for me to admit they were growing up and their baby years ere gone. They were 7 and 11 when I finally faced the mountain of boxes and I did it in a way that blessed me more than I expected.

I found the few precious items I wanted to keep and kept those. Then I e-mailed all of my Moms group friends and friends with preschoolers and told them I was putting on the tea a specific afternoon and they could take whatever clothes they wanted. I hauled up all the boxes and got to hang with my girlfriends, handle my kids outgrown clothes with dignity and really help some friends. Seeing those clothes get new life on my friends kids has made me feel very proud and thankful. It solved a major problem for me and did it in a way that treated my kids and my friends with respect and creativity.

It’s because my parent’s won’t let me sell or throw away hangers (lots of them), and want to keep everything, even though they keep telling me to clean the hallway with my junk and to THROW IT OUT!

But then they go and put it all back because they can’t bear to let one hanger go.

Now, I’m taking the stuff, packing duplicates and bringing them to BF’s family who doesn’t have the resources to get the kinds of things we get in Canada… Kind of like shifting clutter :\

Arg…

Just the other day I said to him: “Does your sister want an apple corer?”

He said: ” She wants everything.”