I love stuff, I have always loved stuff, but even I have to admit that our 3 bedroom home is a little overwhelmed by all the things in it. There are 5 people and a cat that live here so it’s not surprising that we have a lot of belongings, but having collected so many things over time results in a lot of mess. My answer has generally been to hide as much away as possible in cupboards, but they are now over flowing. One way to make home life a bit happier is through the removal a lot of the accumulated junk, although the idea of the disposal of it doesn’t come easily to me.

So much junk to sort out and get rid of

Why Having A Clear Out Can Make Family Life Happier

You Can Relax and Not Worry About The Damage

As Baby Boy starts to leave the baby days behind him I am itching to clear the clutter and have less in the house. In the past I tried to get the children to take good care of toys and clothes so I could sell them on, but after selling some items on eBay and a Nearly New Sale I realised just how little second hand items sell for. I have successfully cleared out some of the best quality unused items, but it’s not worth selling a lot of it. 

I have now changed my approach and let the children play with the toys in a more relaxed way. It’s better for them to have fun, learn and thoroughly enjoy using their toys rather than me standing over their shoulder and repeatedly nagging them to be careful. When we are at a playground, in the forest or even playing in the garden I would rather they fully focus on their games than keeping their clothes clean. I might get 50p for a t-shirt if they keep it in amazing condition, but is that worth ruining their fun? 

Of course things get broken at times because my children don't take enough care, but I can’t honestly say that there is more damage than when I was telling them constantly to be careful, the biggest difference is I’m not getting stressed about it. Toys getting damaged or lost is an important lesson for children to learn, it teaches them they need to take care of items properly. Whether that’s through playing more carefully, not taking important items out with them or not leaving delicate things out that younger siblings can damage. The nagging never worked anyway.

Having Less Encourages Better Play

It’s often tempting to surround children with toys to encourage them to play, but studies show that having more toys tends to lead to overwhelm. It can be better to have less toys available because it encourages children to play with them more creatively. If you look at my living room this is clearly not an approach I take (although I love the idea and would follow it if I started all over again), but I see my children play with the same toys repeatedly despite the huge range on offer. Every so often I fill up boxes with toys that aren’t being played with and put them in the loft. They are very rarely mentioned again and could be disposed of.

Less Stuff Equals Less Tidying

Possibly the most compelling reason to have a clear out of all the junk that you don’t use is that the less you have the less tidying you need to do (and that would definitely make me a happy mummy). I plan to have a big clear out which will mean more space in cupboards and less on display, making it faster to tidy up, dust and vacuum. That’s a big benefit to all of us. 

Part of the reason we have so much is that I keep a lot of things “for a rainy day”. In the past we have been lucky to have a reasonable disposable income so we would buy without really thinking about it, I would put items away and that is where many of them have stayed. When my children have grown out of clothes, toys or equipment I put them in the loft in case they are needed again, I have a loft full of “just in case”. How long will I keep them?

It is great to have all the just in case stuff, but I have old kitchen bits that have sat in a box since we moved in 4 years ago and it hadn’t been used for a while before that. I have boxes full of notes from old jobs that I haven’t got rid of incase it’s useful, but why would I ever want old meeting notes? There might be a handful of useful information in each box, but I’m unlikely ever to go through it in enough detail to find anything useful.

***Disclosure: this is a collaborative post (AD)***