May 2, 2008

Now I'm into the thick of "purging that counts". The purging that will make the most difference in my family's quality of life is the Toy Purge.

While keeping open dialogue with my kids about this project, I've exclusively used the word "purge" when talking about it. "Purge" is a fun project that makes our house healthy and magically turns unwanted toys into a Disney Cruise. "Cleaning" is not fun. The kids want to "purge". They do not want to "clean".

As I mentioned last week, I started this process by letting my kids make a list of the ten things they do not want to purge. This opened my eyes to what toys they actually treasure. Silly me to make assumptions about such things - I was way off. (That preposition was for you, Katie.)

My next step was to give the kids a garbage bag, and tell them to purge the toys they do not want. There's no sense in causing stress, debate, hurt feelings, or power struggles over toys they're readily willing to purge. Aaron, my six-year-old, loves to purge. I actually wonder whether it's healthy for him to be as unattached to his things as he is. Then I think about how proud I am that he is so unattached, and that I would like to be more like him. It is, after all, just stuff. On the other hand, I can't get Aaron to purge any of the trash he collects from the playground at school that fills his pockets. (Oh, excuse me - it's not trash; It's either "treasure" or it's for his "experiment".) Ryan, my four-year-old, on the other hand, is a very selective purger. He walks around with a garbage bag that's as tall as he is, looks at every teeny-weeny item, and every now and then throws a button or a Lego into the bag. He's also creative with his non-purging: "Mom, I want to purge this big firetruck. But you should keep it for when Baby Hayden gets older."

A good place to start the toy purge is with stuffed animals. These accumulate so quickly. They are also the dirtiest toys and affect the air quality of your home. This is especially a concern for families with an asthmatic family member or someone with bad allergies. Stuffed animals are a sponge for dirt, pollen, mold, dust and dust mites. The stuffed animals that kids sleep with may seem like they wouldn't be as dusty since they get used more, but the skin cells that sluff off of the kids are an all-you-can-eat buffet for dust mites. People rarely wash stuffed animals, because the toys get ruined and lose their shape and texture in the wash. So, I recommend getting these down to the bare minimum appropriate for your child and for the amount of space they have.

Books can also be a place of over-accumulation. Books are, of course, a good thing, but you can only keep the amount of books that you have room to store. If all of the kids' books don't fit in their bookcase, it's time to purge some. Nancy Johnson, Director of Lifelong Learning of Estes Valley, warns against OVER-purging the books, however. She advises against "getting rid of all those board books and toddler books when you think your children have outgrown them.  As children learn to read, those are the books they can return to and will love even more because they can read them by themselves."

Now let's address the toys with the teeny-weeny pieces. The toys that are useless once the pieces get separated from each other. The toys that end up firmly implanted in the bottom of your foot whenever you walk without shoes. The toys you occasionally have to fish out of the baby's cheek. In my house those toys are called "Legos" and "Playmobil". In your house they might be called "Polly Pocket". These toys drive me nuts. Especially the Legos. Back in the olden days, Legos were these terrific, multi-use building blocks with endless options and opportunities to create. In modern days, Legos are bought in specific sets and include complicated books of instructions for use. The Legos don't even resemble Legos. The Legos have to be used to make a specific thing. Once you lose one of the pieces, the set is rendered useless. The bottom-of-the-lamppost Lego is literally only good for making the bottom of the lamppost. If you lose the middle-of-the-lamppost Lego, you now have a useless Lego set. I recommend for the teeny-weeny toys to have a good system of organization that the kids can easily maintain. Without the teeny-weeny pieces being organized, and therefore usable, you have a waste of toy space, and unnecessary risk to the windpipe of your baby and the bottoms of your feet. I intend to toss the teeny-weenies in my house and start fresh with a new organization system that allows for a manageable amount of teeny-weenies that will actually be used.

If you have enough toys in your house to open a toy store, you can certainly afford to be choosey about what you keep and what you don't keep. Let's think quality and not quantity. High-quality, lead-free, multi-use, multi-age toys that are educational or inspire creativity and imagination should certainly be given priority over those that are junk.

Hopefully this will get us started on the toy purge, something I expect to take at least a couple of weeks in my house. We are absolutely drowning in toys, and I'm so excited to get this part of the House Purge finished.

Kristen Owen is a longtime blogger and registered eBay Trading Assistant. More information, topics, and helpful tips about House Purge can be read by going to the project's Web site at www.housepurge.com .