This post was updated May, 14, 2021
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For most women, the condition of our homes impacts us emotionally. Lots of toys and clutter often sabotage what our homes should be for us...A place where we can be at peace and find rest in the midst of our busy lives. Home should be a place where we feel at peace and can joyfully serve our families. It should not be a place where we’re CONSTANTLY “catching up” while bitterness and discontentment swells up inside us.
If you do a google search for playroom ideas, you’ll often find wooden Montessori style toys strategically placed in neutral colored cubbies within a beautifully decorated white room. Many women are drawn to the aesthetics of minimalist play rooms because they are so clean, inviting and peaceful, often the exact opposite of our own spaces.
Image Credit: Erin Perez Hagstrom
What they fail to realize is that those spaces simply can’t be recreated when the sheer quantity of toys in their home gets out of control! Tackling the aesthetics of your space without decluttering first will only result in failure. IKEA and The Container Store will not fix your problem if you own too many toys in the first place.
Minimalism often gets the reputation of being solely about aesthetics. The minimalism I’m speaking of is so much more than that. Reducing toy clutter in your house is not just about having less stuff. The result impacts children in a powerful way. As children’s toys are decluttered, they gain more physical and mental space to to explore and create!
Which of the following scenarios can you relate to the most?
#1
The playroom is an overwhelming disaster zone. Empty bins lay on their side and toys are scattered everywhere. You can barely walk around. The play space looks nothing like you intended. It’s chaotic. No one spends much time in there anymore. Well, no one except for mom.
She gets tired of telling the kids to clean up their toys. As usual, she ends up putting everything away herself for the fiftieth time. And the cycle continues.
As mom cleans, she gets angry and begins talking to herself. No one helps out around here. I’m sick of it. There are so many other things I could be doing with my time.
Time goes on. Birthdays and holidays come and go. More toys get added to the mix. From time to time, a big playroom purge happens but it seems to return to the way it was before.
The scenario above was my life. I was so discouraged I didn’t even know where to begin to fix it. I began to accept that things were supposed to be chaotic and in disarray until all of my kids got older. It was a constant source of stress on my mental state and even in my marriage.
#2
Your preschooler heads to the playroom. The floor is clear. They choose a bin of farm toys to play with. The bin is clearly labeled with the word FARM and a picture of some farm animals. They pour out the bin and begin creating their farm scene until mom calls that it’s time for a snack. The toys are abandoned. The day continues. Inevitably, life gets in the way and the farm toys don’t get played with anymore. But…
In the evening before bed, everyone as a team puts the farm toys back inside the bin and puts it on the shelf.
Is this second scenario even reality? For some families a clutter free, organized home was always their reality. You know...Those families that seem to “have it all together.” Maybe they grew up with less stuff and living a life with less comes easy to them. Maybe, like me, they had a breaking point and did whatever they could to create change without turning back!
Stop Making Excuses
What we often do as moms is create excuses as to why we aren’t certain way.
I’m not organized.
I’m a mess. I’m not creative.
I was never good at cleaning.
What we fail to realize is that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. I said and believed all of those negative thoughts my entire life! In reality, those thoughts weren’t actually my problem at all! My problem was that I had too much clutter taking away what little time I had to get anything substantial done!
Moms are notorious for getting overwhelmed with EVERYTHING. When this happens, they often attack little projects here and there without finishing anything to completion. You know how it goes…
Start a load of laundry, make coffee, put a show on for a starving toddler while you put together a quick meal, tidy up a few toys, get distracted with an email....Is it lunch already?!
When all is said and done, the laundry gets left in the washing machine, the coffee needs to be reheated & the toys are still everywhere. Of course there are days when you’re crushing your to do list! But there are many others where your time is spent catching up on All. The. Things. in the house and keeping everyone alive!
Can we create a minimalist playroom for our kids that is simple, inviting and easy to maintain? It is absolutely possible but let’s look at the importance of playing in the first place to give you some motivation!
Through play, children learn:
Social Skills (turn taking and manners)
Conversation Skills (Practiced with formal games like Hedbanz or informal pretend play with dolls, little people, Calico Critters, etc.)
Problem Solving (Legos)
Cause and Effect (What happens when I push this block tower down?)
Hand/Eye Coordination and Fine Motor Skills. (Toys like puzzles, Legos, the Fine Motor Hedgehog & Snap Circuits help refine these skills.)
How to be creative & use their imagination. (This can be done with anything in the playroom much more frequently when it’s not overloaded.)
Decision Making Skills (board games, card games, puzzles)
Discovery of their own interests (Toy rotation is great for keeping children from getting bored.)
This quote from the book, Simplicity Parenting, really struck a cord with me.
“Children are such tactile beings. They live so fully by their senses that if they see something, they will also want to touch it, smell it, possibly eat it, maybe throw it, feel what it feels like on their heads, listen to it, sort it, and probably submerge it in water. This is entirely natural. Strap on their pith helmets; they’re exploring the world. But imagine the sensory overload that can happen for a child when every surface, every drawer and closet is filled with stuff? So many choices and so much stimuli rob them of time and attention. Too much stuff deprives kids of leisure, and the ability to explore their worlds deeply.”
Have you ever noticed a child play with random objects around the house? My younger girls do this all the time! I find it fascinating watching them create characters out of things like popsicle sticks. There is something so special about children’s imaginations. We often rob them of the ability to explore and create when our homes are filled with clutter that we don’t value. Giving children space to be creative and use their imaginations without being overwhelmed with too many options is an important, necessary part of their development.
Do you value toys or time? How would your kids respond if you drastically reduced the number of toys in their playroom?
I hope this post inspires you to consider decluttering your play area to help your kids be more creative and not overload them with too many options! Make it your goal to create a peaceful, minimalist playroom that your kids can retreat to! Give them space to create, to explore, and to love their childhood.
Imagination and kids go hand-in-hand. And when it’s playtime, a kid’s playroom should be filled with toys that spark their imagination and creativity. Maybe it’s a kitchen playset for a child that loves the idea of being a chef or a table for all sorts of arts and crafts, the options are endless. Incorporating any of these inspiring kids’ playroom decor ideas will make your home a more imaginative place for you and your child.