Hit the road, toys!

Tonight for Family Home Evening we said "Hit the road," to over half of the kids toys! (We used to have 8 FULL bins. Now we have just 4!)

We usually get rid of a lot of toys before Christmas (and donate them to Goodwill) but this year I just didn't get around to it. I thought, "Well, we've done a good job of getting rid of a lot of toys recently. It's fine the way it is."  Last night as I put Addy and Joseph to bed I complimented them on keeping their room clean. Addy said, "Well, it's because we haven't been getting out our toys. We never play with them anymore." And she's right. Oliver the one who mostly plays with them.

Today I read THIS blog post about a mother who took her daughters toys away and never gave them back. She said it was a really wonderful experience for their family. They realized they didn't really need them! They read more books, used their imaginations and spent more time as a family. (Brilliant!) When I first mentioned getting rid of their toys Addy and Joseph complained. But about 10 seconds later Addy said, "We don't use them anyway so...that's fine." Joseph said, "Can we keep SOME toys?"

As you can see we did keep SOME. But we kept less than half, which feels amazing!

I'm so glad we did this project as a family. I was raised by a hoarder. I do a little better than my mother does, but I've got a long way to go. I hope my kids will do better than me at throwing things out. If we keep having nights like tonight, our whole family will be making great strides. (Go us!) ;-)

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