As the mother of three kids two of which have ADHD, I know that having fewer toys is beneficial for kids who need a diagnosis and even for those who do not.
Your average child may find putting toys away difficult. For Kids with ADHD, the difficulties are multiplied. ADHD makes it hard for kids to sort toys, and concentrate long enough to put them back!
My instincts told me that more toys should entertain my kids for longer periods of time, but that idea didn’t work in our home!
My kids seemed to. . .
- Get out toys
- Play with them for a few seconds
- Leave them on the floor
- Get out more toys!
- Tell me their board
- Create a huge toys mess
- Then become completely confused about how to pick it up
Because my kids often got out insane amounts of toys when I needed them to entertain themselves for longer periods of time, and they could not pick up their toys by themselves (ADHD), I finally started decluttering toys!
I didn’t want to declutter toys, but I couldn’t keep up with the mess! I wish someone had told me that there were more benefits to having fewer toys than just a clean house before I started decluttering. It may have made the process go faster.
While helping my daughter pick up her room, I realized that she had the same feelings about picking up a huge pile of random toys as I did about cleaning the family junk drawer!
Our Junk drawer had an insane amount of small items that were all mixed up. None of them belonged in the same place. When the junk drawer literally overflowed, and I couldn’t avoid sorting the contents any longer, I would pull it out, set it on the table, and stare at the contents because I had no idea where to start!
We reduced the toys by at least half! Then we sorted them into categories to create a toy library. I refused to let my kids have more than one type of toy category out at a time. This made pick-up easy! All the toys went in the same bin! Some of the toys that we rotated in our toy Library were Legos, Barbies, Cars from the car movie plus other car movie stuff, Pet Shops, a Wooden toy train set, and crafts.
For more information about how to make a toy library with rotating toys check out the articles below.
Help ADHD (ADD) kids clean their rooms and stay organized
What To Do If Your ADHD child Is A Pack Rat!
Kids Toys You’ll Be Glad You Got Rid Of!
- Toys with missing pieces
- McDonald’s Toys
- Toys from very cheap chain stores. these toys can contain lead which aggravates ADHD and causes Pica. Some researchers think lead can cause ADHD. Often these toys break quickly, so as soon as they are damaged get them out of your home and don’t buy any more super cheap toys. They do more harm than good!
- Books Your kids never chose to read.
- Books that Mom or Dad hates reading.
- Books that are torn or broken.
- Board games your kids never chose to play.
- Board games that you don’t have all the pieces to.
- Board games with broken pieces. I recently found that our mouse trap game had broken parts and no longer worked.
- Board games that are not appropriate for your kids. It could be that your kids outgrew them, or if your kids have ADHD or dyslexia this could be games that require lots of reading or more attention than your kids have.
- Toys your kids never chose to play with.
- Toys your child grew out of.
- Toys that are broken.
- Toys your kids don’t like, but they are nostalgic for you or your partner. You don’t need to throw these toys out if they are from your childhood, but you should take responsibility for them and claim them as yours if your kids don’t want them. I bought some toys that reminded me of my childhood toys when my kids were little. I wanted my kids to play with these toys, but I finally had to admit that times have changed! My kids were not interested in copies of toys from the 80s!
- Toys you have extra of in the same category. I realized recently that I could not shut the lid on our Duplo box, so I sold some Duplos that my kids didn’t play with. These were Duplos that were at the very bottom of the box. My kids didn’t notice and I can now shut my Duplo box!
- Toys that attract more toys. Toys like toy kitchens seem to accumulate an endless supply of food and kitchen gadgets! I found that my kids enjoyed the toy kitchen more outside! It was more fun to have a few items of plastic food (I kept ten) when my kids had access to water, sand, grass, and mud to make their own concoctions! I got rid of lots of plastic toy food and even doubles of teapots and pans. My kids never noticed. It could be that they didn’t notice because the toy kitchen changed locations and they had many new things to use in their new outside kitchen.
- Toys your kids don’t like to pick up often get stepped on. Save your feet!
I hope this helps you get started decluttering. Most of us who live in western countries have accumulated more things than we can manage.
Getting rid of things that steal your time (You have to clean them, pick them up, fold them, etc.) will enable you to spend more time with your family, start a hobby, work out more, or whatever strikes your fancy.
Get inspiration from my posts on decluttering if you don’t know where to start!
How to Start Living Minimally With an ADHD Family
Decluttering kid’s toys and other monsters in their rooms.
33 Things In Your Home Office You Can Get Rid of Today With No Regrets!
34 Items In Your Closet That You Can Toss and Never Miss
32 Kitchen Items You Can Toss Today and NEVER Miss!
18 Reasons Why Minimalist Living Can Benefit Your Family
Copyright Annie Eklöv