I stole a couple child-free hours to try to get some Christmas shopping done. I swear, I am doing everything in my power to get it completed before Thanksgiving.
I made the mistake of going to the mall. I loathe the mall. I probably go to the mall less than 5 times a year and every time I regret it. Today was no exception.
First of all, can I just say that nothing annoys me more than the way the stores are already decorated for Christmas? Since when did the Christmas season begin the day after Halloween? Christmas decorations have no business making an appearance until after THANKSGIVING. I know Christmas is fun and all, but do we really need to dedicate one sixth of the entire year to it’s glory???? /soapbox
Second, what happened to the time when the mall’s hallways were a place to walk? Now they are a place where I feel constantly harrasssed. Today, kiosk sales people tried to stop me to a) straighten my hair, b) rub lotion on me, c) sell me a cellphone (while I was ON a cellphone) and d)throw a boomarang. Not to mention I almost got decapitated by a remote controlled kiosk helicopter. Did I mention I hate the mall?
When I came home, I was so overwelmed by the consumerism I immediately convinced M to help me purge the extra junk in the playroom.
Compared to some other families we know, we don’t have thatmany toys. Though, I think we still probably have a lot more toys than I had when I was 4 years old. The consumerism aimed at kids makes me crazy, so I feel like I really have to act as a gatekeeper to keep all the junk out.
All M’s toys (with the exception of maybe 5 stuffed animals and all the books which are stored in her bedroom) are kept in the playroom. L’s toys are in the livingroom. M did a great job deciding which toys we would donate, throw away and keep.
This is the pile for donation (another small box was set aside for a baby-having friends):
We managed one large trashbag of junk. Can I also say how glad I am to get rid of atrocity that is the purple, green and orange Dora couch. God, that thing is hideous. (It was a gift.) Getting rid of all that junk made the rest of the playroom seem much more organized and tidy.
This is the main toy storage area. Puzzles, Chinese lesson supplies (top shelf), art supplies, etc.
This is the auxillary toy storage area. The top shelf is toys for L when she gets a little bigger. This is whwere the games live. Also, where the new stuffed animal/doll area has been relocated. That is one place where we are a little out of control, but both L & M are fixed with stuffed animals at the moment so we can wait until next purge to cut back some more.
We got rid of about 1/4th of the toy kitchen junk and put together all the cutting veggies. It is still a lot, but it gets played with often, so I don’t mind.
Usually, the top of this cabinet is covered with so much junk you can’t see it. It is looking a lot better now. Also, when I cleaned it, I found a nice kanji painting I forgot we had. Maybe I will try to hang it tomorrow.
This is all of L’s toys and books. I really should get rid of the shape sorter but I am still hopeful that some of those shapes will turn up some day. I can’t wait to get rid of that car that L loves. I will keep Rody for a long time though. He is one of the most-loved, best-value toys we have ever purchased.
Wow, I’m impressed.
We are way overrun with junk . . . I mean toys.
Can I hire you to get us organized???
Between this and the housekeeping post you did a while back, I think you and I have similar tolerance levels for mess and toys. I used all the made-in-China recall scares plus my own little anti-plastic awakening as an excuse to get rid of a lot of stuff (nothing recalled, but stuff that I decided might be recalled or was similar enough to the recall or stuff that had scratchable paint, the most evil kinds of plastic, etc.).
It seems like my kids are totally deprived now, because we cut so far back on toys (except dolls and animals which all of us have a hard time letting go of). But we will restock at Xmas with expensive wooden European toys I hand-picked that my MIL will officially give the kids. Still, the restock will be about 1/3 of what I tossed. Those toys cost 3X more, so we will just have 1/3 as many.
Another good excuse to keep the clutter down!
I’m doing the same thing with Zorba’s playroom right now.
I try to do on-line shopping as much as possible for the sole purpose of avoiding malls. I try to purge crap from the house, but I am hopeless when it comes to clothes. I love clothes and keep buying more. But I justify it in that I didn’t buy anything during the previous three years, and I am just starting my career and initially only had 3 work appropriate shirts. I need to build my wardrobe. I still feel bad though.
Someone who hates malls as much as I do. I do 80% of my shopping online. It was even more before we brought our daughter home. I’ve been to the mall, maybe, five times in the last five years. But then our mall really sucks, too. This will be our first Christmas with a child. I’m a little scared of the toys that will be heading our way. Everyone sent clothes for her birthday when we first got home, so this is their first chance to indulge in toys.
Felix has that same car and loves it! Yeah…plastic crap. I periodically go through and get rid of plastic stuff but I am pretty attached to the wooden toys. Like you, we don’t have that many toys and really only try to buy things for him for special occasions. We are working on our kitchen area now.
I feel little less bad when I buy things used or on Ebay. Once again, we don’t buy plastic (that’s all gifts) but I want to pick up a nice BRIO train set for Felix for his birthday and buying that on Ebay saves a ton of money.
Break the consumerism cycle!
Wow, I never got why people complained about malls until now. I’m in Eastern Canada and our malls are nowhere near as mad as that; we do have kiosks but the people who run them stay penned up inside, where they belong! If people came lunging at me to rub lotion on me, I’d probably run away and never go back.
The toy purge sounds like a wonderful thing; very liberating! When my sister and I were small we tended to pick a few particular favourite toys and play them to death so we never had an overabundance either; where my mother really blew tons of money was on books. I was a voracious reader and my “toy” shelves were groaning under the weight of hundreds of books. I hope when my kids come along that it will be the same way for them!
LSP has been asking for a hoppity hop type toy. She’ll probably get one for Christmas because, I don’t know, it amuses me that I let my child ride her bike and (possibly) a Hoppity Hop in the living room. I went looking for them online yesterday and discovered a Rody one. It’s so cool. It might be the winner. As I said to J, Of course it’s fabulous! It’s Italian! It figures. Good job on the purge. I did the same. And we still have a ton of stuff. As for missing pieces for the shape sorter, LSP stashes things in random pockets. I’m onto her.
Oh man. I just had Apples do a purge (inspired by C-mama) but we still have a billion times more toys than what you’ve shown here. Must purge again and again. And again. Apples has so many toys, she can’t figure out what to play with. Not a good thing at all.
[...] didn’t throw away nearly as much stuff as last year, but that is good. It turns out we didn’t accumulate many new toys this year so we [...]