Any tips for respectfully dealing with your children's "stuff"?

[Melody7]

Hi, I have 3 kids. *My question is two-fold:*

Firstly, my children are really creative & enjoy drawing & making lots of things out of paper & found objects (2D and 3D). We've chosen not to include TV or on-screen activities in their daily lives, so I suppose my kids are doing a bit more paper creation than the norm....*

Secondly, we've chosen to invest in predominantly wooden toys to avoid all the plastic clutter, but even that seems to have accumulated with other "stuff" & I'm feeling a bit cluttered by "things".

Anyway, being a respectful AP style mum, I'm not partial to sneakily chucking out their stuff behind their backs - I'm raising them to be respectful of me & therefore I am of them.*

With this in mind, does anyone have any tips about how to respectfully go about coping with the amount of creative projects being produced, or have any tips on culling/organising the junky stuff that has been inevitably given to us, or little trinkety-things that just clatter about in drawers that get used occasionally when they see it (think broken stopwatch, those wood dinosaur skeletons you build, foam *planes you assemble, $2-shop trinkets that come home from parties, found objects etc, etc).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.*

[Chrispe]

I often talk with the kids about keep what is most precious & getting rid of the rest. As far as toys go we sorted them to give to the op-shop. We also have a scrap book for kids projects, and I know someone else who uses plastics tubs (with the lids) to store projects.

[MamaItalia]

I talk to my kids and tel them that we have so many toys we can't play with them all and some kids don't have any, so we should share. So they pick out a few to donate. We have to do this yearly as my parents go over board for holidays and birthdays.

[Rouge]

Take photos of their creations. And get yourself a digital frame. Have a frame for each child and they can show off their pics (you can store lots of pics).

With the toys we tend to do a cull right before Christmas for those less fortunate than ourselves. They feel happy to do this. I have never ever sneakily thrown anything out be it junk, toys or artwork. I think it builds a lack of trust.

[black_rose]

We keep a couple of favorite pieces of artwork a year in a box for when they are older, we give some as presents and sneak the rest out, photos are a good idea though. We are starting to explain we cant keep it all and if they want new pieces the other ones have to go. We just found two garbage bags of stuff paper, craft stickers, rocks etc from dd2's room this week she was happy to get rid of it this time as we were painting her room. With toys we donate the older ones to family and friends if we can so they can still play with them when we visit but we have also donated to charity recently. We don't sneak the toys as they get upset if they notice they are missing. It's hard with three as they all want their own stuff so you get over run!

[Jellyfish]

With artwork we keep a few to display (their choice, sometimes I might choose something I particularly like too) which we do on strings with pegs along our walls (cheap, can store lots, on any wall and be changed easily). We also take photos of everything and then the rest gets stored in a big tub for use in wrapping, cards or other projects (to cut and stick, to make into strips for weaving etc). We do artwork almost everyday and rarely have to consider throwing out anything unless it gets water shredded from accidently being left out in the rain, we always seem to be able to make use of things which DD1 seems to love repurposing (DD2 is not old enough to really get it just yet but we still talk to her about it) but when we do have things to recycle we just talk about why, if that causes issues then I know that piece isn't the right one to get rid of. With big structures, I let my kids self destroy those through play (box buses, castles and such), it usually only takes a couple of weeks at this age at most. After I cut down anything reusable for my cardboard scraps box and the rest is recycled without resistance from my kids. To cut down on an influx of drawings we got some chalkboards and chalk so they can create, photo then recreate to their hearts desires without a huge paper waste. My kids have always preferred paint to pencils though so it was always less of an issue, if we ever get a large overflow Id be looking at making our own paper since I think the process of it would be interesting to DD1 but if we didn't have time then just more explaining and gauging their reaction for whether they are comfortable letting go of something or not.

With toys, we do as others have mentioned and talk about sharing what we have been lucky to enjoy with others. We have lots of generous grandparents so it is something we seem to have to do about bi-yearly. We have tried to encourage less buying for the girls but they just love doing so so now we just encourage it to be more natural open ended things rather than loud, flashy plastic and they seem to have got on board which means less stuff I'm keen to ditch as soon as it's gotten. In the meantime we have a toy rotation system my kids get involved in where we keep out a few things and put away others to later be swapped as I find less is more for them (although some things stay out consistantly; blocks, Lego, trains type things). When something keeps being chosen to put away is when we talk about passing it on to someone else (unless it is something DD1 has outgrown that DD2 will grow into type thing).

With their things, art or toy or otherwise, they are theirs to me so I always just give my options and leave it to them. I find they always have a couple they are particularly proud of and then heaps with less of an attachment to so it always naturally works out.

[Nai]

With artwork we get them to chose a piece to use as wrapping paper when giving gifts. They can then wrap a gift in their own creation. We also have a roating wall of art displays so it will go up for a while, then when it gets taken down it is photographed and the art can be used as wrapping etc.

We also do the pre-Christmas clean out and donation thing. Recently we also had a garage sale as DD1 wants a snow holiday this year and it's expensive so she started earning some money towards it by holding a garage sale.

[peanutter]

We use artwork to wrap presents, and to make cards. I don't remember the last time I bought wrapping paper.

Little bits and pieces go in our craft box (an enormous tub with lid on wheels) for future use and toys get divvied up into types and tubbed up, for rotation (so the kids never get bored of their toys - we just put those ones away, and get the next tub out for rotation.

[~Kim~]

Similar to a few PPs, a few years ago I was feeling swamped by DD's creativeness. Her and I struck a deal that it could be thrown/recycled/regifted if I took a photo of everything. At the end of the year I make her and now DS a photobook of that year's art.

I do not have enough room to keep everything so some stuff is stored in our shed and brought out periodically. Other than that we decide every few months if there is stuff to donate when I am doing a charity run, or I ask them if there is anything they love particularly as I want to do a clean out of all those little knick knack/plastic toys type things. When I do sort to remove I show them. They hardly ever mind.

[*Efjay*]

Photos of craft work once its ready to be re-purposed (painting etc become wrapping paper). Craft items depending what it is eventually end up in the bin once the child is no longer interested in it.
Toys & clutter are tossed (if broken) or donated. The kids know I do it & are ok with it.

[JLeigh29]

2D stuff is displayed on a window for a few weeks, then we scrapbook them. I take Photos of 3D artworks, then put in the scrapbook too. Have been meaning to do the digital photo frame for a while though...

As for toys etc, I'm a bit of a hoarder too. I might need it for Bub no2...