The KonMarie method

iQueen

PenniesMake£s wrote: »

Hello sorry for just jumping in but I am struggling with something and could do with your help please. I have 3 children and toys and arts and crafts stuff is very hard to tidy once and for all:o What is your advice for kondoing toys etc. It is all organised into trofast bins but by the end of each day many of these have been tipped out and I spend far too long tidying toys. My husband says they just have too much and that even if we get rid of most of it they will still have plenty but they do play with everything so I find this difficult. Help please x

Many Konverts on MumsNet have found toy rotation works very well... one third of toys available, two thirds stored in the garage/attic/basement. Swapover to another third, every 3 months.

Apparently, children enjoy more intense and imaginative play, with a smaller choice of toys, and concentrate better, for longer.

Floss

My 2 boys didn't realise that half of their toys were stashed away and that they were swapped around every 3 months

iQueen

PenniesMake£s wrote: »

Mrs moneypenny it is a free for all and a box of playmobil can be all mixed up with barbies and puzzle pieces and Lego by the end of the day, I'm a bit ocd about separating it all out and putting it away again but I must spend a ridiculous amount of time doing this when I'd rather be reading WITH my children or doing playdoh WITH them. I need to do something like putting some in the loft and rotating them but this is not what marie kondo would advise I think....confused x

MK hasn't got children, from what I have read, but she would definitely say discard the excess!

My oldest two DCs were born in the late 1960s, before Consumerism reared it's very ugly head. The amount of toys they had would probably be viewed as 'deprivation' today!

I'm sorry for children today. They are faced with so many choices today (no wonder there's an epidemic of ADHD) - it's worse than the supermarket bread aisle!

It doesn't help that 'good parenting' has been allied to providing material products, instead of our time. Our time is the greatest gift we can give our children, after love.

jinny

Lots of Grandparents are guilty of overindulging children as well. My cousins grandkids are very quiet stuck in front of an ipad or smartphone. Not much conversation going on.

well my soup making tidy as I go really worked. Untensils chucked in a dish of soapy water and cleaned up as I go. who knew?

PenniesMake£s

iQueen wrote: »

MK hasn't got children, from what I have read, but she would definitely say discard the excess!

My oldest two DCs were born in the late 1960s, before Consumerism reared it's very ugly head. The amount of toys they had would probably be viewed as 'deprivation' today!

I'm sorry for children today. They are faced with so many choices today (no wonder there's an epidemic of ADHD) - it's worse than the supermarket bread aisle!

It doesn't help that 'good parenting' has been allied to providing material products, instead of our time. Our time is the greatest gift we can give our children, after love.

I totally agree yet at the same time fall for the consumerism marketing ploys, my house is like a shrine to Disney frozen ( almost:rotfl:) what do you remember your children playing with?

PenniesMake£s

iQueen wrote: »

Many Konverts on MumsNet have found toy rotation works very well... one third of toys available, two thirds stored in the garage/attic/basement. Swapover to another third, every 3 months.

Apparently, children enjoy more intense and imaginative play, with a smaller choice of toys, and concentrate better, for longer.

I think i will try this....but how to choose:o

WeeMidgie

jinny wrote: »

Maybe if we all use the nursery way and put back everything when finished with it. We can stay tidy too. Im just off to make a pan of soup and will try this out putting away and tidy as I go. :A

At work for many years I've used a rule that if something takes less than 5 minutes to do, I do it straight away.

Now that the house is kondo'd, I've adopted the same rule at home. I'm a golden oldie, so there's no one but myself here. But I'm startled at the difference the 5 minute rule has made at home! I'm much more organised, and much happier.

Should have done it years ago!

Igamogam

Pennnies: re the tidy up the toys things. I will endorse all of what has been said so far. I am a teacher of young children with challenging behaviour and we 'train' them about tidying up/sharing/putting away when finished etc and we rotate and limit what is available - doesnt take long for them to get the message and the parents are wide eyed.............! Rotated toys are met with whoops of delight like new or old friends and it ensures boredom doesnt creep in. Storage boxes have pictures on to help them put back things in the right place ( I too have a thing about L*go mixed with Pl*ymobil!) and pictures are so easy now with digital cameras. In school we have 'shadows' on shelves which make the shape of an item/box/ container so they know exactly where to put something. I am not advocating that at home but if it helps the children tidy up.............

I never bought into the whole Disney thing with my children and we never bought any Disney merchandise - on principle! They did seem to have a lot of toys though - mostly bought second hand from NCT sales and when finished I sold on again. Tidying up as always done together though. Kept me sane at the time!

jinny

WeeMidgie wrote: »

At work for many years I've used a rule that if something takes less than 5 minutes to do, I do it straight away.

Now that the house is kondo'd, I've adopted the same rule at home. I'm a golden oldie, so there's no one but myself here. But I'm startled at the difference the 5 minute rule has made at home! I'm much more organised, and much happier.

Should have done it years ago!

its amazing how you can use methods from work in your home enviroment.

well I just went back into the kitchen to see how said soup was doing..........I had left out a pepper mill:eek:
I said to it 'you dont live there' and put it in its home.
oh dear :rotfl:

Keeping_Motivated

PenniesMake£s wrote: »

Mrs moneypenny it is a free for all and a box of playmobil can be all mixed up with barbies and puzzle pieces and Lego by the end of the day, I'm a bit ocd about separating it all out and putting it away again but I must spend a ridiculous amount of time doing this when I'd rather be reading WITH my children or doing playdoh WITH them. I need to do something like putting some in the loft and rotating them but this is not what marie kondo would advise I think....confused x

But she does say only keep what makes your heart sing... and from what you have said the children do actually use all the toys it is more a problem of getting them out and mixing them up and not putting them away..so the issue is not decluttering it is of everything having a home and only get out so much at once.

I agree spend some time teaching them to tidy up after themselves and maybe also saying they can only have one or two things out at once.

Also I would limit any new toys you bring into the house as they sound like they have enough