Ravin Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 We're purging DD's room. It's a BIG mess. Right now, we're dragging everything out into the school room. The plan is to vacuum/dust, then only put things back in their proper places, while at the same time purging broken and outgrown toys, throwing out garbage, etc. The problem is, DD doesn't like getting rid of ANYTHING. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 I have a 5 year old DD....I feel your pain LOL. My DD is the exact same way. I do all room purging when she's not here. I have her either (A) go over to my parents house, or (B) set her up with a movie, bring several boxes into her room and put trash in one, give away/sale in another, and do not let her enter until I'm finished. Option A works best LOL. I know what she plays with, I know what's important to her, I know what she will not miss. If I let her help me there would be screaming, tears, begging and crying over things she has not touched in years. We would get nothing done. So I've started doing it when she's not home. In fact, our entire home is in the process of being painted right now, we're switching the bedrooms around, and I'm about to do a complete overhaul of my kids room before it is all put back together. Time for another visit to Mimi and Poppy's house soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca VA Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 I purge my daughter's room when she isn't home. There is NO WAY that she would ever let anything go voluntarily. And yet, after I do the purging, she's very happy in her cleaner room, and she never misses anything that I've thrown out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisasaysto Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 We did this at our house recently. My daughter has a hard time letting go of things, so her toys were out of control. We sat down the night before and made two lists -- one for stuff we knew she wanted to keep and the other for things she didn't mind getting rid of. The next day, we went through and gathered everything on the give-away list and boxed it up. I think this helped because we weren't discussing the items while we were boxing them up. It was easier for her to detach. I kept emphasizing how much nicer her room would be when she had room to display her dolls and play with her other toys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kat19 Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 My dd(turning 13 soon) doesn't like to throw stuff away either. I have cleaned her room myself to get things out. It's easier to get rid of stuff when they aren't around to know what they are missing :001_smile: Although, this weekend she has been in there and hauling out garbage bags likes crazy. I hope she continues to clean and get her room looking nice and then keep it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestavern Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 Another here who does it when her dd is out of the house! I take only the real "junk" and she's never noticed anything missing! We had a tag sale at the beginning of the summer and I told her she could keep any proceeds for items she put in the sale (she had to man her booth and take the $$ for her stuff as well). She cleaned A LOT out on her own for the tag sale! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athena1277 Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 Here's something to try that some friends of mine have used. Give the child a box or bag and tell them that they have to fill it with things they no longer want/use. It may not get rid of all the excess, but it will be a good start. I think it's good to have them learn to clean out, so they don't become adults who can't part with anything. Oh, and my favorite - "If you don't get rid of some things, Santa can't bring you new stuff". :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin Posted September 20, 2009 Author Share Posted September 20, 2009 We tried the two lists thing. DD readily came up with a list of must-keeps, but nothing to put on the 'toss' list. So far, I've talked her into recycling the 8 X 11 1/2 alphabet pages that used to border her room. It's a start, I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraceyS/FL Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 I feel your pain. I was going to do this this weekend.... but we are making a cake for grandpa's birthday instead. But that is what needs to happen here - EVERYTHING needs to come out and start over. UGH. The other big issue is that the 5 & 10 year old share a room..... makes it hard to purge things at times based on age. I guess i'll take this on.... thursday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kindermommy Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 Right now I follow this method and could have given this answer verbatim: I do all room purging when she's not here. I have her either (A) go over to my parents house, or (B) set her up with a movie, bring several boxes into her room and put trash in one, give away/sale in another, and do not let her enter until I'm finished. Option A works best LOL. I know what she plays with, I know what's important to her, I know what she will not miss. If I let her help me there would be screaming, tears, begging and crying over things she has not touched in years. We would get nothing done. But I know I need to move more towards this way because I agree with the last sentence especially: Give the child a box or bag and tell them that they have to fill it with things they no longer want/use. It may not get rid of all the excess, but it will be a good start. I think it's good to have them learn to clean out, so they don't become adults who can't part with anything Maybe as she gets older it will be easier to move that way???? :) I do have her watch "clean house" regularly;) I also have used the "Santa" line and am BUYING HER LESS and limiting her wish lists for Santa/Bday this year tremendously..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 I work with the kids to help them make choices. We start by emptying an area, like the closet on the floor. I have them pick their very favorites and put them away. I also get one large bag for items that are garbage, need donated or just need to go somewhere else, These items all go into one bag, and I sort them again later. As they start to slow down, or start saving things that I know they haven't used in a while, we put the rest of the pile in another black bag, and put it in the attic. I tell them that if they want something particular, they can ask for it, but they have to be specific so I can go get the one item. Around a birthday or Christmas time, I would give them the choice of keeping old items or getting new ones, and found that was a good time for the old bag to disappear. For stuffed animals we instituted a rule of 1 in=2 out. There is a bag in the attic of animals that are loved, but aren't a favorite. When ever dd10 gets a new stuffed animal, she has to let the equal size equivalent of 2 go to Goodwill. This helps to get rid of animals and also curbs the getting of new ones, since they have a 'price' of coming home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 A couple years ago, we took the advice someone from these boards gave us and it worked beautifully! Each child had a paper bag and a box, and each week, they had to put 7 things nice things (stuffed animals, clothes, books, etc) into the box, and then throw 7 shabby things away into the paper bag. At the end of the week, we donated the contents of the box to The Salvation Army or Goodwill, and dumped the bag in the garbage. They felt like thier things were going to someplace good and they barely missed the garbage stuff since they got to choose what it was themselves. And no, sheets of paper and erasers and broken pencils didn't count as one garbage item each ;). It took about 3 weeks before they just started adding more all on thier own. I think we stuck with it for about 2 months, and it really cut down on the clutter at the time. I also think we need to do it again :D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MgoBlue Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 My 17 yr old still has a problem with this! I have her put the things she's not using into a plastic box & store it in the basement. She had a HUGE collection of stuff for beading...yet went like a year w/o touching it. She was not ready to give away that investment...so it's out of her room. When she was younger...we had boxes under the bed, etc. We never had as many toys as some of her friends though because grandparents & family typically never gave toys...she had some friends where it was ridiculous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 Mine are too little for this to be an issue yet, but I'm planning to tell them that Spring Cleaning is a religious duty :D Unfortunately dh isn't pagan, so it mightn't work on him. Shame, it's taken six years and three house moves to get him to throw out his collection of grit filled cassette tapes! :lol: Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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