Tips for decluttering kids toys

Traveling and living full time in an RV with kids certainly presents its challenges with regards to space. While I wouldn’t consider ourselves minimalists, tiny living or living in a small space certainly makes you have to prioritize and be more intentional about your possessions.

When I presented this idea to my husband about 1 year prior to us selling everything to travel I knew going from 5,000+ square feet to less than 300 square feet it would require a lot of downsizing and decluttering, especially the kids toys.

The day we agreed to prepare for this full-time RV travel adventure I immediately started decluttering. Toys were one of the first thing that I addressed, and let me tell you, the way kids played and my stress level with the amount of stuff improved instantly.

• Take out every single toy we had in our house and put it in the living room one Friday morning. It was like Christmas morning to the kids! There were so many toys that they didn’t even remember existed! I started by challenging ourselves to put the toys together as if they were new. If the toys did not have all of their parts, were damaged or didn’t function, they were donated or thrown away. 
• The remaining toys were left out over the weekend, and while it was a bit hectic, I was able to observe the things that were being played with. Periodically throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday I would move the toys that were not being played with into a pile. If they did not get taken out of the pile at the end of the day, then I put them in a box for donation.
• These two steps over the weekend removed quite a bit of the toys and we put the toys back in bins in the playroom so they could be played with for the upcoming weeks.

Because we were transitioning to a small space AND starting our homeschool journey the toys that were kept hat to be multi-functional, educational or used during homeschool and be small enough or light enough to fit in less than 300 square feet. 

Multifunctional: The toys had to be able to be played with inside or outside; or played with inside and have a use with homeschool.

Space and weight: Not only were going to be in a small space, but we also had to think about the weight limitations in the RV.

When we set out on this adventure of RV travel our kiddos were 8,6,4 years. We didn’t have any big baby toys or accessories that we had to consider. Not only did I see a change in how the kids played when I decluttered the kids' toys, but I saw their imagination blossom, their attention span increase, their interactive play improved, and their innovation expand. Simplifying my kid's world made my life more fulfilling.