Simplify Your Child's Playroom by Cutting Back on Toys

"Simplify, simplify, simplify," advised Henry David Thoreau. What does an old Transcendentalist have to do with children and their toys? Simplicity in the playroom can be a blessing in disguise. Your children may protest, but culling their toy stashes and simplifying the playroom is something many parents should do. Going back to the basics can do your child a world of good.

In today's world, the old adage of "less is more" seems to have been forgotten. Consumers are driven to buy more than what they need, not just in quantity, but in quality as well. This trend holds true when it comes to parents buying toys for their children. Working parents sometimes try to compensate for time lost with their children by buying the most expensive toys they can find. Parents who grew up with few toys want to give their children everything they never had. Not only is this overbuying unnecessary, it can actually be damaging to the child.

Looking around the toy store, children and parents can become overwhelmed with the huge selection of blinking, buzzing, flashing toys. Most modern toys do everything for children-a child pushes a button, and a doll speaks 20 different phrases. What's so wrong with that? Well, it takes away the opportunity for the child to create the doll's speech herself. The little girl doesn't need to think or imagine anything-the doll does it for her. Even worse, some toys can actually be confusing. The Little People Zoo has tiny enclosures for little plastic animals. In each enclosure is a button that a child can push to hear the noise that the animal makes. Unfortunately, if a child puts a tiger in an elephant enclosure, the tiger will trumpet like an elephant, not growl like a tiger should. Mostly, though, toy stores are simply full of expensive toys that can only be played with in one way. A child who buys a Wiggles doll is unlikely to make the doll do anything "out of character." The same goes various other toys like baseball bats (a thick stick could be a bat, a sword, a crutch, etc), dress up costumes (a princess dress can only be that, but a playsilk can be a cape, a dress, a skirt, a bandage, a belt, etc). The main problem with most mainstream toys is that they require very little input from the child, much less any creativity or imagination.

So how does a parent simplify their children's playroom? One of the most important tips is to do it when your child isn't around. That probably sounds mean, but in all honesty, it can be the best way. For younger children, when you cut back on their toys, they probably won't even notice. In our house, my two year old will play with almost any toy given to him, but also won't complain if a toy "disappears" when he's not paying attention. Of course, that probably wouldn't be the case with well-loved toys, so parents may want to use discretion. With slightly older children, a big deal can be made of simplifying the playroom. For a few days beforehand, parents can talk about how the Play or Toy Fairy is going to come and make them a fabulous new playroom. Talk it up the way you do Santa, and your children should start to get excited. Be vague, though-don't specifically mention taking toys away. Then, on the day of Project Simplify Playroom, have Daddy take the kids out for the day. With a few trash bags, remove all the toys that light up, buzz, or talk. Take away any toys that don't encourage creativity. These toys can be sold at a consignment shop or given to a charity.

Then the fun of setting up the new playroom begins. Create centers throughout the playroom: one corner should be for playing cars, another for kitchen supplies, another for dolls, another for trains, and so on. Put toys in small open bins so no toys get lost in the bottom of huge toy boxes. Labeling the small boxes with pictures of what goes inside can help make pick-up time easier for the children. Aside from their regular toys, consider investing some money in a few new toys-a nice kitchen, wood playstands, and some playsilks (regular sheets will work as well). Puppets are good, too, and can be made from socks or other household items. Leave small baskets around the room filled with natural materials (pinecones, stones, sticks, yarn, etc). When your children come home, act very excited about their new playroom. Tell them how the Play Fairy came and set up this great new playroom so that they could have even more fun than before. If they seem confused or don't know how to play with these imagination-driven toys, get down on the floor and show them how. Pretend a pillow is a doll and wrap it up in a playsilk. Put it to bed in one of the baskets. Or turn a playstand into a puppet theater and put on a skit.

Cutting back on toys and simplifying our playroom has worked wonders for my family. Over the course of two weeks, I packed up six giant trash bags full of toys. The good toys were sold to make some money for the newer toys. The broken or worn out toys were tossed in the trash. My two year old son never seemed to notice that some of his toys were gone. Instead of going from toy to toy, playing with each for five minutes or less (which sounds a lot like ADHD, doesn't it?), he now plays with his kitchen for a half hour to an hour at a time. His play has become much more imaginative-he's even sat on a 12-pack of soda and pretended he was riding a train. My goal to simplify the playroom and cut back toys was reached and we couldn't be more happy with the results.