Insanity. Absolute insanity. Every day. I can’t fathom how we lived before with every toy housed in the open family room space. Sure, there were bins for organization. The musical instruments here, the blocks there, stuffed animals over here. Everything was in reach. Everything was on the floor. It took about 30 minutes every night to put all this stuff in order. At the end of the day, every single toy in the house was strewn about the room. Yes, yes, we tried to abide by the “put this away first before you get a new toy out.” Lets just say that it wasn’t hugely successful. It was maddening.

We decided to minimize. Instead of keeping 8 bins of toys in accessible cabinets, we would only leave 2 bins out containing assorted objects. It was definitely a step in the right direction, but how was it that at the end of the day, there were toys still all over the floor despite the fact that they had only been played with for a grand total of 5 minutes collectively? It was still too much. Somehow, even this reduction wasn’t enough.

We made a bold decision. No toys in the family room apart from a set of six wooden bowls. Our poor deprived children cry and cry all day, but at least the house is in order. No. What we have found with our newly-found family room emptiness is that the kids have absolutely no care about the toys. They don’t even ask for them. They don’t miss them. They build forts, they imagine, they set up camps, they run around like wild monkeys, they read dozens of books, they camp in the closet, they use the wooden bowls as stepping stones, they dance to their hearts’ content. They don’t miss the toys at all.

Are we completely toy-free? No. Not at all. We haven’t gotten to that point yet. When the decision was made to move all the toys out, we went through all of them (why did we still have so many despite ongoing rotations of weeding toys out?!) and sorted the keepers into separate small containers which are now housed in our closet – the rest were donated. When I need a few minutes of uninterrupted time or when the kids look as if they would do well to build with blocks or play with their instruments, I give them a bin of toys. My children play with toys a couple of times a week and I would venture to say that they are very happy little people. They are not lacking anything with the limit of toys. But as a family, we have gained quite a lot.

We lost the plethora of toys in our line of vision at all times. What have we gained?

Space. Space is so important. We have gained a lot of room to move big once eliminating the permanent toy storage areas. My daughter’s impromptu ballet performances in the family room were previously stifled with bins of toys everywhere and scatterings of Melissa & Doug wooden thingamabobs thrown all around (could we please petition M&D to start providing lids for their awesome toy sets? I feel like they are conducting a psychological experiment on parents. How many times does that damn well-organized money set have to fall and fling all the coins and bills all over the place before we throw it out the window? I’m not the only person who’s had the slow motion “Nooooooo!” as one of those sets is falling, in hopes that that will help put the stupid thing back on the shelf and not scattered all over the place, right? Freaking Melissa & Doug). Anyhow, yes, uncluttered space. It’s important. More space to dance, more space to just lay on the floor and chat about our days, more space for us.

Positivity. Your living space is a mirror of your disposition. It really helps not to be frustrated by an ongoing mess throughout the day. I find that there is a completely different mood when our living space is cluttered than when it’s open and airy. I elaborate more on this in Mission to Minimize. For our family, moving the toys out has brought positivity to our attitudes.

Imagination. I am not against toys. I love toys with a purpose, toys that don’t do everything for the child, toys that develop rather than stifle the imagination. But even when you are surrounded with buckets upon buckets of even these kinds of toys, it can be massively overwhelming, especially for children. Rather than allowing our child’s mind to expand, we are in effect stifling it by providing too much excess. The elimination of toys en mass has proven to be very positive in the growth of imagination.

Time. Yes. Time. We have figured out how to give ourselves more time. Instead of picking up an array of debris fifteen times per day, we now have more time for the important stuff. More time to play. More time to read. More time to be happily together.

A toy-free family room is completely attainable with kids. Are you interested in trying this in your family? Try isolating your toy containers for a week, leaving only a few essential, stimulating, open-ended toys out in easy reach and I’m sure you’ll agree that having only a couple indispensable toys available will bring a sense of relief to your family’s everyday clutter battles and any lack of space issues that you combatting. Take notice of how, during this limited toy week, your family’s attitudes are altered. Pay attention to how the toys that are left in easy grasp are “consumed.” My theory is that you will reap the same benefits as our family has enjoyed in our Mission to Minimize.

Minor update, July 30, 2015: This is all not to say that heaps of toys are also stored in our children’s bedrooms. They don’t have separate bedrooms, check out a description of our Family Bedroom. Trust me, there is no room for toys in there either.

Related posts:
Mission to Minimize
Phase I: How does that pirate shirt make you feel?
Phase III: 1999 Boxes – Forage Your Storage