Lisa WoodruffCEO and founder, Organize 365

How To Get Rid Of Your Children's Old Toys

2 Mar 2018 · 1 min

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1:28

In this concise monologue, Lisa Woodruff advises parents to let go of children’s belongings—trophies, stuffed animals, and other saved items—once the child indicates they no longer want them. She emphasizes that the act of saving was a service to the child, and when the child thanks the parent for preserving choices, the remaining items are no longer needed. Woodruff also addresses items saved for a specific person for a future time; if that person now declines the item, the parent’s responsibility ends, and the item should be discarded without further repurposing. The overall message is to give parents permission to close boxes, place them at the curb, and move on, recognizing that memories persist while physical clutter does not.

Chapters

It is hard, but you need to let your children's items go if they don't want to take them. You don't need to keep their trophies. You don't need to keep their extra stuffed animals. You don't need to keep these items. If they went through and they picked what is important to them and they took it and they said, thank you so much for saving this for me so that I have the choice of what I want to take into my new home. I'm 25. I really appreciate this. They didn't tell you that's what they meant. That was that. That's exactly what that meant. I just translated it for you. The rest needs to go. Just close up the boxes and put them at the curb. I know it's hard, but they don't want it, and you don't need it, and the memory has already passed, and now you have future experiences with them. They're still alive. They still live in your town. You're still enjoying life with them. But having those boxes in the basement, um, you just, you just don't need them anymore. So if you have done number 2, which is saving things for a specific person for a specific time in the future, that time in the future comes and that person does not want that item, it is not your job now to figure out how you can repurpose it or who else might want it or what we could— no, just get rid of it. You did your job. You saved it for that person until that time in the future, and now it's time for that item to go. So I'm giving you permission to go ahead and let it go.