With the Easter holiday barely in your review mirror, the idea of conquering post-holiday clutter with your kids is a hot topic right now! If you are sipping your coffee while you read this, go ahead and take a look around, scanning for the pile. You know the one…or maybe two or three. It’s the remnants of all the fun your kids had at this weekend’s egg hunts. Perhaps last weekend’s, too. If you’re lucky it’s at least contained in a bag or basket for the time being but it’s only a matter of time before all those trinkets and candies and who knows what else end up all over your house: under the table, between the couch cushions, on the stairs, and basically strewn across the floor from wall to wall.
That is, unless you follow these steps (some will help you set up an easier situation next year but some you can even use now to conquer current post-holiday clutter with your kids):
- Be intentional! If you are creating the egg hunt, only stuff the eggs with things you are willing to help your kids manage. If you’re ok with seeing and cleaning up 1000 tiny trinkets on repeat for eternity, go ahead and buy the plastic trinkets but if that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, consider filling the eggs with other items such as money (coins are noisy and fun to shake in the eggs and can help stretch your dollar if you like to hide a lot of eggs), consumables like candy and other small food items that will get used up, or even clever coupons for anything from staying up 30 minutes late to having ice cream for dinner!
- Be proactive! Yes, yes, you may have missed your chance on these this year but there’s nothing better than a little hindsight to help fuel future change. Being proactive can work two different ways and I recommend utilizing both. First, if another family member is hosting the egg hunt, don’t be shy about having a discussion with them about what goes in the eggs. There are tactful ways to approach this, of course, including offering to help provide egg fillers and stuff eggs or simply sharing online lists of clutter-free egg stuffer ideas (or even sharing this blog post…wink wink). Think about it this way, if you choose not to say anything or offer alternatives, you can’t really complain about what your kids come home with. Go ahead and set some friendly boundaries. In addition to this, it’s great to have conversations with your kids about how egg hunt treasures will be handled in your house and why. Setting expectations with them ahead of time (for example, we are only going to keep as much candy as will fit in this ziplock baggie) can help keep things feeling more manageable for all parties in the long run.
- Find opportunities for giving! Now here’s a tip you can still use, even if this year’s egg hunts have already landed you in the land of excess. Because even when the eggs are filled with consumable items like candy, the sheer quantity of it can be overwhelming. If you took the time to set expectations around how much candy would be kept ahead of time, say with the ziplock bag example from earlier, your next discussion can be surrounding what happens with the excess. It’s totally understandable to want to throw it all away but there are many options for making it disappear that will feel much more productive and much less wasteful. Will you drop it off at the local fire house for them to enjoy? Share it in a May Day basket in a few weeks with your neighbors? Leave some out for your package delivery folks when you’re expecting a parcel? The possibilities are endless!
- Use a clutter catcher!! If trinkets are the culprit, it’s ok to say enough is enough. You can allow your kids to enjoy all the little plastic toys as long as they continue to manage them responsibly. Depending on their age, you can set appropriate expectations regarding the number of reminders and how much assistance they get with cleaning up the trinket trail around the house. Then you as the parent can employ a clutter catcher. A clutter catcher is a container (with a lid!!) that you use to do a quick clean up sweep of a space. Once the clutter catcher is full, you reserve the right to trash or donate everything inside unless your kids clean it out and put things away in their appropriate homes. Your kids should know about the clutter catcher and how it works; this should not be a surprise to them. I recommend doing a quick sweep of designated areas (usually main living spaces) after the kids go to bed to quickly collect items that were left out and place them in the clutter catcher. You can choose to make it your kids’ responsibility to check the clutter catcher or you may choose to give them reminders. Lastly you will choose an amount of time that the clutter catcher can remain full before the items disappear for good. As with any tool, make adjustments to the system to make it feel right for your family. Some amount of experimentation and flexibility is required here.
There you have it, my friend. Four quick and easy tips to help you conquer post-holiday clutter with your kids. This is one you’ll want to bookmark and revisit around summer parade season, trick-or-treat time, birthdays, and all of the winter holidays!
Can you think of other times one or more of these tips would be helpful for you? Do you have any other tips for conquering post-holiday clutter with kids? I would love for you to share your ideas in the comments below!