Purge Day

Tomorrow is one of the toughest days of the year for me, the day I clean out and purge the kids' rooms.  Leo is a collector of junk.  If I would let him, he would keep every Happy Meal toy he has ever been given.  My husband is the same way.  They both hate to throw things out.  I am the exact opposite.  I regularly go through my things looking for items that need to be donated or trashed.  Thankfully, Nora is too little to have collected too much junk and doesn't know when I'm getting rid of her stuff.

Here is my plan of attack for purging Leo's room.  As soon as I get home from dropping him off at school, I will start.  Leo has a shelf of small binds that are full of little toys.  That is my first stop because if a toy is in that area it is rarely played with.  I separate the toys into plies of keep, trash, and donate.  Here is where the challenge begins.  What to get rid off?  Will he miss this when it's gone?  My mommy guilt goes into overdrive.  Who's to stay what is junk and what is a prize possession?  If someone came into my room and started getting rid of my stuff would I notice?  Of course Leo has more toys than he could ever play with especially the small junky toys that come in kid's meals or other prizes.  I try to remind myself that this is for his own good.  He doesn't have much area to play in his small room and when his room gets to cluttered he starts bringing his toys into my room.  That's right, focus on the feeling of rolling over on Hotwheels cars in the middle of the night or stepping on Leggos. 

About four months ago, I tried to involve Leo in the process.  I explained that there are some boys that don't have lots of toys and we should share some of our extra toys with them.  Leo sat on his bed very quietly for a minute then looked up at me with tears in his eyes.  He said "Please mama don't give away all my toys.  I really love my Hotwheels."  I was heartbroken.  I tried to explain it again that we would only give away old toys that he didn't want anymore.  It was too late he was crying now because he was going to miss his toys and he just wanted to bring the boys with no toys over to his house to play with his toys.  I really thought I was doing a good think by teaching Leo to share and care for others but in reality I had a crying son and was no closer to cleaning out his room.  I learned my lesson that day, I will just continue to sneak around and get rid of a few toys when I can.