This is such a wonderful video and couldn't come at a better time. I agree that our children don't mind the missing toys, but grandparents are another story...

My childhood was jumping on couches with my brother with a sword pretending we were super heroes or samurais… and playing in the big empty doll house outside making mud pies… You bring to light truly just how commercialized this culture has become regarding toys… and how unhelpful that is to our kids Beautiful video. I laughed when you went down to kid level to see if kids could find the toys hidden behind the desk. 🤣

Beautiful intro to slow living. In Singapore the hustle culture is prominent and intense for families. Every Sat parents send kids to various activities, after school there are other classes. It’s rush here and there. Definitely see parents stressed and some yelling at their kids for being slow. And it’s hard to get out of this culture unless reflective and intentional- where is the beauty of childhood… Thanks for sharing all this. Also inspired to declutter this week.

Ive been planning a big toy purge for a while now, and your video has really inspired me to just do it already! ❤

Just the thought of a dirty kitchen in the morning is enough for me to make sure my kitchen is spotless before bed

Would love to see a video on your minimalist skin care routine! This is something I struggle with maintaining as I get overwhelmed by all the “must haves”

I can’t remember which video, but you mentioned each one of your kids only has 3 pairs of shoes. Any recommendations for brands of kids shoes that last/are worth the investment?

Every year we make our kids donate their toys

Uow! The video I needed. I felt into the same traps (fancy educational toys, complex montessori activities, toy rotation that made me exhausted). They all stopped working after my son was 2 years old. And I am constantly trying to create an environment to make him entertained for longer periods…

Priority to personal hygiene in the morning ! Oh my God I need advices here. I'm doing it all at night when I'm exhausted and trying to fins ways to negociate (yes, negociate) with myself to DO IT on mornings 🌩️

I spent the weekend with freinds who have a play room. Our kids' play in that room involved a lot of snatching and disagreements, and moving quickly from one activity to the next. When both kids were in the spare room (with no toys) whilst i was packing, suddenly they were playing collaboratively in a lengthy game pretending the airbed was a boat!

Thank you for your videos. I’m a mom of three and I’ve been seeking the simple life. Always late, always running to get to the next activity. There’s too much physical and mental clutter that is in the way of what we really need. You’re on the right path and it’s what I aspire to reach ❤️.

This video was exactly what I needed to see today. Thank you thank you thank you!

Dear Erica, thank you for this video! After watching your 'kids will play better' video I loved your personality so much, that I have been watching your videos for couple of days, your ideas resonate a lot with me. I became a stay-home mom one year ago at 40 years old after several years of hard work as a teacher for teenagers and young adults, and this idea of overdoing, overexplaining and overanalysing is very true, thank you for sharing! I love the idea of making place and suddenly you will find God there, I need this in my life!

Hi there, that’s all good but going shopping where the children see the all the colours of toys and many many toys what happens then. I’m interested. (as an older lady that has no small children yet)

Love this and been saying this for years. I'm an educator, Ive even tried to speak to administration about this and its dismissed or said "Kids need all the toys out for language development". We are the ones in the classroom who have to manage behaviors and support with routines such as cleaning. Now I can say, I'm happy to get out of the classroom now lol and no longer under that administration. Hope this catches on in a system that refuses to move forward but stays behind. Thank you for sharing this!

We routinely declutter our kids’ toys. The kids usually don’t even notice and they DO play better after stuff is gone. We don’t typically buy our kids toys. Usually other relatives and family friends do, and when they do, we remove old toys.

My baby is 10 months and has so many toys already. I noticed he doesn’t really like being confined in a big baby playpen with toys, but he’ll rather play with the cardboard box with clothes I want to donate in the room. Interesting video and I observed myself that toys makes my baby ask for “more” and “more”.

I don't believe that there are "non educational" moments. Everything you do is a learning process. Be it speaking, arts and crafts, cooking, cleaning or gardening. You can teach valuable lessons, OR you let them roll a ball down a hole a million times, OR you just sit them in front of an iPad. But that aside, I absolutely love this and would like to read the accompanying studies. Not for myself, but to present them to my workplace. The families we work with really need to work on exactly this. :) Thank you for the video!

My 4 kids are grown-ups now with kids of their own, but when my oldest was around 9, I pared down their toys. I only allowed each child to keep 7 toys. During Christmas or birthdays, when they were given a toy as a gift, they were allowed 2 weeks to play with the new toy. After the 2 weeks, they had to decide if they were going to keep the new toy. If they kept the new toy, they had to decide which of their original 7 toys they were going to donate to the Salvation Army. Relatives learned very quickly to stop inundating my kids with toys. Legos, art supplies, and a reasonable amount of stuffed animals were not included in the count. It was a system that worked for us. With fewer toys, I was able to easily spot who hadn't put up their toys, the kids shared their own toys much easier (they learned about reciprocity), what they valued in a toy, and I wasn’t going nuts with a constantly cluttered living room.

What do you think about cars? My sons have so many cars but they love cars and vehicles but they can’t really be purposed with their other toys unless I can teach them how to use their magnetiles as a race track or build a house for it. What do you think?

I wrote this list down on paper and included the guilt and shame attached to the fantasy self she spoke about at the end. Decluttering that too. I'm about to feel so light and free!!

How to really undo it all is the hard part 😭

I want to do this for myself!! I think the excess of fabric and yarn I own actually limit my creativity. But what great advice for everyone! Thank you!

If someone is expecting another kid, how to declutter and how to save some for the new kid? I do not want to keep buying new stuff if I knew I had in the closet. Then again I can't hold on to everything.

Kids have always had some toys to play with throughout the years. Dolls have always existed in different forms (yarn dolls, corn husk dolls, wooden dolls, rag dolls, etc.), wooden toys such as trains and cars (after the invention of automobiles) were made. Other simple homemade toys were made for children: puppets, Jacob’s Ladder, Magic wallets, etc. Many years ago, children were also expected to grow up “quicker”. Also, as an adult doll and stuffed animal collector, I’m glad you kept the Bitty Babies. I got my Bitty Baby when I was in college as I had wanted her ever since I was a kid (I got my first American Girl doll, Felicity, when I was in 6th grade. I think that every kid will react in a different way. I would have been so upset if my parents had gotten rid of my favorite stuffed animals and still have some of them at 38. For example, I got my Garfield for my first Christmas and still have him. I do purge my things at times but still have several that I don’t want to part with. I’m a kid at heart. For what it’s worth, I don’t have children. I do have a spoiled cat though.

You gave me a lot of food for thought. I just found your channel and watched you toy toss one, where you got rid of like 90% of your kids' toys and how much better they now play. I am now rethinking toys I've kept and what do o need to actually keep.

I have been wanting to try something like this for a while with our son. It's difficult, because we're part of a local gifting community, so our large collection of toys has mostly been gifted to us, and much of that is always "only if no one else wants it" because I hate to see things thrown away. Very often, people don't want the used toys because they aren't what's new and trendy, so they are not always easy to get rid of, but there is the local thrift store as an option. That said, your ability to reduce your number of books is particularly interesting to me. We would read a few dozen short books a day for years, and while that number has decreased as the books have gotten longer, my son craves new information. There are only a few specific books he returns to, and the rest are absorbed and then ignored. Same problem as the toys - books are hard to give away. We supplement with the library, but there is some strange need to sometimes own things. But somehow, I think we've still found a good balance, even with the frustration of mentally inventorying everything for rotation as you eloquently described, because he still loves to be outside, and has a collection of rocks and sticks he's found to play with.

I watched 3 of your videos and loved them and just subscribed! This one I could not watch because of all the plastic 😱

wow. This made me sob. The bit where you said "I am not a fantasy mom, but i'm not bad." That hit !!! We are so imperfect, and the moment I decided to be real for my kids rather than perfect, everything changed. I am mindful, yes, but they see me cry, they see us bicker occasionally, they see me have sofa days with the TV on and they join me in that. They see me. Normal, regular, sometimes happy, sometimes not-so-happy me. And what glorious moments of connection that imperfection provides and what a beautiful relationship we have.

Idk how I stumbled across your channel but I instantly subscribed & have been binging your videos! You're voice is sooo soothing! You make me feel so much better about letting things GO!!!

Thank you. This brought me peace. Looking forward to further simplifying our lives.

Regarding Toy Trauma: It all depends on the parent's attitude towards decluttering. I've seen it on my own children. If I'm yelling and threatening them, they will have a negative attitude towards decluttering. However, lately, I've had a calmer approach to decluttering, and I've noticed that they have started to prepare toys to donate, throw away, and re-gift all by themselves.

Off topic but I LOVE your dark kitchen cabinets. 🖤🤩

This was one of the very best parenting videos I have watched on KZbin all year. You are making deep and quality content. I really appreciate your honest reflections and your guiding the viewer through your process. Even as a speech therapists and evolving minimalist-ish mom, I am completely overwhelmed by my child’s toys. Especially the grandparent gifts. I declutter constantly and own a lot less than the families we’re friends with but I have still felt completely overwhelmed by the ‘mental inventory.’ I really really appreciate your taking the time to make such a thoughtful video. I have found it so helpful and encouraging and affirming of my gut instinct that our child will do better with even less (even though that is in complete opposition to the cultural norm). Thank you thank you thank you💛

LOVE!! I am so behind this idea. Excited for my Saturday 😊

Thx you ❤

Thx you!

Thx you! Just found you! You are amazing!!

Thx you love the video! How do you write the name from market mathani?

Toys are for parents. Kids do not need toys. My two year old is most interessded in whatever I am "playing" with. I need toys for her, because some things are too dangerous, too fragile or too expensive for her.

GREAT Video which needs so much more views!!! Thank you very much

Where are your plastic white bins with the lids from? Those seem so helpful for organizing!

Thank you! I loved the whole thing, but I especially loved the part about morning routines. I wanted to do so many things first thing in the morning, but with three kids 5 and under, night time sleep was unpredictable. My husband and I joke that it's too early for your day to be ruined by 6am 😂 I also loved the part about minimalism making things much simpler, but not effortless. I have often sat pondering what else we could get rid of because it still gets messy, when part of the problem is that humans live at our house (and I don't want to change that 😉). I love minimalism, but it was nice to hear someone else acknowledge that it still takes work to manage even a simplified home.

Since I stumbled upon your channel this past week I have been binging 😊. You are so inspiring! I have been on a minimalist journey since motherhood as well. My daughter is almost 5 and we are planning to have one more if we are blessed again. I also became a mom in my 30s and work in higher Ed. What advice would you give moms, like me, who aren't able to stay home....I am the significant earner between myself and my husband. How could we get to a place where we can enjoy our kids more but also keep up with laundry, dishes etc. I food prep so we don't have to cook every night but still find little evening time.

I had wanted to organize my 5-year-old daughter's toys for a while. When I saw your video, I started right away. Took me 2 hours to pack everything up in the end, but now it's in 3 trash bags, hidden in her closet. When she came home she looked at her shelves and THANKED me. She did ask for one specific toy but was ok when I told her we were taking a break from some toys and could get it back later. I'll keep everything for a few more months and then donate what she doesn't ask for. All that to say, the space looks so much cleaner and more inviting and we are both thrilled. Thank you!