3 Reasons Why to Include Your Kids in Decluttering

When you have children of any age living in your home, it can feel like a real challenge to declutter. Our kids like their stuff; their toys, books, blankets and stuffies are precious to them and trying to get them to part with anything feels impossible. You might have seen the meme floating around referencing how removing your kids stuff from the house would be a challenge for any experienced smuggler. There are times it feels easier to sneak it out on a full moon at the stroke of midnight and hope they don’t notice. Plot twist, your kids are going to notice at which you’ll then have to either lie, which I don’t recommend or tell them the truth; you snuck it out behind their backs. The problem with both of these is that you have now broken their trust.

Look, I get it, I once was on the sneakier side of things. It seemed easier and sometimes they didn’t notice. The trouble with smuggling out their stuff is that it isn’t a long term solution, it is a short term bandaid trying to fix a hole in the dam. I want to share with you why sneaking and smuggling your children’s belongings out of the house isn’t a long term solution and 3 reasons why it is important to include your kids in the decluttering process.

Reason #1 - Create Sustainable Systems

Families need to create a more sustainable system together for handling not only how things leave your home but how you handle bringing in new items. It is going to vary by the ages of your kids but I recommend including them in some of the decisions. Creating systems together, as a family, will also give you a much higher success rate. By including your kids in the process of creating systems they will be much more motivated to implement them going forward. When they have a hand in creating the system, they have the motivation to keep it going.

Reason #2 - Create Confident Decision Makers

When you work with your kids as a family during a decluttering session it can give them a sense of ownership in the process. Having them participate in making decisions will give them a voice and confidence in their decision making. Including them in some of the decisions also gives them a sense of belonging and shows them you have respect for their input. Helping our kids to understand the value in not only consciously letting go but more importantly being a conscious consumer will give them a solid foundation as they head into adulthood. The more confidence we can instill in our children the better off they’ll be in the future.

Reason #3 - Raising Adults

While it does at times feel easier to take care of everything for our kids, we aren’t giving them an opportunity to cultivate the habits they need to take with them into their adult lives. As cute and small as our kids are right now, they will become adults with roommates, spouses and possibly children of their own. Anyway we are able to teach and guide our children we should take full advantage of while we have the chance. We are raising adults and the more tools we can supply them with the better chances they'll have in this world.