Today I feel victorious.

Why?

Because I FINALLY tackled something I have been avoiding for months now: the dreaded playroom cull.

Toys have a way of accumulating in almost obscene fashion in our home, and once they make it IN to the house, getting them OUT is an exercise in parenting gymnastics.

It is well documented that a cluttered play area makes it difficult for a child to focus on meaningful play. In a too-busy playroom, children are less likely to invest much time in one task before flitting off to another thing that takes their interest.  It may seem as if our children will get bored having fewer items to choose from, but this is generally not so; those precious few that do remain get played with more often in new, inventive ways.  And if boredom with what is on offer does set in, this is not a bad thing at all. Boredom in and of itself is the start of inspiration for more creative play. Check out this post by Dr Laura Markham on the importance of boredom in the development of creative thinking in children.

Less is more. 🙂

Waldorf play spaces are typically characterised by their beauty: handcrafted wooden toys, natural materials, nothing bright or garish, soothing (not jarring) to the senses. This is what I work toward, but in the meantime it is simply not practical to replace all plastic items with their wooden counterparts overnight.  The expense of investing in quality toys is something that is best spread out over time.

Six months ago when we began this Waldorf journey, I culled a heap of stuff from our playroom and re-organised the space to offer better play opportunities. At the time, I wanted to seriously reduce the number of plastic and/or battery toys in our play space. Like most families, the vast majority of the toys in our playroom at the time fit either one or both of those categories, so eliminating every single toy that fit that criteria was not something that I could do all in one go.  Not only would an overnight overhaul have left our playroom looking very empty indeed, the children would have been upset by the sudden removal of so many of their treasured items. A gradual transition is a gentler option, introducing new pieces as finances allow and quietly removing those that do not meet your family’s needs any longer in smaller batches.

Our cull at the beginning of the year was the first of what I imagine will be many ongoing refinements to our playroom as I slowly improve the space and add pieces that are more conducive to open-ended play. Today’s cull was a big step forward, with my most victorious achievement being the banishment of a certain blinking and screeching plastic fire engine whose sole purpose in life has been to give me migraines for the past two and a half years of my life. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out, fire truck!

I had the following goals in mind today when doing this cull:

• Again, less plastic
• Adios battery toys!
• Less clutter
• Easier access
• Get rid of stuff the boys don’t play with or have outgrown
• Lose anything that doesn’t have value for learning or development
• Establish a toy rotation

Phew! A big job, right?

Fortunately, I didn’t need to cull the ENTIRE playroom. The areas I focussed on were the Castle/Train Table; the Play Kitchen/Cafe and the Toy Shelf.

Here are some before and after pics of each area culled:

Toy Shelf Cull

Woohoo for less clutter and easier access! We made a trip to our local Op Shop and picked up these woven baskets for around $4 each. Each basket holds a specific item, so everything has its place and is easier to pack away.  When toys have a dedicated “home” that they live in, it makes it easier for little people to know where to place these items at tidy up time.

Here we have (going clockwise starting top left):

• Assorted animals
• Coloured wooden blocks
• Musical instruments (trumpet, xylophone, bells, harmonica)
• Tool box
• Dinosaurs and Magna Doodle
• Baby J items: stacking rings, shape sorter etc)
• Larger pieces of homemade wooden blocks (check out my earlier post on how we made these here!)
• Smaller pieces of homemade wooden blocks

I am keen to replace the musical instruments and tools with their “real” counterparts, or wooden toy versions, as appropriate. Slowly, slowly.

Play Kitchen / Cafe Cull

Not a lot was done here, except turf the horrid plastic foodstuffs which, interestingly, did not represent healthy food choices anyway so I am not sad to see these go (packaged sauces, deli meats, processed cheeses, etc).  I am in the process of making felt versions of other food items to add to the kitchen over time.  Master C likes to use this play kitchen as an industrial operation, where he prepares chai, lattes and pancakes for sale (hence the cash register – another item I would love to replace in due course with a more rustic wooden version). While not terribly open-ended, this area of the playroom gets a lot of use, so I am happy with its role in our playtime.

Doll House/Train Table Cull

We did away with the Police and Fire Stations as pictured in the rear of the “Before” shot, and have put these into a toy rotation where they will come out once again after a bit of time in storage.  This change gave us much more room for play with our wooden train tracks, which are stored in the box with the red lid to the left of the table. I also got rid of the aforementioned battery fire engine, which wasn’t needed anyhow since we have a wooden version that is much less migraine inducing nicer. 🙂

For interest sake, here a few pics of the other areas of the playroom after the cull.

Easel / Play Scarves / Blanket Basket / Matchbox Cars Basket

Dress Ups Corner

Book Nook

And…TA DA!

Here is the monstrous pile of stuff I culled today (these items will be packed away for future toy rotation. Its like a Christmas all over again for the boys when the toys get rotated!

The playroom is such a nicer place to be in now, though I know there is much still I would like to change.  Patience, as always, is the lesson of the day. What we have now is perfect for where we are at in our journey. I can only imagine what our playroom will look like a few years further along this Waldorf path! Very exciting. 🙂

Thank you, as always, for your company. Have a wonderful week!

xx

Robyn