The Montana Mama Blog: Stuffed animal slim-down

Last Sunday's purge project was focused on the kids' stuffed animals. I know, I know, I'm a really mean mommy, aren't I? Kids are supposed to have stuffed animals during their childhood. They promote creative play and foster attachments. Why would I want to take that away?

Let me give you a little back-story...

We have a fantastic bonus room/play room over the garage. Over the past few years we've done some work to make it a cozy, homey place for us to all hang out. The idea is to have it be a multi-purpose area for watching movies, playtime, etc. The newest addition was a sectional couch that we absolutely love. The odd part of this room is that is a long, rectangular shape with the door right in the middle. Recently, we (or I should say Mr. Yost) got so tired of all the toys littering the room, that he decided one half of the long room would be a toy-free zone. Here is a picture of that side:

aaahhhh, peace and tranquility

And now, the other side...

ahhhhh! mayhem!

He even went so far as to put a piece of tape down the middle so that the kids would have a visual barrier. Don't you love how it even goes up the side of the toy box?

As you can see, the kids have PLENTY of toys. The funny thing is, hardly any of the stuffed animals were even in this room. Most of them were in their bedroom. I obviously still have a lot of toy-purging projects to come.

While Mr. Yost and the kids were gone, I rounded up as many of the stuffed animals as I could find. I ended up with 86 little critters.

I decided I was going to let the kids each pick their 10 favorite animals. To tell you the truth, I was expecting a huge resistance. I thought Stella would throw a fit and ask for more, so I was starting low with 10 so I'd have some negotiating room. Before they got home, I put two sets of 10 little yellow sticker dots on the floor. This would be where they could each put their choices. You know, like a game - wink, wink.

As soon as they got home, I went to tell them about the "special challenge" I had for them in the playroom. Hudson had fallen asleep in the car, so Stella came up by herself.

To my amazement, she didn't balk at only being able to pick 10. She got right to business filling up her yellow dots. Along the way she would find ones she liked better and traded them out for the ones she'd already chosen.

When Hudson woke up, we asked him if he wanted to pick his 10. He was in a "just woke up" crabby mood. So, we ended up picking on his behalf.