While less is more, not enough can also bring stress.

While the process of cutting back and decluttering is useful, not having enough items in a child’s wardrobe can be equally stressful. For example if you have too few shirts you’ll be washing constantly. Far from simplifying the process, having too few clothes can making dressing children with things that work together a near impossible task. The answer is in finding the correct balance, and in ensuring everything in their closet ‘brings joy’.

So it’s not surprising then, that after purging back what they no longer need, it seems customers are also using this newfound clarity to re-stock their child’s closet with more carefully chosen items. They now seek out things they know their children will enjoy (and perhaps even wear!).

Of course the more quality consignment we get, the better the choice for you as customer, so it’s a win-win. 
 

Whose joy is most important?

Children’s closets (not unlike our own) can seem full, but what proportion actually 'brings joy'? There is a bigger and more challenging question here also. Whose joy is most important…yours as the parent, or the child’s? We feel the long term joy of the whole family matters most, but how do you get there?

According to Marie Kondo; "You and your family should only save items that spark joy. Children as young as 3 years old can decide what gives them joy, and the key principle is that each person should be making the decisions for themselves.."

While we’re hesitant to challenge the words of a guru, we tend to disagree with Marie a little on this point! It’s certainly true that a child knows what sparks joy to them in the moment (but as parents we know that this may change minutes later dependant on their mood). That said, to expect children of such an age to make these decisions, based on this emotional response, would be...well...naive at best!

 

There is a compromise to be met. If a child really won’t wear something, then keeping it is probably pointless; but equally the child may want to hold on to things that they still really love - even though they no longer fit, are seasonally inappropriate and look like they've been to hell and back. Here's where as parents we need to coax them into letting certain things go!

 

Of course it will depend on the child’s age, and giving kids some input and choice is a key part of their development, that said, most child psychologists stress the importance of not overwhelming children with too many choices, too soon. It's better to limit their options to just a few (some suggest no more than 2) and have them choose one of these.

 

Asking a young child to go tidy their room on their own or have them select what brings them joy is perhaps too big a task to expect them to manage alone. Just sayin' Marie...just sayin'!
 

 

How to make it fun
 

• Sing songs - quality is less of a thing than enthusiasm. Make up your own, or you could play those time-served classic tracks... 'The Tidy Up Song' by Dave Moran or try 'The Clean Up Song" by The Singing Walrus!
   

• Make cleaning into games to make it fun, such as role play and having them dress up while cleaning, cleaning up to music then having to freeze if the music stops, set mini challenges  e.g. 'who will finish first me picking up Lego or you picking up Playmobil' etc...
   

• Children can be incentivised with some of the proceeds of consignment, for example we let our son keep the credit he gets for his toys, but we use the credit from clothes. 
   

• Kids love jobs, these let them feel important and useful. Tell toddlers they can help Mommy or Daddy with 'this really important job'.