Minimalist Kids Bedroom (Tour at the End)
We have worked hard over the last year and half to get to a point where we feel like our kids are grasping the concept of minimalism and what it is like to be minimalist kids.
We wanted them to understand the pros of having a minimalist kid’s bedroom that is easy to keep clean and maintained. A space where they are not bogged down and have more freedom to use their imagination.
It took some time but I am confident in telling you a year and a half in, the change is really happening within them. The shifts I have seen in my kids character has truly been remarkable. They are totally embracing being minimalist kids.
When I first started my minimalism journey I had the kids very involved. It was their stuff and I didn’t want to declutter anything they really didn’t want to.
As I continued on (room by room over and over is the best method in my opinion) I developed some guidelines. If I hadn’t seen them play with something for several months I knew they wouldn’t miss the thing, so without their permission I slowly started to get rid of a few more things. Also if anything was broken or missing pieces it went too. They didn’t even notice.
What we did to encourage a minimalist mindset for our kids
Daily reminders that not being able to care for their things meant they had too many things. Sharing with them over and over how there are kids in the world that hardly have any toys let alone anything. Topics of conversation often involved wants vs needs.
And it almost seemed like magic when Lilia my 7 year old who LOVES any 18″ American girl/Journey girl/My life doll told me she wanted to donate almost all of it to another little girl. Over the last few years she had been gifted everything from a bedroom set, to a living room and kitchen set, to a make up vanity, horse and barn and ALL the outifts, accessories and theme party sets you can imagine. She had 6 or 7 dolls and a myriad of ways to dress, entertain and play with them. She would spend hours in the little doll set up we had made in her bedroom.
She decided to sell a good portion of it and wanted to use the money to buy her first chapter books and then give the rest away to church (it’s truly moments like these when I feel like I am doing something right as a mom.) This was completely unprompted. I hadn’t even bothered asking her to donate any of it anymore because she was very attached to it all and really did play with it all often.
After wiping up my tears not only of joy to get all that plastic crap out of my house, but at how proud I was of her and the selfless decision, we gathered all her doll furniture and some accessories cleaned it up and took it to our local kids buy and sell. She made $15 and 30 cents which was a bit hard to swallow knowing it cost several hundred dollars retail. But I digress. That wasn’t the point.
Her little sister watched this and expressed how proud she was of her and also donated a grocery bag full of toys.
I have implemented a monthly declutter in their room. They know its coming now and I always start with what can we give away to make another child really happy this month? Every month they are more and more willing to release their things and I am so happy to see it play out in my children’s lives just as it has played out in mine.
A little more magic happened yesterday in our monthly declutter. I found my middle daughter Marissa is more apt to donate more when she knows where it is going. My husbands best friend has two kids who are 2 and 4. They are coming over this weekend so I decided to ask if there was something she wanted to give to them. To my surprises, she gave away the rest of her paw patrol stuff, characters, vehicles and a train track set. She had been slowly giving them paw patrol things over the past few months but today she made the decision that she didn’t need any of it and she gave it all away! More proud tears from this mama!
This was then followed by them both making the decision to give away their huge doll house and all their barbies and clothes except 3. And also all of their lego mega blocks.
Our kids are directly effected by how we treat stuff.
I used to be consumed by consumerism. Comparison had me over spending and overwhelmed. My kids always wanted the next new thing and I was always buying them something new.
Now my kids enjoy window shopping, not buying. They are so creative, play more games, use their imaginations read more books, make crafts and my favorite – are able to keep their room clean without constant nagging from mean ol mom. I mean nagging to clean still happens sometimes but it has significantly cut down.. There is so much more joy in my house. SO much more freedom.
My kids are totally becoming minimalist kids and I love it so much!! I know how well it is going to serve them in their future. They won’t make so many of the same mistakes I made!
Here is a room tour of their room. After several sweeps over the last 18 months I feel like we are at a very manageable place.
