Why Minimizing Toys Leads to More Creative Play (and Less Stress)

Why Minimizing Toys Leads to
More Creative Play (and Less Stress)

Do you sometimes find yourself wishing your kids had fewer toys but you don't know how to start minimizing?

Before minimalism, this was me. I'd walk through our home, head spinning from dodging yet another needing-to-be-picked-up toy pile.

We owned a staggering amount of toys, which, I soon realized lent itself more to mess-making than creative play. Unless you consider dumping doctor's kits, overturning toy bins, and strewing play food about the living room floor creative.

I didn't.

While too many toys in the home is certainly a first-world issue, it's a real source of stress for parents and children in our culture. This phenomenon of toy accumulation began in 1955 and is still going strong today. In fact, the United States now contains about 3.1% of the world's children but 40% of the world's toys.

Research from sociologist Juliet Schor's book Born to Buy, found that the average American child receives seventy new toys a year.

The majority of our culture has accepted these facts—minimizing toys is not the norm.

But for our family, I couldn't help but observe that living with so many toys in the home just wasn't working. Constantly picking up and putting away toys often left me distracted, frustrated, and exhausted instead of present to our kids; I knew something had to change.

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Julia Ubbenga is a freelance journalist whose teachings on minimalism, simplicity, and intentional living have reached over 1M people worldwide through her blog. Julia also practices what she preaches in her Kansas City home. She resides with her husband, two extremely lively young daughters, three-year-old son, and baby girl. You can also find her on Facebook.