Christina Sturdivant Sani
THE WASHINGTON POST – When Farai Harreld got pregnant with her first child, she looked around and realised she needed to rethink her consumption habits. “I was flabbergasted that we had accumulated so much stuff – and at the time we were only 25,” said Harreld, a writer and birth worker who co-founded Black Minimalists. She and her husband had recently bought their first house, which was smaller than their previous place. “It really just made me look at my footprint in my home and in the world and (consider) what kind of life I wanted to live with my child.” At her baby shower, she requested only what she considered essential, such as gender-neutral clothing, diapers, and feeding accessories like bottles and breast pumps. Today, Harreld, her husband and two children – a six-year-old girl and seven-month-old boy – maintain their relatively uncluttered existence in Topeka, Kan. They do it in part, she said, by taking a selective approach to which toys and kid stuff is allowed into their space.
“Most of the time, children who have a hard time cleaning their rooms are overwhelmed by the things they have,” said Harreld. “One of the tenets of minimalism for me was that I don’t want to be overwhelmed by the things in my home. And so it’s the same for my daughter.”
Even if you don’t consider yourself a minimalist – or want to keep your kids from enjoying the latest games and toys – there are fairly simple ways to be more intentional about the items that cycle through your home and how you organise them. Here’s what Harreld and other experts recommended.
Child and adolescent psychotherapist Katie Hurley in El Segundo, California encouraged imaginative and unstructured play that allows “opportunities for kids to engage in critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, empathy skills and creativity while having fun”. For example, she suggested saving items like cereal boxes. “You don’t need a ‘play kitchen’ in your home for kids to enjoy kitchen play,” said Hurley. “They can build their own kitchens and stock the shelves with empty packages.”
Harreld has similarly found that “open-ended” toys allow her daughter to use her imagination. Her daughter’s play silk, for instance, has morphed into a cape, headscarf, doll blanket and kite over the years. She used her kinder board for balance as a toddler, then later as a rocking chair for her doll and a place to sit and read for herself. These kinds of items last longer not only because they’re multipurpose, said Harreld, but because they’re not as flimsy as plastic toys.
If you’ve already accumulated a mountain of toys, decide on a few to keep out and store the rest, advised owner of D’Vine Order and founder of Black Girls Who Organise Dalys Macon. “Then make a decision every two weeks or monthly to switch them out.” Rotating toys can be fun for some kids because it “offers fresh perspectives and new ideas”, added Hurley.
But you don’t want to limit them too much, said educator and board-certified behaviour analyst Adam Tinsley. His daughter favours certain toys on a whim, he said, and having some variety allows her to “self-stimulate as opposed to always relying on mummy and daddy to facilitate activities. It gives her an opportunity to exercise her independence in a way that she might not lean on if she only had five to seven toys”.
