1402 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Jan \ on: My tips to cope with parenthood meta
This is one of my biggest points of irritation. It's so much stuff and most of it is just clutter. I'm glad our daughter has plenty of toys to exercise her imaginations on, but most of it gets little use and the gifters seem to want to hear about how much she loves their gift.
I appreciate you doing these. There are plenty of unglamorous aspects to parenting and it's nice to share tricks and tips with each other.
I feel your pain.
This year, I’m starting something new. There’s a cardinal rule in decluttering - when we bring one thing into the house, another thing must go out.
So I taught my boy the phrase “danshari”, a Japanese concept of parting with things you no longer need. I have a picture of a book titled Danshari (using it for visual impact here).
Of course, it’s hard to get a four-year-old to throw stuff, so timing is everything. I get him to Danshari one item whenever he buys a brand new item. (Aside: my father-in-law gave him $40, which can be used to buy several toys. But I don’t want to interfere with how he spends his money.)
Flushed with the excitement of wanting to play with his new toy, he obliges easily. He will select an item to throw into the waste paper basket and we will say thank you to it for all the good memories it gave us. (He is half-Japanese. That’s what Japanese people do haha)
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we will say thank you to it for all the good memories it gave us
That sounds adorable!
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