The Purge After the Splurge
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A guide to making room for the Christmas toys. (Theirs and yours.)
By Laurie Palau
If we’re not addicted to possessing the latest, most-hyped [insert the toy, device, home good or article of clothing here], then why do Black Friday sales now start in October? Let’s not pretend that Christmas isn’t a convenient excuse to lighten up in our daily struggle with restraint. As long as we give as good as we get, it’s not being greedy anyway.
But this isn’t about accumulating stuff. We’re not hoarders. Upgrading, by definition, means replacing. So, let’s launch a new Christmas tradition here and now. Once the tsunami of wrapping paper that is Christmas morning recedes, purge your household of all the unwanted things. With the excitement of getting new things (and the space and attention they’ll command), everyone, including the kids (especially the kids), should be willing to make a more honest evaluation of what’s important to them. (Hint: if there’s dust on it, it’s not. If it’s obsolete, it’s not.)
In fact, you may find that you and your family get a little (a lot) carried away. This, however, is a conscientious purge, not a scorched-earth purge. The goal is to keep as much as you can out of a landfill. Create four piles: Donations, Consignments, Recycling and, of course, Garbage. Think of the Garbage pile as a last resort. Here’s a brief guide to help you divvy up the rest.
Donate
Gently-used clothing, home goods and toys (donationtown.org)
Last-generation smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and video games (getwellgamers.org)
Unabused stuffed animals (gftw.org)
Consign
High-end (still-fashionable) clothes (thredup.com)
Expensive handbags (rebagg.com)
Recycle
Board games and toys with missing pieces
Torn and/or stained clothing
TVs and tech over 10 years old
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The “if there’s dust on it, it’s not” rule is brutal but probably accurate. Love that recycle pile includes board games with missing pieces though — feels like a lot of perfectly good Catan copies just got written off.
Honestly, making the kids sort through their old toys right after Christmas is a pretty smart idea. I like that the article focuses on donating and recycling instead of just tossing everything out.
The four-pile system is solid but the consignment bucket for handbags feels like exactly the loophole most of us will use to avoid the garbage pile — free minecash game anyway, I do the toy purge every year and the dust rule is the only honest metric that works.
Honestly, making the kids donate old toys before the new ones take over is a pretty smart tradition, and I like that the article focuses on keeping usable stuff out of landfills instead of just tossing everything. jpg to tiff
The “if there’s dust on it, it’s not” test is brutal but fair. Making donations, resale, and recycling the default instead of tossing everything feels like the part people actually need to remember convert heic to pdf online.
The four-pile system makes this feel doable, especially treating garbage as the last resort. I’m adding “clear out the old stuff before the new toys take over” to our Christmas routine concrete calculator.
The four-pile approach is the part I’d actually stick with—especially making garbage the last resort instead of tossing everything in one big post-Christmas sweep. grade calculator
This is actually helpful because I finally have a reason to dump that dusty toy from 2010 instead of just hiding it under the bed. Check out richmond guasha for more ideas on how to sort through the junk after Christmas morning.