Read Do Less for Free Online Page B

Grandma to coo over—not them. No ten-month-old has ever requested multiple teething toys, shape-sorter games, or a dozen stuffed animals. When you accept that a lot of that kid clutter starts with adults, and that most of it isn’t necessary for the well-being and happiness of your children, it’s easier to find new homes for those things and commit to buying less.
Gear
    Too much stuff starts before the first baby even arrives. Expectant parents are inundated with things they
must
buy for the new baby: nursery furniture, layettes of clothing, and all the latest supposedly must-have baby gadgets. Many parents spend more time and money buying things and decorating a nursery than they spend on preparing for the birth or saving for related expenses like maternity or paternity leave. Some families even go so far as to buy a bigger home and a new car before the baby is out of the womb. Ironically, all this buying and stuff, stuff that you need to work more to pay for and spend more of your precious free time tidying up, leaves you with less time to enjoy the new baby.
    A hundred years ago, babies slept in dresser drawers, made do with a few outfits and cloth diapers, and were lucky to have just one rattle as a toy. There were no motorized infant swings that promised to lull a baby into a deep sleep. Parents survived with what we would now consider the barest of essentials for a newborn. That’s right, they survived and their children thrived anyway. Toddlers learned to walk without any type of push toy or walker. Older babies even learned to eat solid food without a high chair by sitting in their mothers’ laps at the dinner table. Parents rocked babies to sleep in their arms rather than in a motorized infant swing that took up a large area of the living room. We can recreate these simpler times now by resisting the impulse to buy every baby-soothing device and gadget we read about in the latest parenting magazines.
    With this in mind, re-evaluate your baby gear. What do you really need and use? It’s nice to have a safe spot to leave an infant or older baby, either a playpen or something seated, but you really only need one place. The nice thing about baby gear and gadgets is that they are easy to get rid of. Find a family expecting a new baby and they will most likely come to your home and take those big clunky pieces of plastic off your hands tonight. It’s funny: You get panicked about needing it all before the baby arrives and then, once the baby is actually here, you can’t wait to get rid of that stuff. So say goodbye to some of those big pieces sitting in your living room and reclaim that floor space.
Clothing
    Reducing your baby’s or toddler’s clothing is a great way to create more space and organization in your home and life. With fewer outfits to choose from, you’ll be able to get your child dressed faster and have fewer clothes to sort when he or she outgrows things. A nice rule of thumb is to keep just what your child would wear in a week and only outfits that are in good condition and worn often. If you have a lot of special-occasion clothing, just pick your favorite and keep that. As most new parents find out, young kids sometimes outgrow clothing before they even have a chance to wear it once. So send that clothing away. Donate it or sell it and put the proceeds in your child’s college fund. A few hundred dollars saved for college tuition will do more for her than a bunch of adorable outfits that she never even wore.
Toys
    Toys should be next on your list for a swift and ruthless declutter. Have you ever noticed that the fewer things there are to play with, the better your child plays with them? If two-year-olds only have a choice between a set of blocks and a few toy cars, they will keep themselves entertained for a lot longer than if they are in a playroom with shelves upon shelves of toys. Children become overwhelmed and unable to focus when they have too many