Can You Be a Minimalist with a Toddler?
As fads go, the Kon-Mari method and all things Marie Kondo has passed a bit, but I am grateful that she opened so many people's eyes to the impact of clutter on their lives. That said, I think that some have found her particular method unreasonable or unsustainable. I'm talking about MOMS - especially moms of toddlers, or moms with multiple kids.
This article from Slate does a great job describing the difficulty moms face with minimalism. As the author, Laurel Reed Pavic, states:
"Hand-me-downs are a minimalist’s nightmare. I have a 4-year-old girl and a 11-month-old girl. Does this 2T watermelon shirt spark joy? Of course not. Not unless your interpretation of “joy” is a vague memory of popsicle-induced stickiness. I would love to get rid of the 2T watermelon shirt, but I cannot because at some point my baby will grow into the 2T watermelon shirt and I will need it, along with all the other shirts: the weird bird shirt, the polka-dot shirt, the vaguely poison ivy–esque shirt. My ability to purge is thwarted by the three-year age gap between my children, since at any given moment I need to store three years of clothing that no one wears in addition to the clothing that the children are currently wearing. Otherwise I’m dropping a hundred bucks at Target each time my baby sizes up, which is to say, quarterly."
In my case, I have clothes, toys and baby gear that Aily is no longer using, but I have to hold onto them JUST IN CASE we have a second baby. This is the difficulty. It seems like everything kid-related has a major price inflation as part of the deal, and no parent I know wants to spend money on the same item twice.
So we store kid stuff. And the reality is, the parenting young kids season of life comes with a LOT of stuff. Does this mean you have to resign yourself to a house that stresses you out? Not necessarily. Good systems and thoughtful placement of what you need to keep can make all the difference in your home. But yes, you're going to have a lot of crap. Thank goodness they are worth it!
