Decluttering Playroom

TLDR: Just needed to talk/ramble for a bit. Our kids have too much crap and I'm doing a major haul while everyone is asleep.Here I am, at 1:20am, decluttering my daughters' playroom. I just closed up the last bag of trash but I still have piles of crap everywhere. I have a donation pile, a keep pile, a bag pile, and a box pile. Tomorrow is trash day and I already have the trunk of my car loaded with other donations. I have picked up more of those stupid itty bitty Shopkins than I care to admit (bagged and in donation pile). I have found an entire Wal-Mart bag's worth of crayons, markers, and pencils that we all thought were lost. And when I say an entire bag, I mean filled to the brim.With the three- yes, three- bags of trash/broken items that I've already thrown out, it really makes me think just how dumb it is that we have so much crap. It's partly my fault- I hold onto some toys because they have sentimental value to me. Like their stuffed animals for their first holidays. Or some books that I enjoyed reading to them that they've since outgrown. I finally got smart and put all of those sentimental items in a box to pack away for when or if they have children of their own. There is one item currently lingering between the keep and donation piles- my boppy that I had gotten at my baby shower for my first daughter. I'm done having children (they're 8&5) but I have so many memories with it. On the other hand, I have absolutely no use for it other than as an awkward pillow. You know what...I'll just wash it and donate it. Those things are expensive. The charity that we always donate our items to is Women In Need (a women's shelter).My husband is also partly to blame for our huge toy arsenal. He is an only child, therefore was spoiled to the core. I'm a twin that was raised by my well off grandparents- we were spoiled too but not like he was. He has 2 trunks full of his childhood toys, which I found out is barely just a quarter of what he had growing up. He gave them to our daughters. At least they're being played with. The girls are fascinated with how the original Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles looked. He could probably make a decent penny if he'd just sell them off. But, I understand sentimental value. He also does not like getting rid of their toys. Any time I had tried to do a major haul he would stop me, basically saying that he always had a large amount of toys and the kids needed all sorts of different things to play with. No compromise was ever reached, so here I am.I'm partly embarrassed by all of the stuff currently sitting in the floor. My girls are spoiled, but not rotten. Both mine and hubby's families love buying them toys. I've kindly put a stop to it, or at least slowed it down, over the past couple of years. I was going insane thinking that my kids had drug everything they owned into the living room, only to see that when I would haul it back into the playroom that it wasn't even half of their stuff. This is my second major haul of their playroom. The first one was far worse due to the above mentioned hubby not willing to compromise. And you know what? Our kids didn't miss ANY of the stuff I managed to sneak out. NONE of it. And I'm willing to bet that the same will be true this time around.I'm hoping I'm not the only one here who has had to do this sort of thing. Or the only one that's embarrassed by their stock of toys. I say "embarrassed" because it stays in a constant, unorganized, can't walk without stepping on something mess. I blame my carelessness, my sentimental judgement, and my thought process of thinking that my kids just have to have all of these things so that they'll never get bored. Most days I still feel like a first time parent. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2AgRxCh