The Hidden Weight of All This “Stuff”
No. 94 - We're all just overwhelmed with party favors, kids art, and tchotchkes.
Today was my kids’ last day of school for the semester, and they came home excited to hand me all their artwork. Stacks and stacks of glittered, glued, pom‑pommed, and scribbled pages. As their mom, I love seeing anything they make, but the sheer amount of it is overwhelming. I added it to the four bins already overflowing with artwork I’d started sorting through earlier this week.
They had their class Christmas parties this week, which meant bags full of trinkets: snap bracelets, chocolate coins, snowman sunglasses, and an assortment of other tiny odds and ends ended up in our house.
Their grandma bought gingerbread placemats to color and cookie‑decorating kits, our neighbors gifted us boxes of baked goods, and we decided to take a family trip to Michael’s to buy enough holidays crafts to get us through this year, the next, and maybe the year after. I’m thankful for all of it, truly — but I also feel like I’m drowning in stuff. So much stuff.
And while it’s especially overwhelming this time of year, I don’t think it’s just due to the holidays.
Every time we go to a birthday we’re sent home with treat bags full of plastic knick-knacks that may or may not get played with, and eventually end up in the trash. Stickers, bubbles, temporary tattoos, headbands. I know parents put thought and effort into making them, but it’s not necessary. The kids always remember the party, not the party favors.
My husband travels for work, and every trip he brings home conference swag for the kids — stress balls, pens, branded toys. They play with it for a day or two before it joins another pile of random things in our home.
I stare at these piles, feeling guilty about throwing anything away, knowing it all contributes to landfills already overflowing with our Amazon returns, fast‑fashion impulse buys, and the things we convinced ourselves we “needed.” And then, inevitably, I hit a breaking point, grab a trash bag, and suddenly nothing in sight is safe.
Why are we doing this?
Why do we feel the need to give five presents instead of one? Why does every birthday party require a parting gift? Why do “free shipping” and “next‑day delivery” make us click purchase before we even ask whether we actually want the thing?
And I’m just as guilty of it. I’ve been shopping like crazy this season to make sure my kids have “plenty of gifts” from Santa, while we have a toy room full of things they never touch. Their closets are packed, but they insist on wearing the same three shirts. I bought goodie bags for their parties, fully aware the contents would end up in someone else’s trash.
I want to be more intentional. To hand down gently used toys and clothes instead of letting them pile up. To give things a second life. Maybe start a toy rotation with neighbors. Maybe ask friends to wrap something their kids no longer use instead of buying something new for the next birthday.
I don’t have a perfect solution. But I do know this: we’re drowning in things, and none of it is making us happier. If anything, it’s adding to the mental load we’re already carrying.
What about you? Are you feeling it too? I’d love to hear your creative ways for managing, reducing, decluttering, etc.
🍪 I hosted a holiday cookie exchange with the moms in my neighborhood over the weekend and it was a festive and fun way to catch up and relax! I made these soft sprinkle cookies and they were easy to bake and delicious!
🧼 I’m obsessed with this brightening face cleanser right now. It leaves your skin feeling clean, without that dry tight feeling some soaps give you. It also has the most refreshing strawberry scent!
📖 I was in a reading rut and decided I need to switch it up a bit, so I started this thriller and I am hooked! It’s a murder mystery set in a small Texas town, and full of twists and turns.
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Happy Friday, Friends! I hope you all have a great weekend, and enjoy the holiday season.
I know this isn't the point, but I hid the junk in purgatory for a little bit (small things on the top shelf of a kitchen cabinet and bigger things in the attic) and then one day when they are at school I just throw it all away! I hold onto for a bit in case they remember and ask and they almost never do.
If you're on Facebook, your neighborhood/town probably has a Buy Nothing group. They're great for clearing your house of all of that stuff. I've given away things from toddler clothes to a standing desk to four of those little paper cupcake toppers. All picked up from my porch after a simple post and selecting a recipient. (I've also used my local group to acquire the 100s of safety pins Girl Scouts has needed for projects over the years.)