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This mom gave away her kids toys... and couldn't be happier

(Instagram/allie_thatsme)
(Instagram/allie_thatsme)

Allie Casazza is a life coach and mother of four. On her website, The Purposeful Housewife, she claims to “help overwhelmed moms clear the clutter in their homes, calendars, brains and lives so they can take a deep breath and find joy in the mundane.” In an effort to practice what she preaches, she recently got rid of all her kids toys, except for one small bin.

“See that bin? That holds every toy my kids have, except Legos, and it’s only about halfway full,” Casazza writes in an Instagram post.

Casazza explains that getting rid of all the kids toys was her way of showing that “kids are naturally happy little creatures.”

“They’re made to imagine, play, explore and create. If you remove everything they’ve been told to stay entertained with, they will complain for a few days, but pretty soon their God-given imaginations will breathe a deep sigh and be brought to life again.”

It was also a way of dealing with depression.

“I spent the first four years of my motherhood completely miserable, to be honest,” Casazza tells ScaryMommy. “I was stuck in survival mode and there seemed to be no way out.”

Part of that stress came from all of the things that go along with having kids — bottles, toys, books, furniture, etc. She knew she need to make a change and the toys were just the first step towards leading a life with less.

“I ask[ed] ‘OK, guys! What do you want to keep?’ I don’t have any strict rules, we have one plastic bin (and one separate lego bin.) All of their toys fit into that bin, and we rotate them out,” she explains.

And Casazza isn’t the first one to try this out.

In May of 2015, another mom also made the decision to get rid of half of her kids toys after an incident left her in tears. Like Casazza, Shawna Scafe found that eventually, they adapted to less.

“They were fine with less,” she writes in the Huffington Post.

So far, Casazza feels like her kids have adapted quite well.

“People definitely give our kids toys, and they definitely like to get them because they are normal,” she tells ScaryMommy. “But we focus on experiences now, not gifts.”

While some have called her out for acting selfishly, she begs to differ.

“The reason I did this was because my kids were suffering from their mom being depressed. We’re all happier now, and my kids are thriving.”