[anarch]

This is a good idea if you're getting rid of old toys, etc., but I always suggest getting them involved for regular cleaning and such. Another thing that I used to do, in order to make the cleaning out of toys easier, was make a deal with my kids - right before Christmas or birthdays (or spring cleanings), we made a deal to bag up half of the toys and put them in the closet for safe keeping. Then, the kids got out the other bag of stuff from the closet and, if it was not around the holiday, they had all 'new' stuff to play with, that they hadn't seen for a while or, if it was close to the holiday or birthday, they were very willing to help weed out some of the old toys in anticipation of the new (we often donated them to the salvation army and my kids were more than happy to give up some toys for kids that didn't have a lot of toys). It worked very well.