That speaks to me just about 100% perfectly,. But it falls short of actually being helpful, since apparently she gets stuck at the same place I do, which is how the hell do you stop the stuff from coming in?
I am totally and completely anti-plastic-junk. Hate hate hate. Here are some examples, just within e lat week or so, of how it got into my house:
1. H was in a race, and at the registration they had tons of booths giving away absolute shit. Just plastic thing after plastic thing. He brought them home "because the kids wild like them" which they did for ten seconds, and then I threw it all away.
2. A friend gave us a bucket of Halloween treats, but since her kids have food allergies, they were all non-food treats, ie plastic junk.
3. My mom visited and showered the kids with junk- Halloween necklaces (already discarded in some corner of their rooms) and "grow your own zombie" toys, among other things.
4. My sister visited and gave them each a little flashlight. Those are actually still being used, a week later. Miracle!
Etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. it just never fucking ends. And I try to balance being the bad guy who just doesn't let it in in the first place, with letting them have it since it was a gift to them, not me.
We buy them very little. They get a gift or three at their birthdays and Christmas, and really that is all. If we do buy anything else it tends to be for an activity- like bike baskets- or something educational like books or a board game (which even then, we have enough of them and the library provides access, so we don't need to own them). So it's not coming from us. It is all the people who care about the kids, and want to show their love with junk.
And my mom, bless her heart, sort of gets it. She is giving the kids art camp for Christmas instead of stuff. But she won't be able to resist five plastic trinkets in deduction to art camp. She just won't. The pull is too strong. She has the disposable income, and she likes to buy stuff for her only grand kids. While I wish she would funnel those 20$ here and there into a 529, it's not my choice.
In terms of managing it once it gets in the house, I do two things. I have a toy jail. Anything left out after a reminder gets out in toy jail. Amazingly (sarcasm) if they didn't care enough to bother to clean it up, they rarely care if it goes away forever. They can get one thing out of toy jail each day if everything else is picked up. The other thing I do is they each have a junk box in their room, about the size of a shoe box. They have to be able to fit all their junk in their box, everything else gets pitched.