Each year around the start of December, Mum would spend the day with us tidying out our playroom and bedrooms. We would have 3 big containers (most of the time these were Mum’s big washing baskets) – and each one would be labelled with a piece of paper: Keep, Donate, Throw-Away.

She would sit next to the baskets, and we would pick up one item at a time and make The Decision.

Is it broken? = Throw-Away

When did I last play with it? = Donate

Would another child like this more than me? = Donate

Mum wouldn’t make The Decision for us. She would simply ask us these questions – guiding us to the right decision. The Donate basket was always the biggest basket in the end.

We did this every year. It was only after we had donated our toys, that Santa would come and bring us new ones (if we had been good, of course).