How many toys do your kids have?

[ChristusG]

We have TOO MANY toys. Seriously, it looks like Toys R Us threw up in our house. I am seriously purging toys. We may be moving into a new home....and while the square footage is larger, the rooms are actually smaller. So the playroom space will shrink. But either way, moving or not, I'm purging toys. I don't want my kids to grow up thinking that "things" are important. It's nice to have things and enjoy things, but I believe that too many things can be bad.

 

So what do your kids have? How many of each thing?

 

For example, my kids LOVE stuffed animals (and I have to admit that I do too...I've always loved them and had tons). My kids literally have over 200 stuffed animals. I just went through and pulled out a bunch that are not played with much. But it still leaves us with a bunch. And my kids play with lots of stuffed animals at one time. They make dog pounds, cat families, etc. I hate giving away cute, perfectly good stuffed animals though.

 

And my kids have like 20 wooden puzzles, and seperate rubbermaid bins (not the tiny ones) full of things like My Little Pony, Dora and Diego stuff, Barbies, dinosaurs, rubber duckies, Playmobil, doll clothing, instruments, play food, animals, teeny beanie babies, jigsaw puzzles, wooden blocks, domino rally, cars and trains, Mr Potato Head, Trio blocks, Wedgits. This is not to mention the larger items such as a Little Tikes slide, a train table, a TV stand.

 

Then there are outside toys. They have a Power Wheels, a bicycle, a Big Wheel, a tricycle, roller skates, balls, a water/sand table, two push cars, a Step 2 rollercoaster, helmets, sand toys, bug catching stuff, a climber.

 

Its out of control.

 

And just so you do not think that we are overindulging parents LOL....my kids have a TON of people who love to shower them with gifts. At Christmas and birthday they get tons of gifts from family members. My parents and sisters also get them things for Easter and Valentines Day. Not to mention whenever they go out of town, my kids are brought back souvineers from my parents/sisters. I probably do tend to buy them more than I should (which I have also greatly cut back on in the last 6 months) but this is mostly from family members. I understand though....they love giving them gifts and seeing their faces light up. I'm a gift giver too. I really enjoy giving gifts.

 

But we are overrun by toys.

 

So what is a reasonable amount of toys? 50 Little People along with all accessories such as the town home, school bus, castle, carriage, barn, pirate ship, and train? It just seems like so much!

 

Wow, umm, this got seriously long some how!

[Amber in AUS]

I have heard that your kids have the right amount when they can manage the toys themselves. ie - they can play with them and put them away and never feel overwhelmed. That number will obviously change as they get older and become more responsible for their things.

 

My kids have way too much too! However we are working on self management strategies and it seems to be going well. They are playing with lots of different things as a result and everything is looking much neater.

[Cera]

Way too many but we are working on it.

 

We also have quite a few close friends and family members who like to shower the kids with gifts so it can quickly get out of hand.

 

I have started recommending things other than toys when people ask what they might like as a gift which helps some. They are starting to be into jewelry, shoes, dressy clothes, etc. For Easter this year one grandmother bought them each a pair of glitter chuck taylors and another picked out a collection of hairbows and headbands from etsy. The kids were excited, the grandmothers were happy to spoil the kids and we added useful stuff rather than more toys.

 

To pare down the collection we have I went through all of the toys and removed duplicates. We now have one of each and they can share (especially helpful for little people characters, my little ponies, etc that come in sets). I also asked the kids to go through and pick out the toys that they don't love and would like to pass on to another child which got rid of a few more.

 

After this was finished I went through and pulled out some things they rarely use and boxed them up. They only noticed one item was missing so I returned it and after a month we got rid of the remainder.

 

I followed the same plan for stuffed animals (ask the kids then purge and see if they notice).

 

If you look around you should be able to find somewhere to donate to which helped my kids feel good about giving things away. We took the like new stuffed animals to the fire dept (ours collects them to give kids at accident scenes). The older ones went to an animal shelter that collects them for the dogs.

 

Some of the plastic toys that are easy to sterilize went to our local hospital for their childrens play room and the rest as well as a few outside toys went to a domestic violence shelter.

 

If you spin it right I think little kids like to help other people. It makes them feel much better about thinning out the toys if they know their things are helping other kids.

 

eta: I also took some of the toys we kept and put them up so we can rotate what is out to keep things exciting.

Edited April 22, 2010 by Cera
forgot something

[Rosie_0801]

My kids have a 90L tub of stuff, six puzzles, a container of wooden blocks and a tricycle. I want to throw out at least half of the tub because I hate stuffed toys, but I feel kind of guilty because surely they will grow into them? Except I didn't, so maybe they won't either.

 

I think Amber is onto something. I've been thinking when we move that it's going to be time to start training the tots to clean up after themselves and I should unpack only one toy at a time.

 

Rosie

[Hannah]

We have as many toys as can be stored and managed sensibly. For me this means everything has a designated place and my 5yo can pick up the stuff she has used and put it away on her own.

 

My sisters live overseas and the grandparents are quite far away. We usually ask for and receive books, dvd's or craft items from them.

 

For my 10yo (who's growing out of toys) and 5yo dd's this means:

In the living room:

• Legos in a few seperate containers in a cupboard in the living room
  
• Playmobil in containers in the same cupboard.
  

They play with these on the living room floor. The containers are a combination of a couple of sets.

We try to seperate the lego people and other 'special' items from the regular building blocks.

Dh also has a few sets of lego still in their original boxes that he has had since he was a child. He keeps them at the top of his closet and they're played with on special occassions.

 

In younger dd's room she has:

• Soft toys in five rectangular lined baskets under her bed. Both girls have up to three favourites on their beds. I haven't counted them, but I guess that there are around 100 to 120.
  
• A vet's kit which gets used at the soft toy zoo.
  Deep shelves (60cm) along one wall which contain;
  
• Dress-up clothes in 4 open crates. There's a mixture of home-made, leftovers from concerts, bought and my old stuff. When they have friends over they play with the dress-up the most.
  
• Barbie dolls (About 10 dolls and their stuff in a large storage bin)
  
• Breyer and other horses and accessories in two large storage bin. Elder dd has been horsey for a long time....
  
• 3 Baby dolls with pram and bed (and clothes and other stuff in the bed)
  
• Percussion instruments in a basket (these can actually be donated as they're not played with very often)
  
• At least 10 puzzles and about 20 educational games
  
• A cash register, shopping baskets and plastic grocery items on a shelf
  

 

She has a small bookshelf full of books and more at the top of her closet.

 

In my 10yo dd's room she has a desk with two drawers full of her treasures (she's a hoarder) and two regular bookshelves which house games and books. She has two porcelain dolls, Slescher (sp?) horses that she received from my Dutch aunt and other ornaments on top of the shelves and her favourite soft toys on her bed.

There are books in the top of her closet too....

 

We keep craft items and a more puzzles and games in our school room/library where I have two walls of floor to ceiling shelving.

 

I'm pretty organized and diligent about purging - except when it comes to books! Now if we could only apply the "as many as can be stored and managed sensibly" rule to those....

 

ETA: They also have a bicycle each and we have a pool (with a few pool toys in a chest) and jungle gym outside.

[Pippen]

I always think that amounts of toys are relative. My kids had far fewer toys than most families we knew, but my mom would frequently comment on how many we had. :confused:

 

I think the key to keeping it under control is to move out what they're not using, no matter how it came into the house (ie not keep it just because it was a gift from Grandma, a Christmas present, etc.).

 

I made as much space as needed for good quality toys (Playmobil, Legos, puzzles, etc), and toys they used a lot.

 

Each child had one tub for stuffed animals. From little onward, when they got new ones for gifts, we cleared out those that they didn't play with, so we could fit the new ones in the tub. My third was the only one that played with them consistently so I gave her some extra space. We have places that take them for charitable purposes so I had no problem moving those dust collectors out the door.

 

We did a lot of garage sales (both buy and sell) so from little on my kids were familiar with the concept of toys that weren't favorites moving in and out of the house. Twice a year we'd clear out and make room for new ones. If they were reluctant in giving up something they no longer used, I'd split the money made from the toys they gave up with them.

 

We also have a mission thrift shop in our town and the kids understood that items we took there were sold and the money was used to help families who had little.

 

You get the idea--in time my kids were coming to me with toys they no longer used and asking that I put it in the donation box.

 

I didn't sweat the outside stuff. I grew up in the country where we had animals, fields, creeks, trees, dirt piles, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, etc. A good day of playing was biking to a friends and playing by the creek or going on a horseback ride. My kids live in town--I was glad for them to get outside and get some fresh air and exercise.

[Hannah]

You get the idea--in time my kids were coming to me with toys they no longer used and asking that I put it in the donation box.

 

My girls do the same. The younger is less of a hoarder than my older dd, so it is easier for her to let go, but they have both donated out of their own as well as being asked.

[bookfiend]

I think toys go through an evolution. In the beginning the toys were huge (physically big) made for their little hands to hold and took up a ton of space. We probably didn't even need anything then and could have done with the contents of the kitchen cupboards, but people gave, and we bought (at garage sales). Even eschewing all things electronic, we still managed to grow quite a collection. The boys quickly matured past several toys categories/sets, and so it was easy to purge and maintain.

 

Now the actual toys are smaller, taking up less space, but are of a more timeless nature. The same things get consistent play, and the collection keeps growing for all of the reasons stated by others. As long as it doesn't assault my eyes or I don't trip over it, I'm OK with anything that sparks imagination.

 

In answer to your actual question:

 

We have:

 

A big bin of legos which rotates with a big bin of lincoln logs

Roman playmobile which rotates with the Knights playmobile

Several shelves of games (inside cabinets)

Bookshelves full - of books!

Rockenbock which is on my family room floor and about to get banished

A tall bookshelf in the boys room with bins for art supplies, matchbox cars, K-nex, figurines, tinker toys.

Thomas Train land in suitcase and boxes - he has not come out for 6 mos. and may soon go into storage for the next generation.

Outside toys, bikes, sporting equipment in the garage are my husband's problem!

Edited April 22, 2010 by bookfiend

[iquilt]

We have recently moved and things have changed by virtue of a different house. In our other house, we used the dining room as a playroom/schoolroom as they moved from toddlers to sitting more at a table for crafts, etc. We had almost all of it contained to that room (it was a large room) on shelves, in bins, etc. They had special toys in their rooms, but not much room in their rooms besides beds and dressers due to sharing. Now each has his/her own room and all of the toys have been divided up into rooms. The one thing that really used to drive me crazy were game pieces everywhere, so now we have our games in drawers in a shared room with a table and it's easier for us to play them together.

[Sue G in PA]

We have 7 kids and a relatively small house. Sufficient, but small. It used to look like Toys R Us threw up in our basement! I was recently convicted to PURGE about 75% of what they had. We kept "sets"...like Legos, Duplos, Knex, Little People, Lincoln Logs, blocks, Thomas trains, cars/trucks, Star Wars toys, etc. I hated having that "misc." toy bin! Stuffed animals got stuffed into a box. Now, my basement has just a few large rubbermaid totes with the toys in them! Yeah! In my kids' rooms are toys that they like to keep separate. All the toddler toys are in my toddler's room as well as his sister's toys (they share a room). We used to have a large community of Barbie dolls (I loathe them!) but pared down to just 5. It is so much nicer. I can actually breathe now. And you know what? My kids do not miss the toys I gave away! Simplicity is good!

[Dmmetler]

I think those preschool/early elementary years are hard because toys aren't outgrown, just added to. I have a 5 yr old as well, and most of the toys she had at 2 (Fisher-Price, Mr Potato Head, Duplo legos) are still around, but have been added to as she's discovered that her Ponyville ponies can move into the fisher-price houses and that duplo bricks work with her legos. Barbie often uses Mr. Potato head accessories, especially the special Disney ones. And I swear stuffed animals breed at night when no one is watching!

 

What we do is rotate toys-we have bins on her closet shelf, and in order to get one of those down, one of the bins of toys that's out has to go up. If something stays up for a year or so, it moves into the "closet of holding", to go to Goodwill next time we take a load over. In practice, I think most of her toys rotate about every 2-3 months, but we do manage to weed out several categories a year this way.

 

We also don't take gifts out of boxes until she requests them. If something just plain misses the mark, it goes in the closet, in box, and goes to Toys for Tots the following Christmas.

[Jan in SC]

It is so overwhelming to keep up with the toys. I always want to purge, but they play with everything. We have three boys and in the playroom, they have a large set of wooden blocks, playmobil animals and people, cars/trucks, marble runs, a castle set with knights, star wars figures/ships, zoobs, and widgets. I'm really happy with the imaginative play, but...

 

they set up the castle with knights and animals, add roads with the blocks, put cars on the roads, create bridges with zoobs, and then... the star wars people attack the castle! While this looks awesome, it becomes a nightmare to clean.

 

Oh, I forgot- there are approximately one million legos in this house!

 

Special toys and stuffed animals are kept in their rooms. The new dog has helped me purge the stuffed animals! Each time he finds one, I watch him play with it for a couple of minutes and- Oh, well! That one is gross, let's throw it away!!!

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

I just did a major purge in our playroom! I let them keep 4 stuffed animals each, thats it. There were a few tears, but it was forgotten quickly. I would keep all your puzzles for now. The wooden puzzles are nice and can last forever. When it comes to GIJoes, airplanes, cars and trucks...I let each boy keep whatever fit into a large plastic tub. After they decided what was going to stay I reorganized into the toy bins. For my dd, I kept about 10 toddler type toys.

 

I do also have 2 large tubs of Legos.

[KidsHappen]

My children have finally reached the stage where they no longer play with toys but they were not willing to part with their stuffies. Even the teens still have theirs. So I bought the large plastic containers and packed them away in the attic. I have four kids and each one has one large container and one medium container. I also kept some toys that I am particularly fond of for the grandchildren to play with when the time comes: Little People, McDonalds Fisher Price Toddler Toys, a bin of Matchbox cars, some baby dolls and accessories and some play food. These are all stored in the attic, so I don't have toys strown about the house and I gotta tell ya, I don't miss that stage at all. Now if I can just get everyone to pick up their own shoes, clothes, coats, sports equipment, backpacks, books, eletronic gadgets, etc. my house might look halfway tidy well, except for the various animal parts the dog leaves laying around the house. :tongue_smilie:

[Angel]

My girls are older now, so I can tell you the things that they continued to use as they got bigger. Well, the 15yo doesn't "play" anymore but as she went through that change-over stage.

 

Any lego, knex, lincoln log, or other building "stuff" still gets pulled out.

 

Any costume/dress up play still gets pulled out, though now that the 9yo is older she doesn't use the commercial dress up clothes as much as taking regular clothes and making them into costumes. Like a skirt/collared shirt/and cape to be Hermione at Hogwarts :D or a backpack/khaki shorts/shirt to be the girl from Jurassic Park :D (She likes to "become" her characters LOL)

 

Play food, shopping cart, and cash register still get some use off and on.

 

Playmobil

 

They still have some stuffed animals. Older dd collects cats and horses. Younger dd has some beanies and webkinz. Most are in a pet net from the ceiling. The ones that mean the most are in cute bins in their rooms.

 

Things that are going the way of the dodo ... Barbies, Polly Pockets, and Littlest Pet Shop. In fact Barbies and Littlest Pet Shop I figure will be gone soon.

 

I am keeping the Thomas the Tank Engine train sets that my older dd loved when she was little and the Little People House and Barn. Both of those will stand the test of time when I have grandkids and it's nice to have a few little kids toys in the house for visitors.

 

Your girls are young! If you have a toy room for the toys, I wouldn't worry about it so much.;)

[MaMa2005]

I'm lucky because DS cannot stand stuffed animals so that helps a lot with the amount of toys.

 

DS has two bins - each the size of a large laundry basket. He also has a large bin of Legos. All toys MUST fit into the laundry baskets and then into the storage bench that DH built specifically for the bins, i.e. toys cannot be sticking over the top of the baskets.

 

This works great. Even if all the toys were out, DS can put them back without help. If he receives something as a gift, he must purge an old item. We also purge twice a year when I sell at consignment sales.

 

When I look at DS's friends toys, I realize he really doesn't have very many toys. But he is happy with what he has and it has had a side benefit of him being a very creative child with what is available.

[Chris in VA]

Mine didn't have that much, but because we didn't store them very well, it felt like a lot!

I would allow some things to be outgrown--after your child can put together a 10 piece puzzle, there's no reason to keep it around. Puzzles are easy to purge.

Beware of stuffies, tho--I know my dd develops an attachment to them, names them, makes them "real" to her. I did, too. I think this is ok. OTOH, I'd get rid of the ones that don't have names, aren't favorites, etc, NOW, before they all acquire that "realness!" :D 200, eh? That is quite a lot.

 

I do go for more classic, natural toys. I don't like plastic, but legos seems to have a lot of play value. My Little Pony, Polly Pocket, stuff like that, I don't even bring in to the house. Dd had two Barbies, one that wasn't a "real" Barbie--she was from the dollar store and her leg kept falling off. We never got into the Barbie thing. I'd say purge away on that--maybe keep one each and ditch all but 10 outfits. But that's just me. She does have an American Girl Doll, and a friend made 6 dresses for her. 6 seemed like a lot at the time.

 

They do start combining toys, as others have said, and I think that's great! Just be sure they know that, although you will help them, they are responsible for tidying up.

 

When kids start having bin after bin of toys, like you've described, I do think it's time to pare down. They can't possibly play with all the clothes for Barbie (I guess I'm picking on that--don't mean to! :D). They don't need 20 cars--just 5 will do. IDK. Pick something and purge it. Ditch a lot of dress up clothes and let them make new outfits from scarves. As kids get older, they need less realistic items to depict what they want in their play--it's a developmental thing. So, some things become multi-use. That can help a lot.

 

Get rid of duplicates.

 

Just don't throw away named stuffies...

[QuirkyKapers]

My main method that helps me get rid of things is to get stuff together to give away every time the Vietnam Vets or Easter Seals calls!

 

I went through and purged a bunch of toys they had outgrown. I got rid of games that all the pieces weren't there. Games and their pieces are the things that I have trouble keeping up with. I find game pieces throughout the house and I put them in a certain spot and then I can't remember where Ii put them. I began putting the pieces in a ziploc bag and it seems this is easier for the kids to keep track of them.

 

I finally have the kids room and playroom down to a 5 minute pick up so it is really easy for the kids to help. Yeah! The rubbermaid bins are a great idea!

 

Now, books are another problem altogether. What to do with the cute board books they loved when they were little. Since I seem to have had a book explosion in my house, and it is hard for my to let go of them once I bring them in, I am now very careful about what books I buy.

[KJsMom]

To control the amount of toys we try to go through and purge everything they don't love before birthdays and Christmas. The kids know they are making room for new toys and we donate the others so they are usually very willing to get rid of a lot.

Most recently I flipped over some bad behavior and removed all of the belongings from their bedrooms. I expected them to be miserable and make a quick turnaround, but that didn't happen at all. They have had so much fun. They spend more time outside and have had a great time 'making' things to play with. It has been great watching the girls stretch their imaginations. They don't want all of their toys anymore and spend a little time each day deciding what to keep and what to give away. I'm loving it!

[Pippen]

Now, books are another problem altogether. What to do with the cute board books they loved when they were little. Since I seem to have had a book explosion in my house, and it is hard for my to let go of them once I bring them in, I am now very careful about what books I buy.

 

I picked out a few that they really loved for my treasure box and let the rest go. It *was* hard.

 

I found that I could get rid of most toys, but getting rid of their books was hard for me until I was able to let go of my own books. I was so seriously out of room that I had to do something. I get so much joy out of library book sales and one year finally psyched myself up to let go of some professional books that I no longer needed. I happened to be at the sale when some physics students happened upon my donations and they were so happy and incredulous at their finds that it made it easier from that point on. Now I routinely purge our books, mostly keeping only the favorites or those I know we'll want again. With amazon it's easy to replace books if I ever want them again.

 

The first hurdle was the hardest. :)

[myfatherslily]

I have heard that your kids have the right amount when they can manage the toys themselves. ie - they can play with them and put them away and never feel overwhelmed.

 

Ooooh, this is genius!

 

My kids have more toys than I can manage! Cleaning up has never been my strong point:) It helped a lot when I made a toy closet. They have a large assortment out to play with any time. If they want something from the closet, they just have to ask and then, in theory, we put it back after. In reality, well, it still gets back within a few days! Things are still messy, but it's working out well. Of course, not everyone has a spare closet for toys. I suddenly had half of a walk-in closet empty when my husband decided to move his clothes to a different house... But the toy closet worked out anyway:)

 

I loved stuffed animals, too, but surely they won't miss some of them! If you have space, try storing 150 of them in the closet for while! If they want one out of the closet, make them trade in an animal that's already out. That's what I did.... lol.... now I have a bag in the closet with 3 animals left in it;)

 

My DD's birthday party is this weekend and, quite honestly, I'm dreading a new pile of toys!

[myfatherslily]

They don't need 20 cars--just 5 will do.

 

My DS2 would disagree and fight you to the death on that one! All the boy does is carry cars around the house all day, as many as his little arms can hold, plus a couple to drop and pick up every few seconds. The rest get lined up neatly on the floor. Then thrown across the room:001_rolleyes:

 

Here, we'd sooner get rid of all the other toys than their big box of cars!!:D

 

And 10 outfits for an American Girl is not NEARLY enough! I have two boxes full! Sometimes I let DD play with them....

 

Okay, so maybe it's ME who has a problem... I need my own toy closet...