Too many toys!!!!

[lotsofpumpkins]

So, how do you decide what toys to get rid of when your children clearly have too many??? I've been telling my boys to clean the playroom all day and it has only gotten messier in there. They know that I am happy to do it for them, but they will not be happy with what happens. It hasn't been that long since the last time I cleaned it for them, and a large bag of trash went out, plus a large bag of toys for the Goodwill. Unfortunately, my actions did not have a lasting impact, probably because many of the items that I removed were truly trash, or else hand-me-down toys that my children didn't play with much anyway. I know that the toys need to be thinned out, but it's so hard to decide what should go. Those of you who have very few toys, how did you decide what to keep? And on that subject, how do you convince your children to voluntarily get rid of stuff? My 8yo dd has a lot of toys in her room, and because she usually keeps them neat, I don't really worry about it. But parts of her room are starting to look a bit cluttered and sometime in the near future we need to work on it. I feel badly insisting that my children get rid of things that are special to them. But at their ages, everything is special. Unfortunately for them, Mommy is entering that stage of pregnancy where she likes to purge and simplify!!!!

 

Anyway, advice on handling toys would be much appreciated. :D

 

ETA: By the way, I've already discussed (in the past on another thread) sending children into a room to clean it on their own. I am aware that young children do need guidance in cleaning up, so that doesn't really need to be discussed on this thread (the fact that I sent them in there to clean today but didn't help them). I'd love to get things simplified enough in there that they know how to clean it without my having to park myself in there for an hour and tell them exactly what to do. My oldest 3 children are capable of cleaning up without my help; I just think the amount of stuff in there overwhelms them.

Edited April 23, 2010 by lotsofpumpkins

[FriedClams]

So, how do you decide what toys to get rid of when your children clearly have too many???

We get rid of anything that they have outgrown, that's broken, that's cheaply made, or that's missing pieces. That's the first round. It eliminates a bit - puzzles missing a piece, board games missing stuff, etc. Then I make rules - you can keep 3 stuffed animals. They pick. I keep it reasonable but challenging. If the kids can't handle it - then I do it without them. We all know the LOVE toys, the others are all fair game.

 

FWIW, I don't care about much sentimentality. There are heirlooms and then there's junk someone gave us. I have no issue getting rid of the later. The memory of kindness remains, the toy/cheap book/etc. they gave my kid will depart.

 

 

And on that subject, how do you convince your children to voluntarily get rid of stuff?

 

Well, there was recently a couple of huge apartment fires in our town and my kids were thrilled to pare down and give them to kids who may have lost their homes. (And while it was mostly college housing, I appreciated their efforts and didn't dissuade their kindness.) Otherwise we encourage them to think of the kids who will receive them, or giving to friends in the HS community who may have fewer financial resources than we have. We also support donating to our church yard sales - so the kids are essentially giving to missions work. And, as a last resort, the stuff goes involuntarily.

 

On the involuntary side - I would recommend cleaning out when there are no kids around. BE RUTHLESS. Make 3 piles - keep, toss and want-to-toss. Box the want-to-toss and put it in the attic or garage. Make sure it's not in a clear box or bag. Then let it sit for a couple of weeks. You can always retrieve a dear item - but most likely the kids will never notice. Give yourself a time limit - in 4 weeks this goes to Goodwill. Then get rid of it. If in 4 weeks they don't ask for a toy - in my house - it's GONE.

 

Be ruthless. Your kids will play better and be more content with less.

[Garga]

I take note of what the kids play with most. I leave those toys out.

 

For the rest: I bag them up in bags, label the bags, then put them in the attic.

 

Later, if they say, "Hey! Where are the Superman toys?" I just take them out of the attic and let them play with them. Usually, they play with the toys from the attic, then get bored again, so I stuff them back in the bags and put them back in the attic.

 

There are a few things in the attic they've completely forgotten about. I'll probably sell them at the Tot Swap soon. (I keep them in the attic for about a year before selling them.)

[lotsofpumpkins]

Be ruthless. Your kids will play better and be more content with less.

 

My children are now in bed and the playroom never got cleaned up today. So, I'm going to go in there and be ruthless!

[lotsofpumpkins]

I take note of what the kids play with most. I leave those toys out.

 

For the rest: I bag them up in bags, label the bags, then put them in the attic.

 

Later, if they say, "Hey! Where are the Superman toys?" I just take them out of the attic and let them play with them. Usually, they play with the toys from the attic, then get bored again, so I stuff them back in the bags and put them back in the attic.

 

There are a few things in the attic they've completely forgotten about. I'll probably sell them at the Tot Swap soon. (I keep them in the attic for about a year before selling them.)

 

I tried something like this around Christmas. I called it "toy timeout". The problem is, with 5 children, everyone wants something different, so if I had gotten out everything they asked for, the big toy timeout box would have been empty quick! I did end up giving back some of the toys they asked for a lot, and then a lot ended up going to Goodwill.

 

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I think what I really need is some motivation to just go in there and work on it. Too bad I don't have any ice cream in the house to give myself a treat when I'm done. :)

[littlebug42]

My MIL has annual and sometimes twice yearly garage sales. A few years back, we started offering them the opportunity to make their own money by selling their things at the garage sale and hopefully offer up the opportunity to get something they really wanted. This year we have an amusement park trip planned and they want money to buy a souvenir and they have been told that we are not buying it. We have also used Chuck E Cheese, Miniature Golf or other things that they like as motivation.

 

I have also been known to dump all stuffed animals for instance in the middle of the room and give each girl an acceptable container. Then, they can keep whichever animals can live in that container but the others must go. They have parted with many this way when they have to prioritize.

 

I am in the process of a pretty brutal cleaning/purge of the house so I would imagine plenty will leave here next week or be put in the garage for garage sale purposes.

[texasmama]

I go through the toy pile when they are all out of the house. I throw away trash and give away what is good but no longer played with. I put it all in black trash bags so no one can see. None of them have ever complained about this or really noticed something that was gone that they really wanted to keep. As Mom, I know what is important to them and what is not. We get rid of what is not that is just causing clutter and stress.:001_smile:

[justlittleoldme]

We've been pairing things down to only keeping what is a set (like all the wooden thomas trains, but got rid of the oddball trains that don't fit that track; barbies; doll stuff), and only keeping what fits in the tub/box/container.

 

That being said, we are still over ran with toys, and they are usually all over the place. I now just ask for them to be picked up into a container and put in their room or in the toy closet, I could care less if they are properly sorted. Every few months or before the holidays I sort things back out and toss whats unused or destroyed, or missing parts. I also make a huge point of when I go through my own stuff and give things away, so they see its not just them.

 

I picked my battle- I just want them picked up. If I wanted them put away in my way, I'd put them away myself.

 

Good Luck with the purging! I get the same way, pregnant or not! Tossing out and giving away a few bags of stuff makes me feel lighter.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm wondering about the few stuffed toys I haven't donated as targets for archery practice. Do kids grow into stuffed toys? We have an expensive blue elephant their godfather gave them, and a donkey that actually looks like a donkey. DD has just turned three. If she doesn't care about them now, does that mean she'll never care? I'd like to toss them because I generally hate stuffed toys but if in two years time she's going to be playing make believe games with them, I could deal with these ones.

 

Rosie

[lotsofpumpkins]

I'm wondering about the few stuffed toys I haven't donated as targets for archery practice. Do kids grow into stuffed toys? We have an expensive blue elephant their godfather gave them, and a donkey that actually looks like a donkey. DD has just turned three. If she doesn't care about them now, does that mean she'll never care? I'd like to toss them because I generally hate stuffed toys but if in two years time she's going to be playing make believe games with them, I could deal with these ones.

 

Rosie

 

Mine play with stuffed toys all the time. If I were you, I'd keep a couple of special ones (the elephant and the donkey) and get rid of any others you might have. When my dd8 was a baby/toddler, my grandparents gave her SO many stuffed animals. I held on to a couple and gave away the rest. She didn't really care about them then, but she does play with some now.

[Melissa in Australia]

I'm wondering about the few stuffed toys I haven't donated as targets for archery practice. Do kids grow into stuffed toys? We have an expensive blue elephant their godfather gave them, and a donkey that actually looks like a donkey. DD has just turned three. If she doesn't care about them now, does that mean she'll never care? I'd like to toss them because I generally hate stuffed toys but if in two years time she's going to be playing make believe games with them, I could deal with these ones.

 

Rosie

my children only started playing with stuffed toys ( they call them dead animals)when they got to 5, they continued to play with them until about 10. I hadn't thought of archery practice..... I don't think I will suggest it. I will then have to pick up stuffing all over the property.

[Melissa in Australia]

I have the rule that they aren't allowed to get a new toy unless something comes out of their room and goes to the op-shop.

[alpidarkomama]

2009 was the Year of the Great Declutter for us. We got rid of TONS of stuff. With toys, we got rid of most things that weren't parts of sets. We kept blocks, trains, and k'nex. Plus one small box of other beloved toys. We also kept all of our board games since they are used quite frequently. The kids did not once ask about any of the things we donated. They each have 2-4 beloved stuffed animals that live on their beds. Cleaning up has been so much easier since then! We set the timer for 10 minutes after dinner and we all go really fast. That's it. We love a decluttered life!!!!!!

[kalanamak]

I got plastic containers, like an empty Mega Blocks one, or a small laundry basket. All of them line up across the bottom of the closet with two small ones stacking. The boxed games go on the shelf. Kiddo gets to have ONLY what he can store and keep clean. I let him pick. We'd look at something he'd out grown and hadn't played with and I'd suggest a younger sib of a friend to give to. He'd think about it, sometimes, but he was often eager to be generous. If he didn't get rid of it, we'd try again a few days later.

 

We did this in conjunction with a move, but you could do it with painting the walls or a huge spring clean with EVerything out of the room and the floor washed. Now, if he is to get something else, an item in the closet has to go.

[KidsHappen]

Over the years, my girls have been willing to part with everything except stuffed animals. Even the 24 year old still has some of her stuffed animals, the 18 year old has kept a few and the 17 year old still has all of hers. They all keep theirs at the own house or in their own room but the little two have too many to fit in their own rooms so I have them packed away in plastic bins. The 10 year old might still have a couple of other small toys but that is about it. I have some toys packed away for grandchildren but I really regret getting rid of the legos. I have no idea what I was thinking. I would like to replace them but they are so darn expensive.

[rafiki]

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