Ok so my boys are a little more then spoiled. I am not complaining, I know that its better they have too many toys then not enough and they are very blessed with all they have. I also dont want them to think that life is all about how many toys you have. They have TONS of toys and are getting TONS for xmas and then the older one has a bday in March where he will get more toys. I am just very overwhelmed.
Ok so the simple solution is to go through the toys they have and get rid of some. Well here is my problem: Which toys do I get rid of? There are a few I know I can take out, mainly cheap McDonalds toys and little odds and ends that just sit in the toy bin, but there are lots of toys that get used all the time. I have two boys, the older one is almost 3 and the baby is 16 months. I also have another little boy on the way so I dont want to get rid of all the baby toys either. The 16 month old is a little behind his age level so most the toys we have out are still in use by him so there is no need to put them away for the next 6 months until the baby is here and old enough to need any of them. He is too little for the 3 year olds toys so he still needs the younger aged toys out. I just feel so lost and overwhelmed and dont know what to get rid of. DH is NO help!! He thinks the more they have the better. What he doesn't realize is that its more for me to clean. Maybe I just need a better way to organize? We have a nice closet that holds lots of toys, but the higher shelves cant be reached by the boys and those toys seem to be forgotten. So really there is a lot in there I could get rid of, but then the toys I replace in their spots would get ignored as well. I just dont know what to do any more! Help!!
meghann8
12-20-2008, 10:43 PM
We had the hardest time getting rid of toys too, until this past summer and we had to move. When it got to the point where the movers were coming in a few days, it was a lot easier to get ruthless. Anything I thought the kids wouldn't miss was gone. I easily got rid of 3/4 of it. But even now at our new house, it seems like the kids have a billion toys. I don't even know how that's possible. I think they secretly reproduce while we're all asleep.
justbishop
12-20-2008, 10:51 PM
Maybe you could organize toys into age and then type (cars, trucks, lego sets, etc.) and the have one kid pick one toy from each category of his age group to give to Goodwill?
I'v also thought that when xmas and birthdays come around for our soon-to-be LO, that we'll make a tradition of choosing one of her toy gifts (unwrapped, but NWT condition) to give to a toy collection charity or childrens' hospital or something. I like the idea of keeping the clutter out of my house and using it as a learning experience at the same time :)
turtle2who
12-20-2008, 10:53 PM
If I were you I'd get some bins/totes that fit nicely in that closet and put everything in bins. Then you can rotate the totes from the top shelves to the bottom shelves. So for a week or two (or a month even) the same toys are on the low shelves, then you switch them to the high shelves and move something else down low. If you get a ton more toys for Christmas then maybe you need even more bins and some toys will live in the basement or attic for part of the rotation.
A friend of mine rotates all of her kids' toys up from the basement and back down again. She doesn't even have totes for everything. Some of it is in big shopping bags. Works for her and her kids get all excited when something comes up that they haven't seen in a while! It's like Christmas all over again!
asianmama
12-20-2008, 11:56 PM
i need to do this.... my plan is- seperate all the toys by what they are-cars, legos ect have two bins out to play with and the rest to go in hiding... in order for my plan to work.... i need to get containers.... does anyone have a container store gift card...:giggle:
Katherine
12-21-2008, 07:20 AM
We do it two ways - when dd1 is visiting grandparents or on a day trip to the zoo or something, we'll do a routine sweep, get rid of the mcd's toys, broken stuff, etc. Then, before the holidays and her birthday, i go through her room with her and we decided together what to keep and what to get rid of. We'll talk about giving the toys to kids who have no toys, we talk about which toys are for big girls and which are for babies, and we put the baby toys away for dd2. We have specific spots for everything - books go on the top 2 selves of the bookshelf, coloring books, markers, etc go on part of one shelf, puzzles and similar toys go on the bottom shelf, mega blocks go in wire bins in the closet, dress up in the toy box, baby doll stuff in a bin by the baby doll bed, play food and cookware go in the play pantry, etc.
what i really want and will get when we ave a playroom is those cube organizer shelves and cloth boxes - there's, like, nine cubes in the organizer and you get these collapsible cloth boxes to go in them.
cedricsmom
12-21-2008, 07:34 AM
I think it is not good for children to have too many toys, I know it is hard not to buy for them. I think they get overwhelmed if they have too many and they don't know what to play with and it destroys creativity imo. I do not think more is better. That being said, we try to buy more of the same sort of toy, for example, we start duplo for Christmas and I plan on buying duplo only for a while. Ds has wooden blocks as well, for his birthday he will get more of the blocks (add on set). Beside those things and books, maybe a wooden puzzle, I do not think he needs anything.
I would def. rotate toys, while you do this you can also sort out some that they don't need. And stop buying new ones they don't need.
ElToAnCy
12-21-2008, 07:46 AM
We've had this problem for a long time and we still do to some extent. Between the grandparents, and the uncles and aunts, it felt like toy city. I'm of the mindset now that less is more! It really is. I've observed my children playing, the more clutter and toys the less they actually play. They play a lot better when they have just 2 or 3 toys.
I would focus on keeping only toys that are educational or building toys, like blocks, Lincoln logs, a few puzzles, etc. Keep some trucks and cars, and of course your top 2 favorite baby toys... then just sell or give away all the rest. I have 4 kids and their favorite thing to do is just to build with their blocks and Lincoln logs and legos. All the plastic toys have got to go, I have yet to get rid of all mine but I want to... and now it's time to accumulate more. ug I seriously want to sell all my plastic toys and just keep the blocks! Wooden blocks are the BEST!!
Rhianna'sMommy
12-21-2008, 08:36 AM
One thing that helped us is reconsider how many toys you're keeping to hand down to the next child. We kept all of dd#1's toys initially for dd#2. Well after dd#2 was born we realized that people are going to buy her gifts too. So we purged down to what was really played with a lot. So now when dd#2 gets gifts it isn't too overwelming for her age range of toys. So consider purging out some of the baby toys that aren't favorites and factor in that a lot of them can be rebought as gifts again if needed. Wasteful - maybe. But people are going to buy stuff anyhow so it gives them options to buy.
eileenAKAmommy
12-21-2008, 08:43 AM
I need help too! The oldest used to get a toy EVERYtime we went out!
I hate to get rid of them, most are pricey, or will be collectibles (Star Wars, and the oldest LOVES Star Wars!) But I am sick of them, and they have a ton coming in for Christmas.
What to do, what to do! LOL
NataschaN
12-21-2008, 08:55 AM
I totaly understand!
Our son has 23 (!) of the 13 gallon boxes full of toys. Then of course all the stuff that would not fit into a box...
And that is only the stuff in the garage that we did not got around to put away in the new house yet. :blush:
In the future we decided to mostly get him used toys from now on. There are childrens retail stores in the smallest citys, then there are websites like Craigslist and Ebay.
So in the future his toys will be either used or Eco friendly, handmade and organic.
Time to get rip of at least 20 of those boxes in the garage...
