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My mom kept her play kitchen and some little people sets (fire house, playground). I would only keep something AWESOME.

@Mamaof2: I’ve been really wondering the same thing! My mom still has our old calico critter figures and houses, and my old play mobile, and the kids love to play with them at her house. Dhs mom shipped out a big box of legos and fisher price little people sets (are they no longer called little people?).

I will likely keep her doll house- it’s a nice wood one that I think will stand the test of time, and we have a big storage space with shelves where I can keep it one day. I really don’t know what else.

My mom kept all my care bears, my strawberry shortcake figures and house and some books. My DD now has them and its awesome!! I plan to keep similar items. and I've tossed their favorite rattle and paci into their keepsake trunks so they'll have those too.. and their first bday shirts....

Ehhhh.... I'm not interested in storing things for 20-25 years for possible grandchildren. I'd rather set things "free" and give them to more children to enjoy in the meantime.

However my mom is a semi-hoarder (garage, basement, and 1 bedroom FULL of boxes and things) ans so when we visit 1-2x a year, LOs have tons to play with. She loves that they play with my old things.

My MIL saved some stuffed animals and matchbox cars, and LO1 loves them.

Hopefully nothing unless my hoarder* husband tries to intervene.

*He’s not really a hoarder but we have very different ideas about the significance of “stuff”.

Geesh I never really thought about this. My mom is a high functioning hoarder, so I'm really averse to holding onto ANYTHING. My son does play with a few Matchbox cars that I had is a good which is kind of cool. Most toys he has are cheap / poorly constructed, even the nice Bruder trucks I get him. My husband has absolutely no interest in anything from childhood so with 2 boys I figure they might be similar?

I think we will keep the LEGO and some favourite books.

We live in a small space, so we will likely keep very little to nothing. My own mother kept all kinds of stuff, from Barbies to Strawberry shortcake, to Cabbage Patch Dolls. She has kept a few special dresses from my childhood and already handed them down to my girls, along with a couple of skirts from when my aunt (her younger sister) was a toddler in the 60’s. Super cute.

I don’t have any space or use for most of my childhood toys like Barbie, but I’ve loved the special pieces since there are only a few. A few things I’m happy my mom saved are my Lundby dollhouse (because it’s expensive and now my kids have it), my American girl dolls (coming to my kids this year), and my Madame Alexander dolls (kids also have them). The rest, I keep telling her to toss.

Here’s me in 1986 vs my older DD in 2018. Same dress that my parents bought me in Switzerland.

And a picture of DD2 wearing a plaid skirt that was my aunts in 1960.

@LCTBQE: my mom has kept a couple of big bins for each of her children—and there are 6 of us!! But she’s also meticulously organized and clean, so she always had it all labeled by name and stored properly. It’s nice to have a little of it though.

She also saved my “coming home from the hospital” newborn dress and both of my girls wore that too.

I will curate a small number of sentimental pieces, that I'm saving as much for myself as for LO. Not so much for grandkids to use - who knows if I'll even have any - but because I know later I'll want to take them out and look at them and smile.

It will be so hard though to decide what to keep, because I have so many good memories associated with lo's stuff

@Anagram: LOVE this

We were just discussing this. My parents saved a lot of our toys, but only the nicer/special stuff, and its actually been really nice- when the kids go over there (which is a lot) they have all their favorite stuff to play with. My mom hasn't pushed us to take anything- I brought a few of my special dolls to my house, but thats it. Oh- and my dollhouse!

My in laws kept literally everything, including broken toys, every stuffed animal, and every time we go there they try to get us to take a box home for the kids. Its incredibly stressful and a source of tension in my relationship.

We have managed to keep our toy collection limited to pretty high quality toys. We have an extensive wooden animal figure collection, Grimms stackers, a wooden play kitchen, handmade wooden blocks, a large wooden train set, etc. I think when our youngest kid is done with the toys (which is awhile from now), I will get rid of some of the train stuff, the kitchen, most of the blocks, etc- basically slim down each collection. I think we will keep some legos and duplos, but not the crazy ALL of them. Each kid has a special doll, we will obviously keep those.

Clothing is less sentimental to me, but I have an outfit or two that each of my kids has worn that I love, and I will probably keep those plus the outfit they wore home, I guess? We have some stuff my mom made (sweaters, dresses) and I will save those.

So I guess the idea is what we keep will be for grandkids to play with at our house (unless the kids actively ask us to send it to their houses). I like buying my kids toys, and don't really want the 35 year old stuffed animals from my in laws basement. If they want to keep that stuff at their house and get it out when we visit, that would be different.

I think I will keep the Little People barn and house sets and accessories, and a few of their favorite toys, but probably just a tote or 2. I do plan on saving some of their 'nicer' clothes as well, up to 2T.
My mom saved a LOT of our toys/clothes, some was so not worth it, like white onesies (NOT white anymore) but a lot is really cool now-vintage stuff. I took quite a few photos of dd in clothes that I wore.
My kids have a drum set and a jibber-jabber (anyone else remember these? at our house, and then mom keeps the rest at her place.