Hellobee Boards

Could you possibly put about half in storage, and a couple month s from now mix it up a bit?

My son isn't really into Little People in terms of playing with the people, but he has the airplane, helicopter, bus, fire truck and he regularly plays with all of them.

He couldn't care less about the play kitchen, so if I had to choose from your list, I would get rid of that.

If your LO plays with the dolls, I'd get rid of the high chair, most likely, because my son loved the doll stroller.

@T.H.O.U.: Does she need the kitchen, or the food itself?

I also forgot about the ride on toys (we have a tricycle, a car, two parent steering 3 wheelers and a wheelbarrow). My son would have a fit if we got rid of any of them, because his play method is to ride each one from one end of the yard to the other and park them. Rinse, repeat.

So I hear you, it's difficult to thin toys!

We have a desk/easel and it hasn't gotten much use. Even though my daughter loves art. The one we have is by Step2, and it's just not enough space for her and she just opts to work at the dining room table. Our T ball set has gotten zero use but I'm just keeping it around for DS. We have too many ride-on toys because people love to give them as gifts! I need to give some of those away.

@mrs. wagon: I know, and he's into trains, so we have two kinds of Thomas and a Duplo set.

The ride on stuff is at my parent's house, they don't have a garage, so the stuff lives outside (for now). Since it's all second hand, I don't worry too much about it getting wrecked.

One of my favorite tricks to help me decide what to purge requires putting some stuff away but it is temporary so you might be able to swing it. I take away about 2/3 of everything (if possible) leaving only the things I am fairly certain they are done with. I watch over the next few days to see what, if anything, gets played with. The last time I did this they played with one thing only and the rest of the time preferred other non-toy activities. Everything that isn't getting used goes. Then I do it again with another third. I intentionally leave the favorites for the final third.

From about 3 and up we play "keep or give away", I explain that some families don't have many toys and we have quite a few (and if it is near a gift holiday I point this out too), not only is it nice to share the things we are done with but it also gives the kids more room to play (which they all seem to like). Then I hold up objects and ask "keep or give away?" I have always been amazed at the choices they make. I have probably done this with 7 kids now and only 1 has ever tried to keep everything.