I have been feeling completely overwhelmed and, frankly, a little sick about all the toys, stuffed animal and books my kids have. I also feel like I spend at least 3 hours a week organizing the toy room or picking up toys too after the kids are in bed and I want that time back to read and relax. Most of my kids toys are gifts and with kids of various ages it is hard to throw things away. We have traveled a lot lately and the kids NEVER ask for toys and find ways to pretend, dance, explore without toys so I know they really don't need them. It's easy for me to throw away birthday favors, etc. but I am looking for some real tips on purging toys without truly upsetting children. With everything going on in our world, my husband and I have been talking a lot about how we want to teach our children to be grateful and aware of how lucky we are. I know this is hard for preschoolers but having a seemingly limitless amount of toys doesn't seem to have any benefits. I asked my older 2 children to choose some things they would like to donate and they did each pick a few things (and surprisingly they did pick high quality toys that they truly don't play with), but it feels like the tip of the iceberg. Would love any tips on purging and also ideas from parents who limit toys on dealing with relatives who are always buying them!
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We just moved and I honestly asked my son (almost 3) if he wanted a toy or wanted to give it to another little kid to play with. I would say he gave away over half of what I asked him. It was pretty painless...
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I plan on doing this post birthday party - pre Christmas. Her toy shelf is out of control, most of which she doesn't play with, so I'm going to say "okay her is a bag we are going to give to girls and boys who don't' have any toys what would you like to give them...and hopefully it will work.
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Every so often the sheer volume of toys and little pieces in the playroom drives me nuts. Sometimes I rotate out the big toys. Last time I picked up every single little piece that bugged me and anything that had been in there for a long time. I put the small things in a canvas toy bin and put everything in our guest room.
DS doesn't really notice the loss of toys unless they're his favorites. I like to have options to rotate in and out, but if you rotate something and then it still doesn't get used, I'd add it to a give away pile.
We're still contemplating having another baby so we haven't given anything away yet. But with DS's birthday and Christmas coming we'll have to do another big purge of toys that are too young for him.
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@Sparkler: for my kids I move stuff to the basement and if they don't ask for it after 30 days it gets donated.
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@Mrs Green Grass: This is really sweet. @Sparkler: There is a great post on toy rotation, you could give that a try and get rid of toys they don't miss. All the consignment shops here sell toys.
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You might try getting rid of half by boxing them up. Then give it 2-3 weeks. If they have asked for a specific toy multiple times, put it back in the mix. If not, it goes. They probably won't even know the difference after a few days. A bit drastic, but I did it a few weeks ago and my guy seemed relieved to have fewer things around and (bonus!) cleans up much easier himself.
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I notice if we have too much around my kids don't play with it. They just dump and throw it.
Last night I sorted out all the baby toys that the little one isn't interested in anymore. I figured we didn't need all of the ones that were the most tempting to dump (Lincoln logs, Legos, sorting blocks) and put a few away. I'll either rotate them in a week or two or see if he asks for them. I threw out broken toys, and put a few others in a donation box. Then some of the bigger toys I put in a box to rotate when it seems like they are getting sick of their toys. I pulled out some that I had put away to rotate and realized since I hadn't put away things they really liked, they won't be that exciting to pull out. So this time I tried to put away things they liked more, but hadn't played with recently.
We have more toys than we need for sure, but the kids do a pretty good job of playing with them. But I read a book that talked aBout how toys should inspire creativity, not dictate play. So things like play dough and blocks are good, talking toys not so much.
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