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getting rid of kids toys
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When you mention the toys in baskets in their bedrooms, is this all of their toys in the house or just in the bedrooms? We do the toy rotation to keep the toys fresh. I feel like I’m getting rid of a ton of toys while I’m preparing for a garage sale in June. Yet, while reading comments above I still feel like we have too many toys. If you have more toys than what’s mentioned in the bedrooms (in living room/downstairs) how do you maintain them? This is timely with the upcoming garage sale.
I’m grateful to see this topic, because I really need to do a purge this summer. Dd will be turning 6, and there are a lot of toys I really think she should be able to part with that she just doesn’t want to. Toys at this age have so many pieces and parts, and my goal that we wouldn’t keep more than 20 toys at any one time is starting to be more overwhelming than it used to be. (It sounds like a lot, but I do include things like PlayDoh as a toy, her art easel and supplies as a toy, puzzles as a toy, etc. And we use toys like her cash register as a “teaching tool” as we’re learning about money.)
I think that it seems to look worse than it is in her room each day because it used to be that she took one toy out to play with; then we’d put it back, and she’d choose another. Now, however, she’ll take out her Magna Tiles and use them to build a zoo for her Schleich animals, then grab some Little People to be the zookeepers and the guests, etc. It’s great use of her imagination, and she’ll play that scenario in great detail for an hour or so, but her floor is covered with all these toys when she’s finished, and all I can think is “too much stuff” as I am helping her to pick it all up.
We will probably be moving this summer, so I need to take that time and pare things down some.
Some of you have great ideas asking the grandparents for good, quality living books. My in-laws used to come with presents on each visit, too, which was frustrating in our tiny apartment. My MIL has come a long way, though. She now goes with the theme, “Something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read” when it comes to birthdays and Christmas. It’s nice, because that usually includes only one toy. 😉 Even better, there are times she is open to the idea of giving an “experience” as a gift rather than a toy if I ask. For example, last year she paid for DD’s soccer camp as one of her birthday gifts. The other gift was a fishing pole, so she could go fishing with Daddy on the days I go to work. DD enjoyed soccer camp a lot, and the fishing pole is a gift that she enjoys time and time again, as she and Daddy have quality time, create good memories, and invite teachable moments.
April
We have toys and games in a finished attic space we call the Secret Passage.
A few toys are kept in bedrooms –
- tiny legos in boy’s room, with a handful of matchbox cars
- stuffed animals on beds (limited to 3-5 each)
- model horses (big Target ones) – 3 in girls room
Our other toys are limited to:
- Schleich plastic animals – medium tub
- Large Legos – large tub
- Lincoln Logs – large tub
- Train Tracks & trains – large tub
- Maple building blocks – huge set in huge tub
- Lauri puzzles – 5
- Wooden toddler puzzles – 5
- baby toys – medium tub (for when babies are here)
- dress up (too much and we’re weeding today) – in an old file cabinet
- Old metal tonka toys – 3
- Old Fisher Price Little People – house, hospital, airport, garage, farm, school + people and accessories – this is a huge part of our toys, but gets used a great deal by the littlest
- Musical Instruments – small tub + drum
- Games and Jigsaw puzzles (too much and we’re weeding today) – on 3 small shelves in secret passage
- Toy Guns & swords – in a big plastic trash can in the secret passage
- Small wooden barn for dd11’s toy horses
- folding toy stove and play wooden/felt food – kept in a small kitchen drawer
- 3 Hoppy Balls – great for getting that energy out – kept under stair
- Raidio Flyer 4 wheeled trike – for littlest (we’ve fixed the axel 2 times and this has lasted 4 kids) – under stairs
That’s all that we have remaining in our house and I intend to keep weeding. The less they have, the more they play properly with what they do have.
Happy cleaning!
Christie
ETA: Typing it out is helpful! Also, I am all for gifting experiences and not stuff!
Lindsey, I was wondering what you consider twaddle toys? I hadn’t really thought ahead beyond books, so I’m interested to hear! Also, what kinds of books did you ask relatives to give as gifts? Thanks for sharing ideas.
Lindsey,
Could you please explain twaddle toys? What are they? I haven’t gotten that far ahead beyond evaluating books, so I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
The nature of our house and how we have to use the rooms means all the toys stay in the bedrooms. Not too bad for Aaron – he’s the only boy. 😉 But the 3 girls sharing a room… That poses a huge problem. We have purged like crazy over the last year and a half since we moved in, but the kids still do not respect their toys or their space – so all of their toys are now in the garage. I sorted them into the “definitely keep,” “maybe keep,” and “definitely get rid of” piles. But that keep pile is outrageous! And we don’t have nearly as many toys as many other kids in America. They did all “fit” in their bedroom, but since they never cleaned it up when they were told, even with a toy check-out system, they lost them all. Now we are trying to figure out a good way to bring in some of those toys, but not everything. And keep them picked up and respected!
cekfamily, I define twaddle toys as anything they can’t use their imagination with. For example, the electronic stuff that uses batteries is nearly always twaddle in our house (though ds3 does have a tool kit with a drill that actually “drills”). We keep things like Legos, blocks, dolls, play kitchen items, a few stuffed animals, and the dreaded Barbies.
Before I explain MY definition of twaddle toys, let me preface by saying that this is OUR FAMILY’s definition, not necessarily to be taken as Gospel truth. I surely do not want to offend anyone by mentioning toys that are twaddle in our family but might be well loved in your family. Here are some examples of toys we consider twaddle:
- Happy Meal toys and other cheap playthings from fast food restaurants, dollar stores, etc.
- Barbies
- toys with lots of lights and sounds and buttons which do not foster imaginative play
- some action figures
- some character toys (ie. Dora, Sesame Street, Tickle Me Elmo, etc.)
I have noticed that the toys which usually fit my definition of twaddle the most are the ones that cause me to roll my eyes or let out a big sigh when brought out. They’re just those toys that I really don’t enjoy watching my children play with because I know that creativity and imagination are being stifled. I can honestly say that, as of today, I wouldn’t classify any of our toys as twaddle, by my own definition. But, of course, my definition may not be your definition; in which case, that is perfectly ok.
@mrsmccardell, We don’t keep toys anywhere else in the house except in the baskets/bins/shelves in the kids’ rooms. I have never liked having toys scattered throughout the house, although I can understand why this is sometimes necessary with babies/toddlers around. We are well past that stage, however, so all toys and kids’ books are contained in their rooms. They are allowed to play with their stuff all over the house, if they like, but they are always expected to replace their toys properly when finished. We do have a cabinet in the living room where family games (Monopoly, Sorry, SkipBo) and puzzles are kept, but since those are family activities, I don’t consider them needing to go in the kids’ rooms. Our craft supplies, markers, paper, stamp sets are kept in our school closet along with all of our school books and materials. Of course, we do have outdoor toys like bats, balls, bikes, and tents, but those are kept in the garage in a tub.
In one of my previous posts where I listed our current toys, I forgot to add a wooden train and track which are kept in a bin on a shelf in ds’s closet and his play sword and shield which are kept in the same drawer as his dress up clothes. Just wanted to make sure I’m totally honest…
LindseyD – I’m curious if the “no toys downstairs” was the same when all your children were young? My dc are 5.5, 4.5, 14mos and they play in the house where ever I am so it seems we store toys upstairs and downstairs. I sometimes keep the kids downstairs so they don’t wake the sleeping baby.
Did your kids run upstairs every time they wanted a toy to play with downstairs? I like the idea and I’m trying to figure out how we would coordinate it with their current ages. Currently they don’t have any toys in the bedrooms – the spare bedroom is housing toys but they never want to play in there without me. Any thoughts?
Actually, we don’t live in a 2-story home. When our dc were young, I kept a small basket of toys in the living room on a shelf for them to pull out whenever they needed something to keep their hands busy during dinner preparation or whatever. They were and still are allowed to bring toys out of their rooms to play with wherever they want, even outside. It’s been so long since I’ve had a baby in the house that it’s truthfully hard for me to remember everything we did.
We did live in a 2-story townhome when the kids were 2 and 3, and they would run upstairs and play, but rarely brought stuff back down. I think it was too much effort for them! ha! They stayed contained upstairs and played happily, usually. I used to think we were normal, but I’m seeing more and more that I’m very blessed with children who have always been able to entertain themselves. You have to do whatever works for you in your house. In our current home and the one before, we have enough space and closet/shelf storage that keeping toys elsewhere was unnecessary. I really like to keep an orderly and aesthetically pleasing home, so it is my personal preference to store toys and things out of sight in bedrooms, behind cabinet doors, and on closet shelves. But that might not always work for everyone or be everyone’s personality. Some people aren’t bothered by bins of toys in the living room, and that’s great; but that’s not me. This is another reason why we clean out and purge toys so often. Because I don’t ever want their toys to overflow their rooms and into other parts of the house!
Hope that’s helpful,
Lindsey
We also keep all the toys upstairs, However, sometimes they come down to be veiwed by the maker of yet another lego command center. (This time it has a stove to cook on!)
My son said to me today, “I want to have a garage sale today!” This was at 7pm before I read this thread.
After reading this thread I said, “Why don’t we just take it to the resale shop and get more money for it?” I sure hope they take toys!!! 🙂
He ran upstairs and I can hear them rummaging threw the room trying to gather things… Yippee!!!
My son also has his “Favorite everything” So I am hoping he will part with tons!
I think if the store won’t take them I will give them a few bucks and donate the items…. Shhhhhh don’t tell them… 🙂
I was going through some photo files on my laptop tonight and found some photos I took in February of my kids’ rooms. I originally took them because I always neglect to capture their rooms so they’ll have something to look back on in the future and remember. So, one day after we had cleaned them, I grabbed my camera. Now, I see that this is the perfect opportunity to post these photos…so you all can see what I’m talking about with our toy situation!! Please check my blog (www.todayindietzville.blogspot.com) if you care to see our rooms and a little of how they’re organized. If nothing else, I hope you see that we’re human and we probably still have too much stuff!
Blessings,
Lindsey
I am looking for some learning toys for my kids.
Anybody have any suggestion for that.Thanks !!
I haven’t had time to read all these post but I will comment on our families experience. A few years ago when our boys were 5 and 3 our family of 4 spent a summer in a NYC studio apt that was 400 sq ft. total. That summer my boys had 4 things to play with: set of tinker toys, a few stuffed animals, a small wooden train set and a pack of ballons. Sadly, it rained way more than we anticipated that summer and it left us stuck in our tiny apt. But what I witnessed completely changed my perspective of toys. My boys used their imaginations more that summer than they ever had. Tinker toys became everything they wanted to play. One day they made a net and used the balloons to play volleyball. One day they built a ship and another day they went fishing. It was amazing.
That summer led our family to completely condense our toys. We made a rule in our house. We are only allowed to add to the toys they have now unless we discuss as a family and agree to bring a new type of toy in the house. These are the items they play with. And these items give them great flexibiltiy. They have been great with this system.
Here is what we keep at our home:
-INSIDE:
-legos
-tinker toys – lots of them!!!
-a basket of hotweels with a track
-2 baskets of cooking supplies (pots/pans/play food)
-board games
-stuffed animals
-we have craft supplies set up in a craft room that me and the boys share
OUTSIDE:
– basket of digging toys
-few dump trucks
-basket of sports balls and frisbee
That’s it!!! We love it and my kids use their imagination to make these items whatever they need to play with.
We have ask family members to add to these toys (more lego sets or board games, craft supplies, etc.) so we gave them options instead of saying “buy this only”. It has worked well for everyone. And if our parents want to get a specific toy they ask us and we make a decision if we think it will work for our family. Our family members are ok with it. They like that our house is not overflowing with toys.
Hope that helps
Amy
diane21,
What type of things are you wanting your kids to learn? “Learning toys” is very broad spectrum, if you know what I mean. What I consider a “learning toy” and what Fisher Price considers “learning toys” are very different definitions! In my definition, a learning toy could be classified as one which:
- encourages children to use their imaginations to creatively come up with their own ideas, stories, plays, inventions, etc.;
- doesn’t try to entertain the child with lights and sounds, but allows the child to make his/her own sound effects, thus utilizing the magnificent imagination;
- draws the child in to experiment and build
- isn’t annoying to me (this goes along w/ the no-lights-and-sounds)
- isn’t a character which has limited possibilities for playtime (Dora can only be Dora, see? But a generic set of finger puppets or a well-made rag doll have endless possibilities.)
Amy and I were posting at the same time, and after reading her post, I was prompted to add. Our children had all their toys taken away last Friday as a disciplinary action for some surprisingly abnormal misbehavior. Like Amy, what I have witnessed in them over the past several days has been amazing. With no toys, they have used their imaginations like crazy. All they have is their bodies, so they have been animals and dinosaurs. Ds has been teaching his sister some taekwondo forms and moves, and she’s learning so well. Daddy worked on some fix-it jobs around the house, and both kids have been playing with his tools ever since. It’s amazing how long a kid can play with an old fence picket, a few nails, and a hammer!
We considered our family to have a pretty good perspective of toys and the amount of stuff that we had prior to this experience, but we are now re-evaluating stuff again. I feel that we could probably cut what little we still have left by half, and the kids would be just fine. They might not like getting rid of their stuff, but that’s human nature. I thought this past weekend was going to be the pits because our kids wouldn’t have anything to do. Instead, they found ways to entertain themselves AND we had some great family time. I’m so thankful for their misbehavior now because it gave us the opportunity to take a drastic measure, which has benefitted our family more than we ever thought possible.
They still haven’t earned their toys back, and I’m honestly in no hurry to give them back. I love that there have been few messes to clean up, no arguing over what to play or what to play with, no nagging the kids to go outside to play, and believe it or not, no whining about when they’re going to get their stuff back!
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