would you get rid of this stuff?

[bluebirdiemama]

I have a 3yo and a 1yo, and a lot of toys. We have a very small place, and I don't want all this stuff just being around to make a mess out of (there are so many toys that they really don't "play" with much).
My 3 yo has outgrown a lot of these toys, and my 1 yo doesn't show much interest in them until I start talking about getting rid of them.
We are talking about a stacking ring toy, shape sorting box, puzzle animals (animals in 3 peices with wheels), puzzle autos (same as above). And some other stuff. They have lots of puzzles and TONS of books.

So, will my 1yo become interested in these in the future? Or should I just box them up and start looking for more advanced toys?

[fruitfulmomma]

I might keep these... "stacking ring toy, shape sorting box" and get rid of the rest. Those are the type of things my 18mo is interested in at the moment.

[newbymom05]

I think I would get rid of it. I have 5 and 2 yr old boys, and the 2 yr old pretty much only wants to play w/ what the 5 y/o plays with. It's tough b/c you keep accumulating toys for the oldest, but w/ a younger sib, it's hard to get rid of anything. However, if you have limited space, you just have to do it!

[mom2grrls]

You could just box it up for the attic/garage/storage area and rotate toys every few months or so.

[NiteNicole]

I would keep the basics and not have duplicates.

Sometimes when my husband is out side with our daughter, I box up stuff I KNOW she hasn't played with or thought about, stuff I know she's not attached to. Then it goes in a closet somewhere. If she asks for something, I'll dig it out for her but if months and months go by and she hasn't thought about any of it, it gets donated or given away. I would never get rid of something she was attached to or anything, but random stuff that has just accumulated? You betcha.

[BellinghamCrunchie]

Originally Posted by mom2grrls

You could just box it up for the attic/garage/storage area and rotate toys every few months or so.

This.

[peaceful_mama]

I've done toy rotations.

How young "1" are we talking about? My 19 mo. old likes his little 3 pc puzzles to mess with but doesn't really "do" them yet. He likes his shape sorter and other buckets to carry around random junk, all my kids liked that at this age--I keep a couple old plastic coffee cans for this purpose too. (they've all liked these plastic colored rings we got from somewhere and wooden letter blocks for this)
They like dump-and-fill,

We also have a musical star stacking toy...they all liked that at 1 ish.

I recently got rid of our set of mega blocks though because even though they play with them whenever they are *anywhere else*, at home these have become something to dump out and leave around for us to step on. They take up a lot of space and they rarely build with them. So out the door they went.

I also sneak out anything that makes annoying noises, but if they *really love* it I've made some stuff like this 'outside' toys.

I've really had to get over what *I* think they should have and look at what they actually play with.

[eepster]

I would put up with the toys for a few more years. 1 yo is pretty young to decide that the child is done with a toy. The 1 yo might just not be ready yet, all children develop at their own pace.

When they are 6 yo and 4 yo, they can actively participate in a nice garage sale and use the money from the baby/toddler toys for something more mature like legos. In the mean time, organizing the current toy in a new way can renew interest, and get them to take up less space.

[pianojazzgirl]

I think I'd probably hold on to the toys that you mentioned. None of them sound like junky or annoying (read noisy) toys. All of them sound like toys that your 1 yr old might very well grow into loving. They are all true toddler toys, not little baby things, iykwim.

However, in general I'm a big fan of keeping it simple. Getting rid of toys that truly aren't being played with (though I do think in your case you should give your 1 yr old a chance to grow into them). Rotating toys is a fantastic idea too. If they haven't seen something in a while then when you bring it out it's fresh and new and they're suddenly all over it.

So what I would do is put the toys you mentioned in a box in a closet (or wherever), and probably also some of your other "big kid" toys that your 3 yr old isn't currently playing with. Then in a month or two I'd bring them out to see if they spark your kids' interest (meanwhile packing up a different bunch of toys to go in storage for a while).