Help Me Get Over The Guilt...

[chely7425]

...Of paring down my kids toys!!! They have so many toys, probably not compared to many average families but we have no dedicated toy room and the amount of stuff they have is making us all crazy. They have:

- puzzles (6?)
- books (25 or so)
- train table, tracks and trains
- play kitchen and accessories
- small cars
- big cars (6?)
- blocks (duplo, cloth blocks, and alphabet blocks)
- misc toys like old remotes, small stuffed animals, mr potato head, plastic animals

I need to get rid of some stuff. I am thinking the cars/trucks and obnoxious plastic noise making toys? But I feel guilty... not sure why, but I do... I guess I am just looking for some guidance on what to get rid of and the knowledge that they don't need 8 million toys to be happy kidlets. They love the trains, books, puzzles and kitchen so that stuff will definitely stay. I want to move toward more imaginative toys, less plastic and battery powered noise making stuff... help me!

[OkiMom]

Id get rid of anything cheaply made, never played with or drives you just plain insane. After paring down Im sure you will find that the kids don't even realize its gone. I know my girls never realize their toys got downsized when I get rid of some of them. It might even help them play better.

[chely7425]

Thats a big part of my motivation to do this... I really do think they will play better. I already did a bit of decluttering and it made a big difference, but now I am kind of stuck! I doubt they will notice but I can't help but worry they will! I guess I could stick stuff in a bin for a few weeks and see if they notice?

[lucky_mia]

Honestly, that doesn't sound like much at all. Maybe you could find a storage solution or just put some away and rotate them in and out. One thing I could get rid of is the train table. My kids have more fun and are able to be more creative when when they set up the trains on the floor.

As for battery powered items, you can always let the batteries die and don't replace them.

[chely7425]

The main reason I like the table is because it has drawers underneath so it provides some storage for the train tracks and cars that they aren't using at any given time how do you guys store your kids toys?

[clutterwarrior]

I have been purging lots of DS's itty bitty toys this year...but I think it takes many rounds of purging before we will get there...wherever there is?

If I go through the toys with him, he always picks all sorts of random things to keep...well they seem random to me! but I am not sure he even plays with many of these things. I am thinking of just stashing lots of them away under the house for a while and see if he actually asks for them.

What drives me nuts is how disorganised the toys always seem to be....in his room he has a set of shelves for toys which are full of books, games, art materials, lego, etc.

In another room downstairs he has 3 large buckets of toys, plus the lego has migrated into our lounge room...things are built, then left to collect dust. I will really have to scoop them up and put them away soon.

I do still struggle with working out what toys to keep for future possible grandchildren. I know that the best quality toys like plan city and brio are good ones to keep, but things like a box of toy food, a box of old barbies and clothes, a box of baby toys, I wonder if they may be useful one day and I can't bring myself to throw them.

[kittysmama]

ClutterWarrior,
I found that plastic degrades over time. I still have the wooden "Little People" from my childhood, things like Barbies got kind of weird in texture esp if stored in hot places like attics. My folks saved a very nice, spendy plastic doll, kind of the American Girl of it's time. The plastic was so fragile that by the time my kids tried to play (pretty gently) the legs were ripping out of the hip sockets, etc. Also, the very nice clothes had oxidized and the materials had degraded. They were stored in an attic, carefully and there was an attic fan, but the temps still fluctuate a lot for plastic or rubber.

The safety standards for things like baby toys change so much, that helped me in passing stuff on to places like shelters, the children's room at the library, etc. so the "life" of the toys can be used up while they are still "good"/not too worn/popular, etc. Even things like the paint on wooden blocks or trains can have different safety standards. Dunno if that helps at all but that is my thinking.

[clutterwarrior]

Thanks Kittysmama that has really helped....I hadn't really thought of the toys degrading. It may not be worth keeping any of the plastic ones after all.