Help my get rid of the barbie house

[mom2happy]

I have a bit of a problem with letting go of things. There was a time in my life when I had nothing but the shoes on my feet and a bag of clothes.
We have accumulated so much stuff over the years and I am trying to scale down. Im not a hoarder by any means; I just have a hard time getting rid of something when I think someone else I know would want it, or that my kids will want it some day.
We have this Barbie house downstairs. They play with it sometimes, but its so big and not really a favorite toy.
I have a 3 month old girl, but I cant imagine waiting till she's ready to even play with it.
I have a few other things like this that I should probably get rid of.
I should just do it right?

[justmeandmybrood]

I am SO happy to know I am not alone! Sorry I cannot help you...my parents (well, my overly-sentimental packrat of a wonderful Mom, lol!) saved my original Barbie dreamhouse (large, 3 separate pieces, in the famous orange-yellow-white color scheme). Now that my daughter is finally 5 (wow, that happened fast!), we bring a piece of the house back with us each visit to my folks', and we are up to 2 pieces of the house.

My little girl barely plays with any toys, but I refuse to get rid of this orange monstrosity just in case she becomes more engaged with the Barbies. I will say the few times I have caught her with it have warmed my heart...and the other times, i wonder how long to give it in the house!

[crunchy_mommy]

I'd get rid of it (but I don't like Barbies ) -- See if you can sell it, usually money is a good motivator for me!! I'm having the same dilemma with a giant Little People set, I posted about it earlier. I think if it's not a favorite, let it go. And really, if your 3-mo really wants a Barbie house down the line, I'm sure you'll be able to buy one somewhere.

[zebra15]

Get rid of it, (and get a little tikes vintage one instead) lol

Honestly, you can get rid of it... look on ebay, if its in decent shape you can get some big bucks for that thing.

[lookatreestar]

id say sell! only because you said it wasn't a favorite. we just got rid of a bunch of toys when we went from a 3 bedroom 2 bath to a 1 bedroom 1 bath, so anything that wasn't a favorite was long gone!

and i liked barbies

[Savoir Faire]

I have had 100s of those things in our house. Different playhouses....a really awesome vintage washer/dyer toy...the list goes on and on.

I found that my kids didn't even miss something when I got rid of it. But, of course, I never got rid of favorite toys.

And all I can say is it is SO FREEING to reclaim the space. If your baby gets older, then you could always get another.

That's what happened with us. We got rid of an older one that my kids (when younger) had colored/markered on. Now that they are older, they have a nicer one and they actually PLAY with it.

[mattemma04]

I have been getting rid of things. It gets easier as you do it,and often you don't even miss the stuff.My big mistake was asking the kids what to keep instead of watching to see what they played with.If I ask they want to keep all the stuff,but never really play with it all!

[ChetMC]

Finding New Homes

I'm not a hoarder, but like you, we accumulate things... mostly because we can see some value in keeping them.

What I found was that, although it was slow, selling them an freecycling them helped. I felt better finding people who really wanted the things. People were often so happy and so enthusiastic to get the things. I figured it was better that they be in somebody's house being loved and used everyday than in my house taking up space just in case we might need them or use them.

[texmati]

Originally Posted by ChetMC

What I found was that, although it was slow, selling them an freecycling them helped. I felt better finding people who really wanted the things. People were often so happy and so enthusiastic to get the things. I figured it was better that they be in somebody's house being loved and used everyday than in my house taking up space just in case we might need them or use them.

I was going to suggest this- perhaps donating to a shelter or to someone off of cl or freecycle will make you feel better about the whole thing.