too many toys, but dd cant let 'em go

[sunbaby]

i figure most of us here ar familiar with this scenario: too many toys that just keep piling up, making messes, taking up storage, but hardly ever really getting played with.

so we have some on rotation, but lots more that are just plain unnecesary....and birthday and christmas sneaking up on us.

in the past, i have simply given them away after they have stayed in storage for so long, assuming dd (3yrs), has forgotten them. but this girl has a memory that goes on and on. she has asked about toys she hasnt seen since The Pre-Walking Era, and then been very distressed to be told that we dont have them anymore. so i tried letting her know certain toys were going...but she doesnt ever get over them enough to let them go, and i am not going to send them to salvation army while she screams and cries...over even the most broken, tattered, outgrown toys.

i need suggestions on how to handle this. i have tried telling her 'it is time to send X to a new home, we dont need it anymore, we will send it to live with someone who needs it'. when she asks where her toys have come from, i have explained that they came from other kids who didnt need them anymore, so they came to us. (most of our toys are purchased used) i have tried the idea of trade- 'you got this new toy, so lets chose an old one to give back'. i am out of ideas. help.

[veggiewolf]

We had the same issue at 3, and here is what we did:

- DS went to pre-school, so we separated his toys into two piles: the home pile and the share-with-friends-at-school pile. We talked about how important it was for his school to have nice toys, and that the toys he played with at school were actually given to the school by other boys and girls. At 3, DS loved to help, and so he became very excited at the idea that his toys could help other children.

We kept the ones we had room for, and that he played with most often, and the others went to preschool. I think it worked because he could still see them there if he needed to.

HTH!