Keeping children’s toys for hypothetical grandchildren

[ServeTheServants]

My mum kept a lot of mine and my sibling’s childhood toys and books (Playmobil, Polly Pockets etc.). I love the nostalgia of looking back at the books in particular as it evokes lovely memories of reading with my mum.

Do you intend to keep any of your children’s toys / books for any future grandchildren you may have?

Mine did and while it was nice to have some at their house when we visited my mum gradually moved it all here and would be upset if we got rid of any of it so now it's cluttering up our loft (DCs are teens now).

It's a bit of a burden if I'm honest and I wish she hadn't kept so much. I am planning to sell/give away some of it surreptitiously at some point. We will keep a few select favourite things ourselves but nowhere near as much.

I'll keep some of the Duplo and Lego. Everything else can go, especially character toys and battery operated toys.

My parents kept lots, a large dolls house my dad made, lego, my dolly, books, wooden blocks.
DH parents didn't keep anything except his teddy. He has since bought some of his childhood favourites back on ebay, at great expense.
I will probably keep everything mum and dad kept plus our wooden rainbow and waves, DDs Sylvanians and DSs Star Wars (and anything else I find room for.)

I'm very glad I kept some books. My granddaughter's favourites of the moment are some really good, simple picture books with repetitive text, that I got from Mothercare 33 years ago. My eldest used to 'read' them to her baby sister, and it's baby sister who's now mum to the granddaughter. As I read those books to DGD (who wants them over and over again) I hear big sister's voice too.

I’m keeping a few nice bits like a wooden Noah’s Ark, some Playmobil and Lego, some games and wooden train track. Oh and books.

My parents didn’t keep anything but DH’s parents lived in the same house for over 30 years and when they moved a couple of years ago they cleared out the cellar and my children love some of the bits we ended up with, mainly Lego and an old marble run set which is so much more robust than that the ones you can get today.

I will keep some. The most played with and the best quality. So duplo, Lego, sylvanians, knex, wooden food.

Books, yes. DS has DH's Mr Men collection and my Ladybird collection. Toys, not much - maybe soft toys & Lego.

I kept all my three’s lovely books and the special toys like brio, duplicate and Lego. All kids have now left home and we have brought them down from the attic and there are still some in the shed. Lots of very special memories involved, especially the books. Books now on shelf in bedroom. We now have a little granddaughter so are looking forward to sharing the, with her.

Over the years it has been great to have toys and books to amuse our children’s friend’s children and it will certainly save us a fortune in future years when we hopefully have more grandchildren. So many of the books are still popular even now.

We kept a lot of our childrens favourite books, a huge box of lego, jigsaws, a couple of favourite board games and dominos. Our kids loved them and so do their children.

Be careful with books some books seem to date somehow in content as much as anything.
I remember getting passed on 20 year old kids books that seemed very dated in the illustrations as much as anything.

my mum kept all of our barbies and action men. about six boxes full of dolls, vehicles, outfits and accessories, furniture. my 6 year old loves the action men, so i’m glad she saved them because you can’t buy them anymore!

My MIL kept lots and my kids love playing with it. She gets boxes down for every visit always age appropriate and the child are delighted.

Space permitting, we'll hang on to some: favourite books, Lego etc

My mum kept many toys through 3 house moves and over 40 years. I found it really weird when she plonked a load of grubby, disintegrating toys that wouldn't be considered safe to sell these days in front of my DD. The biscuit tin she'd stored them in was rusty as well. I didn't even remember owning them.

Not everything- I’ve just put away the playmobil, and sylvanian families. Lego will join it eventually. I lent our happyland stuff to my mum for my nephews who were staying and explicitly said I wanted it back. She then gave it away

My parents kept absolutely everything from our childhood & some from their own. The grandchildren now play happily on a 1950s push along dog & with Sindys & Lego from the 70s/80s. They recently found a treehouse which I passed to my friend for her daughters.

I might keep some books but honestly that would be if. I only have one daughter. I don’t want to be presumptuous and assume she might have kids. I wouldn’t want her to think that was my expectation of her, so I wouldn’t want to place any undue pressure by keeping anything for hypothetical grandchildren.

@confusedofengland I had that treehouse as a child, I loved it!

Keep only the best stuff, the ones that don't age and if you have space

Legos and playmobil are good. Sylvanian families I can imagine the fur going funny....

We’ve kept Lego (still have DH’s original Star Wars and Technics!), Brio train track stuff and some Plan City. Loads of books. The kids have saved quite a bit too including (too) many Blue Noses!

No way .

We have Playmobile and Lego in the loft.
Now and again I think about eBaying the lot!

DH's parents did this - they've had toys in the attic for 30 years and now try to force DS to play with them. My parents passed our old toys on to friends/family at the time. I'm so glad they did that - much better than having them sit wasting away in a loft.

Keeping stuff is CRAZY in my opinion. My mother kept clothes! For over 30 years!!! That's totally mental to me. Shoved in a bag somewhere unused. They could have been passed on and used by other children while they were still in style. Toys.... no way. Who has the space?! I can't fathom this. We wouldn't have the space to store and I can't imagine looking at a box of stuff unused for that length of time. I guess you could bury it somewhere like a time capsule 🤔

No way to keeping clothes. Even in a 5 year period things seem to date. I can't believe people have kept clothes for that length of time.
No guarantee of GC, nor the right sex!

We kept anything the children played with a lot - Lego (well that's still out but we'll be keeping it) plus favourite baby toys, All the Fireman Sam toys, all the Imaginext Batman superhero stuff, Duplo, wooden blocks, books that they enjoyed and toddler puzzles, plus all the Brio trains and track. There is rather a lot!