Cuddly toys

[NorthantsNewbie]

How many cuddly toys do you reckon are currently in your home?

We have 2 DDs (nearly 3 and not yet 1) and about once a month DH goes on a clearing out mission and mutters darkly about “all the cuddly toys”. He’s desperate to cull them. DD1 plays with all of them, regularly, and calls them her “friends”. DD2 obviously too little yet to have much of a preference. I grew up with a lot of cuddly toys and DH doesn’t remember ever having one, so we’re coming at it from very different angles. I’m going to count tomorrow but I reckon it’s between 20 and 30 (and probably 75% have been presents). I really don’t think this is that many but maybe I’m being unrealistic.

Also, any top tips for storage would be great. DH has ADHD and finds visual noise/clutter stressful. As mentioned, toddler DD plays with them so the hidden storage where they fill a bean bag or something wouldn’t really work.

100 as an estimate - 2 DC, 9 & 6. They love soft toys and play with them a lot. We were doing this guessing game earlier today 😆

Your DH would hate our house 😂honestly I'd say we have at least 5x that.

20-30 is a perfectly normal amount. Surely they can just go in a few drawers like other toys unless they're enormous?

About 50 here of which 20+ share DS6's bed each night.

Having lots of cuddly toys is a pretty normal part of childhood and it's quite sad he wants to get rid of something your children play with. I think it's important to understand that having ADHD doesn't mean his opinions get to override your children's.

Missed the bits about storage options. We have lots of horizontal and vertical kallax units and boxes that fit in each bedroom. Between their bedrooms, 10 boxes are reserved for soft toys. Friends also use nets hung from ceiling or those bags that open out fully and then scoop everything back in. Our toys are some jelly cats (mostly gifts), palm pals - small and my DDs favourite, and then random others (Keel, TY and quite a few from hotels, promos and fairs - the latter I try to clear out).

I have a dd who is autistic and one of her special interests is cuddly toys, she probably has about 500-600.

Another obsessed with dinosaurs she has probably about 100 dinosaur ones.

Another that's obsessed with squishmallows and she has probably 70 of those.

And my oldest has 1 or 2, but she has her own collection of weird things.

So, lots is the answer for this house.

Storage for the kids with less of them are those see through chairs and the corner shelf things with elastic through them to hold the toys in place. Dd with 5/600 has shelves and chairs and her bed and floor and everything else 🤣

I couldn’t cope with that many in the house, must have cost an absolute fortune.

Don’t they get full of dust?

At least 100, we have two beanbags that I removed the inner beans from and filled with all the soft toys so they aren't scattered everywhere because it drives me nuts. Both kids swap out weekly what one they want to snuggle in bed.

Only if your house is minging

We have a cuddly toy zoo - think square wooden base with four vertical pieces of wood (one from each corner) with bungee cords around it - works really well for us to store a huge amount of cuddles in a small floor area

At least 100! And no they don’t get dusty…

I was coming to recommend this...although we call it the Cuddly Prison.

Keeps them tidy, but still easily accessible.

It also offers a natural limit, once the cage is full you operate a one in/one out policy.

We have a lot, over a hundred I would think. DGD is SEN and loves them all, she got even more at Christmas. We have 2 of those toy zoo things but they still seem to be everywhere. They make her very happy though, so we've embraced the mess and join in her games when needed.

Well this is brilliantly reassuring, thanks!

@Grumblies no danger of him overriding them! But it’s nice to know I’m not being wildly unrealistic and everyone else has a tidy house with 3 little teddies tucked neatly on a shelf. I do find it interesting (and sad) that his sisters’ children aren’t that into cuddly toys either, and they don’t have many in their house. I think growing up without them has really influenced all his siblings.

The really ridiculous bit is that he bought DD1 the giant Ikea dog, which takes up half a sofa before we’ve really got started!