To feel that we are at "peak toy".

[specialmagiclady]

Boys are 7 and 9. We are drowning, just drowning in toys.

I have been pretty good in that I have boxed up and lofted: duplo, certain special baby toys and wooden train and got rid of a lot of the larger "preschool" toys like play kitchen, pots and pans, playdoh stuff etc.

They still occasionally do dressing up (but I have my eye on that next and I have got rid of the too-small costumes) and like to have Cuddly Olympics with their millions of cuddly toys. They are totally in the prime of love with Lego of which we have millions.

Things I would happily let go: Tracey island, millenium falcon, toy cars, toy animals and dinosaurs, playmobil, anything plastic over about the size of the playmobil helicopter.

They are adamant that they play with them ALL. They don't, but they notice if I sneak it out to the charity shop.

Is it because they are still little enough to want to play with some of the younger stuff, but old enough to play board games etc that we just have so much? Is it going to get better? Will they suddenly say "actually I think we're a bit old for this, mum"? Or am I going to have to be The Bitch (again)?

Either I invest massively in new storage (££££ nobody puts expedit on freecycle) or I chuck chuck chuck....WWYD? WIBU to just get rid of a load of stuff?

[drspouse]

So if you are interested, donate soft toys DO get sold in markets in developing countries. I took this photo yesterday:

[Dancergirl]

I agree kissme embrace the toys!

Already my older two are too old for toys I'm hanging on to dd3's smallness.

[MrsYoungSalvoMontalbano]

lol at Peak Toy Oh, yes! My DC are now teenagers, but somehow they years went by so fast that I missed the point they stopped playing with lego, and have not been able to let go and get rid of all that stuff.. (Maybe not so unconsciously thinking of grandkids....? They and Dh would see the stuff go without a second glance. me... I'm not yet ready...

[SylvaniansKeepGettingHoovered]

We are currently at Peak Toy. DDs are 7 and 5.

I find Peak Toy hard work and draining, but I'm glad we're finished with the noisy toys, i.e. when the DDs were toddlers/babies and we had millions of V-Tech noisy toys, bulky ride-on toys, walkers, wooden blocks, endless noisy books and singing toys which needed batteries.

We have a lot of playmobil, many many naked dolls, piles of dolls clothes, and tons and tons of craft, pens, beads. Our puzzles and games are quite well organised though, on shelving, and we've taken control of the books too.

[ErrolTheDragon]

DH used his budgeted 'birthday money' to buy a big lego robotics kit last week - mainly for DD's benefit I think. He wisely bought a set of component drawers from Maplin and has dutifully sorted all the bits into them. I predict that the dining room table will disappear under this in the easter hols and not re-emerge until he next has a client visit the house.

The other 'toy' DD craves now is a windsurf board and rig... no idea where we'd put those!

[prettydaisies]

Hmm...
Mine are 18, 16 and 12. Looking round the sitting room (we don't run to a playroom) we have currently Sylvanians on some of the floor and scarelextric set up, about 5 different musical instruments (and I know 2 big ones - tenor sax and trombone are at school), a couple of laptops, shelves full of board games, puzzles, lego and crafty bits and various books lying around. So there's still plenty of 'stuff'!!

[MadeMan]

Special Madge it might be easier just to buy a bigger house. You should keep the Falcon and the Lego; everyone loves Lego. I'm pushing 40 years old and even I'm tempted to buy The Simpsons House.

[Katreats]

I can remember, vividly, being upset at coming home to discover toys had been donated to local nursery, not because I played with them but because I wasn't consulted! I was a precocious little shit I reckon and well done to my mum for putting up with me, but it might be worth having the kids involved taking them to the point of donation so they can feel good about themselves, also I would never get rid of a millenium falcon that's an awesome toy

[drspouse]

IpanemaMeisje even paper and crayons? really???!

It will cost a lot to send/bring that sort of stuff. Especially paper. Surely children buy cheap exercise books for school? And cheap pencils?

And I do know quite a bit about children in orphanages not being stimulated but in the countries I know best (I have been to Brazil but it's not where I know best) then it would be much more helpful to the local economy to pay for someone to make toys out of scraps, rather than pay to send unwanted toys - someone locally would make some money out of them that way.

Anyway this is a side issue and a whole other soapbox.

[archshoes]

I missed toy shops for several years.

[kissmelittleass]

There will come a day when you wil miss the toys everywhere round the house when its all quiet and the kids have flown the nest..I have 2 teenagers and 2 younger ds and dd age 5 and I couldn't wait to get back up the toy aisle and get loads of dollys, prams, cots, lego etc etc now they do annoy me sometimes thrown everywhere but there will come a day when the toys aren't wanted anymore and its boyfriends,girlfriends, laptops and phones so I will put up with the toys for now it reminds me I have little ones round the place..they grow up far too quick..I know:((

[TinyTear]

CLoser to home do take toys to your local hospital to the children's ward.

Last August I was 3 days in hospital with my then 18m old. it was great to have the ladies bringing us toys a couple of times a day.

Since then I took a bunch of stuff to the hospital and they sent my DD (now 2yo) a thank you card. has to be wipeable thing (no fluffy toys) so they can clean them up between children

[alreadytaken]

for many years small toys that are not played have, usually with the child's consent, gone into shoeboxes at Christmas. A few things may have disappeared without consent - when you have 20 pencil sharpeners, sorry it broke.

If your child has problems parting with toys take the child, and some spare toys, to the Gambia and visit a Gambian home. Seeing how little some people have may change their minds.

If things disappear from your suitcase en route they are still probably going to people who have very little but the government is cracking down on airport theft. Most decent people visiting the Gambia travel with extra items to leave there. Outgrown childrens' clothes are also very welcome there. Yes people can buy such things there but they dont have money to do so. When we visited we also took old magnifying glasses - they went to tailors, allowing them to work when their sight begins to fail.

[Badvoc]

God yes!
I am going to suggest that my 2 sell some stuff before Xmas this year and then they can spend/save what they get!
Ds2 has loads of take along Thomas trains and track, and the play sets (some of them were £60+)
Also wooden building blocks, and ds1 still has 2 large Xmas gifts unopened under his bed! :(
Also octonauts toys and playmobil....

[Treaclepot]

We have four kids between us so our 3 bed was literally swamped. Also both our parents downsized and gave us all our old toys that they had saved.

They hardly played with some of it so I gave away 2/3rds of it to charity/friends/the tip when they were all out, they came home, I held my breathe and they didn't and haven't ever noticed. Nearly 3 cars worth and nothing was missed.

They then played far far better with the toys let as they were easier to see.

I did consult on the soft toy removal, and even the middle one (horder in the making will tidy up 0n the threat to throw away a toy that he doesn't even like) was trying to give away most of them to 'children that don't have any toys' - for a shipment out to an orphanage in Ghana.

It was a year ago think, I might do another one soon it felt so goooood.

[C3P0]

There will be no effective defence against Imperial fighters if the Millennium Falcon goes. Think of your family's safety.

[BeaWheesht]

Well put it this way I'm reading this and thinking 'but I bet you don't have as many toys as us'. My mum buys way way way too much for them but its hard to say no because she can't see them often.

I do find that having everything anally super organised helps, literally everything in my house toys wise has a home.

Ds is 7 and actually isn't too bad - mostly plays with one set of toys at a time then tidies up and gets something else out.

Dd on the other hand is 3 and just pulls put random stuff and never really plays with much of it at all. Just leaves a trail of everything in her wake, this is despite constantly reminding her not to!

I throw away things like party bag : macdonalds / magazine toys but anything else I consult them about. They're actually good now, before Xmas they took stuff to the charity shop with me as in February they donated all their happy land to the local kids ward. They actually prefer this to selling which is surprising but nice.

[AlwaysOutnumberedNevaOutgunned]

can I have a postal address for the orphanage in Brazil so I can send random toys/books please?

[AlwaysOutnumberedNevaOutgunned]

I am mean mummy, every christmas or birthday run up my boys have to pick a bag worth of toys to donate to the children's hospital or sn play centre, they don't much like it but they get to do a good deed, make room for gifts and usually get a thankyou card through the post to put on the mantlepiece prompting extra praise from visitors for doing good

[Thumbwitch]

DS1 has had a reasonably large birthday party the last 2 years, and both times I did ask for no presents, or only token ones if people felt they had to. Well, that didn't work. Some of what he got was indeed token stuff, and for that I was grateful - but other people were buying him stuff worth $25-$30! I'm thinking no party this year; might make him wait a year or 2. If only people would not feel obliged to bring presents, I'd let him have the party every year - but I can't cope with the influx!

[deakymom]

one and five there birthdays are right before christmas and right after we are drowning in brand new toys im still having a clear out people really need to understand that while a HUGE toy looks so good in victoria beckhams home it doesn't fit in my average size home

im chucking selling and chucking some more really next year someone give my kids a book token! (sounds ungrateful but we were bought three massive train sets one year AFTER i bought my son one we only had room for one)

[archshoes]

Our peak toy time with all the kids was 8 years old. couldnt wait for the youngest to reach 8. Still remember the joy