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?

[SugarMiceInTheRain]

I feel your pain, we are drowning in toys too. My boys are 8 and 6, and the addition of a new baby in the family has emphasised the lack of space in our house. I am trying to surreptitiously sneak toys which are no longer played with out of the house, with limited success. Finally got my 6 year old to agree to passing on his Mike the Knight books to his younger cousin. However he doesn't know I will also be passing on the ridiculously space consuming castles and other such MTK toys, which he claims to love but has never played with in the past 2-3 years despite being able to access them daily.

We have soooo many soft toys too, we are rotating them and keeping a hundred or so in the loftmas there just isn't room any more. I dread the time when DD has lots of toys too... I may encourage them to car boot a load of soft toys in the summer. Unfortunately the bane of my life at the moment are Hot Wheels, DS2 has loads of tracks and cars and still wants more. I hope that by his next birthday he has outgrown them. I swear there are track sets on top of every cupboard in the house!

[GreenPetal94]

I do sneak things out to charity. But just am careful its not the very favourites. They kind of know I do it really, esp ds1 who is 12.

But recently I had put out some outgrown dressing up costumes and also a policeman's helmet. Then only weeks later ds2 was a police man in the school play so I had to fess up and in fact we bought a new helmet that was identical to the old one. For £4 online. Now £4 is a small price to pay for having a clear out but ds2 went on and on about how we repurchased the same item and that was absurd. He was a fab policeman though and knew all his lines.

So the message I take from this is that low value items like all the party stuff should certainly hit the bin fairly often. ds2 still thinks I'm a terrible money waster!

[ratqueen]

My 38 year old brother would be livid if my mum got rid of his millennium falcon, gathering dust in her loft. I personally think that has a few more years in it!

[Meerka]

every so often when the toys overflow I tell my son that we have to get rid of some. I line up the candidates for new homes and if there are ten, he can choose 5 to keep. The other 5 go. Having the power to choose seems to help him let some go.

We actually give them to an organisation that distributes them to homes where the children have nothing to play with, literally only 3 sets of clothes for 6 months, so I make sure he knows they go to the children who have no toys. That also seems to help him let them go because he knows they will be used and make other children happy.

[ihategeorgeosborne]

I find the worst offenders are craft things and stationery. We have 3 dc and we are moving in a couple of months and we really need to have a major de-clutter. I started today and it took me about 2 hours just to go through the craft and stationery items. We have so many pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers, crayons, stickers, colouring books. I have been testing pens on pieces of paper to see if they work. The thought of actually doing other shelves in the book case, let alone the rest of the house is exhausting!

[Italiangreyhound]

Four boxes -

1. keep (age appropriate good nick etc)
   
2. charity shop (no longer age appropriate/played with)
   
3. throw away (broken etc)
   
4. keep for grand children (anything you can't do 1, 2 or 3 with!)
   
   We are doing the same! We have loads and loads of stuff.
   
   We found a local, charity specifically for hard pressed parents and are trying to give stuff to them or chrity shops. Quite emotional parting with stuff but good to know it will be well loved.
   
   Not sure if watching the toy story trilogy helps!

[AmazingBouncingFerret]

I remember my mum getting rid of all my My Little Pony and She Ra toys. I was at an age where I was too cool for school to play with them but not mature enough to have a sentimental attraction to them.

I really regret it now!

[Spiritedwolf]

Loving the term 'peak toy'

DS is only 19 months and we want to have more children, so I doubt we're even close to peak toy yet. He didn't have much for the first year, only got a couple of things for his birthday, but then we got loads at Christmas and since because we had a bit more money and I felt he didn't have enough (just a few baby toys, gifts he'd got from others and the small rocking horse and building blocks he got for his birthday). So there wasn't much to get out on the floor and play with and we're at home quite a bit.

So now he has a little bit of most things! The things in lots of bits (blocks, animals, cars, play food, small circle of wooden train set, wooden and metal treasure basket type items) are mainly contained in small see through tubs. He has a storage bin for his soft toys, some larger bits (happy land, larger vehicles, ball, doll etc) and a box of puzzles/stacking toys. I'm building up a collection of craft materials too. I've also picked up some second hand duplo bricks that I'll use to top up a duplo set when we get one.

It seems a lot when he's pulled lots of it out but it tidies away quite easily. As we're SAH rather than nursery/childcare, I feel he needs to have a variety of things to play with at home and as he's our first, we're starting from nothing. I'm trying to pick things with lots of replay value and develop storage solutions. I've already put away the very baby things in a box with the play mat - he did play with the things occasionally because they were there, but we're really tight for space.

I reckon we'll try and involve him in decisions when he's older. I can find it difficult to part with things so I'd want to do it as respectfully as possible.

As for artwork, I think we're going to do the photo method, where by you take pictures of things you want to remember but don't have the physical space to keep. So I'll just have the chockablock hard drive to worry about!

We need to learn to have less stuff ourselves. I love books but they have taken over somewhat, I think I need to decide which ones I don't think I'd re read and would rather re-buy in ebook format if I do need to reread.

[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

[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)

[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!

[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

[AlwaysOutnumberedNevaOutgunned]

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

[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.

[C3P0]

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

[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.

[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....

[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.

[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

[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:((

[archshoes]

I missed toy shops for several years.