to be sneaking DD's toys out of the house and welcome the oppertunity to chuck stuff out!

[LowFatPumpkinJuice]

DD has a lot of toys - she was the first GC and baby in DH's immediate family for over 30 years and her fist couple of Christmas's while she was the only one were a bit mad to say the least. I now have DS as well, and so have held on to huge tubs of little people and lots of fisher price large plastic noisy things and feel like I am at the mercy of all this hideous brightly coloured plastic with its oddly shapped playsets (which refuse to stack neatly or fit in a storage box or tub).

So the other day I was almost overjoyed when DD's toy post office got some airfreshner spilt (the plug in stuff) on it and all the plastic sheared and cracked as I could chuck it out.

Then yesterday we deconstructed her megastix rollercoaster as all it's done is gather dust. DD was explained this and has agree to it being put away.

Tonight when they are in bed I'll be gathering a few games and putting them in the charity bag - namely games like Elefun, which use stupid amounts of batteries quickly and come in enormous boxes.

I know SIL has bought DD a huge baby doll playset for her b'day and I also have DS's b'day before Christmas, as fast as I can ship the stuff out it's coming back in!

We have an average size house IMO but it;s starting to feel really small with al these toys in it!

YANBU at all. If your DD notices and gets upset about it, tell her you're just making space for new toys.

I have 2 boys so I am drowning in a sea of cars and plastic tools. It's fine when it is all put away - and believe me, I have considered putting a padlock on the toy cupboard to stop the little blighters getting everything out again!

DH and I used to tidy up each night so all the toys were out of sight and we could kid ourselve we were in control...

But DS basket of toys is now the main feature of my hearth! [hmm}

We have a small house and limited storage - clever storage are ideas are a must as is regular clearouts of broken toys and stuff they don't play with. I've also stopped buying cheaper toys just for the sake of it and now we save the money for better quality items - i also buy wooden were possible as it does look less garish than all that shiny plastic.

i need to do a really big clearout too. plastic has filled my house. kids bedrooms are a disgrace as there is just nowhere left to put things. itd dd2 birthday tomorrow and ds2 birthday in a few weeks and no matter how much i tell family to get clothes or books for them they always arrive with the largest car/doll/crap they can find

Depending on age of DD, it would be nice to perhaps include her in the process.

Mine are now 7 and 4 and for a few years they have been aware that they need to make way for new toys, reorganise bedroom etc, and their older toys can be passed on to friends, and/or children who don't get many toys.

You don't say how old your daughter is.

DH has never forgiven his mother for giving away some of his toys to a neighbour's child without asking him. She obviously thought he'd outgrown the toys, but it did show a lack of respect for him and his property. They weren't very well off and didn't have loads of toys.

I agree with flatmouse that it might be better to include her in the process.

We had this problem, a great space behind the sofa which was just a hideous mess.
We bought 2 sets of these and have sorted each box to have one set of toys in so we can lift our what he'd like ie, train track in one, farm set in another. They're labelled so he can put them away with help (he's 3.5) I'm going to do the same in his room.

We got to the stage where baby toys mixed everything and we couldn't find anything!!!

Stuff that he'd outgrown we've put in the garage to see if he notices, we can always bring it back if he does...

I go through the toys with DD (3.6) and say that we have too many and there are some here that she doesn't play with.

Then go through them as ask her if she is ok with giving them to (friends name etc)...

She is pretty good, and gives around half of the things I ask..

I think she likes the fact that they go to someone she knows..

Like Mungarra's DH I used to hate it when my mother decided we had enough toys and took it upon herself to remove them. I remember going with her to the playgroup she ran when I was off sick from school (logic?) and finding my favourite toy cat there. He came home up my jumper!

Every Christmas our Sunday school had an event where you took in unwanted toys and I used to dread it for weeks beforehand. I don't know whether it was cause or effect but I still can't share

My dd's are 7 and 5, we did a car boot sale at the beginning of the summer to get rid of the toys they no longer played with. They spent the money on dvd's and clothes for our holiday.

DD is 3.11. So agree with you all that perhaps I should be including. I did it with soft toys about a year ago and she was okay will try this instead of just removing.

She's okay with broken stuff so maybe she'll be okay with others.

Thanks for your ideas

we have a clear out every now and again

I ask them if they want something, but usually butter them up by saying 'oh this is rubbish isn't it this thing?' and they agree

and I dangle the carrot of future birthdays and that Father Christmas will not have any room to put new stuff

but what worked as well was saying that some children don't have a lot of things and it is nice to pass stuff on

I have a set number of boxes and when they are full, out stuff goes

only after consulting them though