To be contemplating a soft toy cull?

[Iwantalonglie]

How many stuffed animals do your DC have?

DS is almost 3. I've tried to be ruthless since he was born (one little one in his Christmas stocking last year, complete ban on family giving stuffed animals). But even so we've managed to accumulate around 20-25 of them and they're starting to irritate me. DH brought a particularly obnoxious octopus back from a work trip (grr !), godparents gave a lovely but large lion for second birthday and a few more just seem to have snuck in from fairgrounds and party bags including a very ugly camel.

AIBU to throw away half of them? DS has 5 that he's very close to (he talks to them and they talk back to him) and which sleep in his bed. The rest I think I could gradually phase out until he didn't notice their absence and then dispose of them quietly.

I'm worried that, if we don't get a handle on the little pests, we're going to end up sharing our house with thousands of the things by the time DS grows out of them. Do we need to take action now?

With all toys (soft or otherwise) every so often I'll take a selection that are least played with and put them out of sight. If they don't get asked for for a few weeks then off to the charity shop they go. This is especially helpful before Christmas/birthday when you know a load more stuff is coming into the house.

We have loads. They each have a hammock in their room. Intermittently I take any that haven't been played with for a while and bag them up and put them in the loft. Then if they don't get mentioned for a while they go to charity. They don't bother me as long as they fit in the hammock.

@GunsAndShips. MIL bought me the coffee and croissant ones for my birthday recently. I would have preferred a real coffee and a real croissant brought to me in bed. I think it was revenge for not allowing her to buy DS a giant dragon last Christmas.

@gigi556. Prevention is key. But you let your guard down and they sneak in somehow.

@BrowncoatWaffles. You should be careful what you wish for! Do you want me to pop ours in the post?

I think this every so often. Then dd asks for some obscure random soft toy from the depths to cuddle and tell me memories about and I think phew thank god i didn’t chuck it.

Many toys breed when your back is turned.

I've had a cull last weekend. I don't think DDs noticed, and they are 7&9. Their tastes have changed (it's the My Little Ponies I've removed- including some massive ones).

This thread has really made me laugh! I love some of the ideas for the.....reduction process. I also bribe my children (5 and 7). I promise them a small new toy (not soft) if they donate a certain number of theirs to charity. Problem is, my daughter does it over enthusiastically and then wants them back months later.....

P.s. My HUSBAND has hinted at wanting the Jellycat avocado....

@Marisishidinginmyattic. That's my deepest fear. That I'm going to stunt DS emotionally by chucking away the "I heart Majorca" bear DH bought him at the gift shop on our first holiday away when I popped to the loo.

Our overspill goes into 'stasis' .put them in one of those storage bags where you suck the life force out with a hoover, seal them up and shove in attic. If no one's asked for them by the time you get your Xmas tree down, off to the charity shop they happily go. They would rather have their best life than be unloved and unused. And yes, they do have feelings.

@Somethingsnappy. In those immortal words, you have a DH problem. So do I.

It's his (DH's) birthday soon and MIL is sending links to No. 1. Daddy Boofles.... I think we may need to go low contact or move country. I told her DS is giving his daddy a box of craft beer.

If I had kept every toy DDs had been given we would need to buy an extra house. Children grow and change. They need space for the stuff they enjoy.

My mother recently reminded me my 4ft panda is in their attic. Personally I need to somehow get it to the tip without it ever reaching my house. I loved it when I was a kid.

I am sure my daughter sneaks more in when we aren't looking. I don't know how she fits in her bed beside them all. We tried to go through them and get rid of some but we just couldn't do it.

I have so many cuddlies... I love them.... I have about 50 Blue Nose Friends (Tatty Teddy)... then other cuddlies on top of that.

When I was younger, my DM would make my sister and I regularly go through our toy boxes. She would always keep the bin bag for a few days before donating to charity, in case one of us couldn't sleep at the idea of a certain teddy making its way into the donation pile.

She expected us to be ruthless, otherwise we would not have been able to move in our rooms.

I really don't thinks 20/25 sounds that much

Have you never seen the documentary, Toy Story?

Ita fine to do a toy cull but do it with the child. How would you feel if someone threw out your stuff?

My uncle and aunt always used to throw out my cousins toys and tbh most of the time they were just bored when we went round

Careful when you cull the soft toys they are guarded by the most humungus spiders.....

*Why throw them away? Such a waste!

Select a few of them and give them to charity or stick them on Facebook.*

I do this with the soft toys and plastic toys that I think someone else would want but let’s face it, some soft toys are produced just as crap to give away at Santa’s Grottos and things and have no real worth.. I have thrown away soft toys that I do genuinely believe there would be no interest in.

I do try to minimise acquiring these things in the first place on principle (same as plastic toys) as I like to buy second hand toys where possible but somehow they do find their way into your house...

We were given a rubbish soft toy recently (I would bet you a thousand pounds that no one would claim it if I put it for free on Facebook marketplace) for completing an extra curricular thing. It just made me despair because it’s just more waste and none of the kids would have wanted it even...

I've gradually hidden ones i don't like, 1 or 2 at a time, and if she doesn't ask about them within 3 months they are off to the charity shop
Her's mostly live in a basket so she easily forgets those at the bottom so it's easier for me to remove.

I like the idea of isolating some of them from the herd gradually and then picking them off.

A toy he bought on your first holiday with him? I couldn't chuck that away.

Do it !
Dd is 9 and I’ve just vacuum packed 3 large bags of cuddly toys that are her “absolute favourite!” and that she’d quite simply die without .
Get out while you still can and do the cull while he’s at school

@Feelingconfused2020. I know, I feel bad about it too. But DH literally bought the cheapest tackiest one in the shop...no way was he paying a premium for the one of the nice ones . I've thought about knitting an "I heart Majorca" jumper, putting it on one of the (nice) teddies we have and then pretending that teddy is the holiday teddy.

I found half a dozen of DS' in the garage recently. He's 25😁

Do charity shops actually want soft toys?

@zilla1 I feel exactly the same (though we did recent tip a giant teddy my teen won at Alton Towers)

I love the Jellycat broccoli

I have a couple of Lucky Boys Sunday knitted cuddlies - they are definitely an acquired taste. I only buy them in TK Maxx though