landfill, and the quest for a tat/cack free home.

[darkandstormy]

It makes me so mad the constant bombardment of shite ie cheap,plastic tat that is bestowed on my 2 dc.To be fair it is given by well meaning friends and relatives but grrrr.You know what I mean hsm crud stickers crappity crap/Ben 10 garbage.This stuff is so bad for the environment-the thought of it sitting in landfill for centuries makes me so mad,mad,mad. I wish people would just put their pennies either back in their pockets,or to some deserving charity.The very notion of children being constantly indulged with such junk, well what can I say just totally gives them no sense of appreciation whatsover.bah.get off my soapbox now.collect binbag and go on a de-clutter mission.

I know what you mean and I so wish there was a MIL friendly way of explaining it!

I am spending this evening sorting out toys - impossible when DCs awake...

No you're not Fimblehobbs, you're on here!

my rant has been prompted by the weekly hunt the ocarina under 2 tonne of tat.Mind you I did tell my dd7 spiders love this sort of junk, to hide in,that should do the trick.

One word...

freecycle!

The crap we have here from party bags defies belief. Stop giving my child plastic rubbish which she doesn't want, please!

domesticslattern- yes the bloody party bags are the worst.I just think if every child has the amount of crap my two do then god help the planet,.It was,t like this in the 70's, not that I remember anyhow.To be honest I don't think you could even freecycle this shit.

actually,seriously this has been the hardest element of being a mother to me.It is a shellshocker for a tidy minimalist like me I am sure I am not alone.

100% agree with you!

Party bags!!!! They are the veritable purveyors of shite to fill your toy box. Things that your children are totally attached to and totally worthless and often dangerously cheap!! I have never done them yet and no one cares.

Slice of cake in a napkin people, that's all they need! Only dads eat it anyway.

Freecycle won't even get rid of it. Not to mention the rubbish on the front of children's magazines.
On the minimalist front, I started to have wicker boxes and tried to catagorize these much loved items. But actually about once a month I end up emptying out the toy box after bedtime and chucking loads of stuff. It's shameful.

But we try to put as much of the plastic into recycling as we can. And (with the agreement of friends) recycling toys as gifts for younger siblings. That sounds incredibly tight, but I recently gave a friends son my daughters little people collection and various little people vessels and a big bag of wooden ELC bricks. They were in good nick and I checked with her first. I guess you'd have to be close friends to get away with that! It just seemed illogical to charity shop it when I could pass it on.

Should have said that I gave them as birthday gifts!! Sounds even worse, but at least they were tried and tested and previously loved toys!

100 % agree.
I'm just at the very beginning of packing for our house move (too a much smaller house) and
Oh my goodness how much crap does ds have he only turned four! I've freecycled as we have gone along aswell.
I was thinking going forward only one present for xmas and birthdays.

Completely agree. Shouldn't we somehow harness the power of Mumsnet and use the local groups to palm this crap off regift these toys to the next generation of little 'uns.

I am also keen to embargo party bags. Luckily my DD goes to school in such a deprived area, nobody even has birthday parties.

Would have been better if the strike out had actually worked.

I think re-gifting is the way ahead. I'm not averse to it mainly because I am happy to buy toys from charity shops. As well as re-gifting the aforementioned my DH has reminded me that we have re-gifted dressing up outfits. Children don't care where it's come from. They just like presents!