March of The Toys

[hiddenhome]

The Toys are taking over my house

ds1's stuff is tidy in his room, but dh allows ds2 to just spread The Toys around all over the place.

Toys on the dining table
Toys on the lounge floor
Toys in the kitchen
Toys in the tv area
Toys on the dining room floor
Toys on the computer table
Toys in front of the fishtank
Toys, Toys, Toys everybloodywhere!

The Toys can't be tidied away into ds2's room because there is no room in there. Why? Because his room is full of The Toys too

I have nowhere to tidy them to now. When I tell dh to sort through them and chuck/recycle he just refuses, but he also refuses to allow me to chuck/recycle too because he's a hoarder and says that many of them were expensive and have to be kept

How do I get rid of these blasted things without either ds2 (who has a photographic memory) or dh (who is a neurotic hoarder) finding out?

The Toys are taking over my house HELP

I have packed toys into plastic crates and stored them in the loft before. It seems to satisfy the dcs need to keep them but also keeps them out of our way.

Once they have been there a while and no one has asked to play with them they seem to find it easier to give them away to a friend or to the charity shop.

How old is DS2? Is he young enough, photographic memory aside, to forget fairly quickly?

I have no magic answers, but am in same boat, 2 DS's and hoarder OH. DS1 is nearly 4 and am trying to avoid him becoming a hoarder too (it goes back 3 generations on the male line now in OH's family!). So, I ask him to sort through his toys and put to one side anything broken or too babyish. He now actually likes coming to deliver a bag of old things to the charity shop.

Both boys are required to help put toys away at end of day (DS2 is 2).
My OH isn't keen on getting rid either but I just do it anyway, I bag and remove whilst he's at work. He doesn't really notice that a few toys have gone at a time. Sadly, he does seem to notice when I do it with his things though.

ds2 is six and has a razor sharp mind. He knows all his Lego sets and will often refer to toys that he doesn't regularly play with. dh is the same. All the crappy bits of plastic are identified, categorised and claimed to be important

ds1 has adhd and can't remember what he has, apart from his beloved Horrible Histories books, so I have no such problem with chucking tidying up his stuff

Also dh has taken early retirement, so he's around the house most of the time. I used to bag stuff up and take it for recycling when he was at work, but I can't do that anymore. I like him being around, but all my clandestine tidying activities have had to stop