Please help me - I am drowning in toys....

[Legacy]

2 kids - each has a bedroom full. Playroom is full too - just walked in there and had to pick my way across a floor of duplo lego castle .

I work 4 days a week, and although the house is reasonably clean, the toy thing just overwhelms me. I simply don't have hours at the end of every day for putting everything away. DH rarely tidies playroom - he just gets angry at the kids (6 & 4) and says it's all their fault and responsibility.

I think it's actually OUR fault and we need to teach them more order and discipline. We DO have boxes & shelves for certain things, but now I just think we have TOO MUCH plastic crap as a result of birthdays/ Christmases etc.

How ruthless are you about getting rid of old toys? Do you involve your kids by asking them what they want to keep, or do it by stealth and hope they won't notice? I tried to weed a whole load of toys out of DS1's room, and it just resulted in him getting all tearful and upset, saying he didn't want to get rid of ANYTHING!

Lego is my biggest nightmare - DS1 makes loads of models every week and then wants to keep them. I've finally persuaded him that he can have one box of models he's made, but once that's full he has to break some of them up. Just had a lego sorting session with him and he had all these bizarre categories like 'a box for pieces I'll never be able to find again' which ended up with tonnes in it.

HELP
Should I still have things like hobby horses and pretend tea sets? The kids still play with them sometimes though....

HELP
Do I still need percussion instruments?

HELP
Surely all the board books can go now? But DS2 (4) still wants the Thomas ones...

HELP

Do you have a loft/garage?

Box up all the things you think you can get rid of and put them in the loft/garage. If the children do not ask for them within, say, 2 months, give them to charity.

(please please please don't let Kaloo see this as she'll laugh at me. I can't move in my playroom for toys...)

AH yes, Soupdragon, I think I have read elsewhere that you are the 'playroom -meister' - that you have perfectly colour-coded and labelled boxes - no?

Please come and do an ANthea for me....

Legacy - I sympathise. Our house is the same - the playroom is the only room in the house I can't bear to clean and tidy properly. I just can't face it! The advice about boxing things up for 2 months is great and I am going to do this before Christmas and a whole new barrage of toys arrives!

Nightmare - we don't even have a playroom to hide things in! Children do have far too much these days. Read the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder - that is how things should be! Charities can only sell so much as most people just go out and buy brand new plastic crap, and there are mountains of old toys in landfill. I do weed things out where I can but obviously don't take anything special/noticeable. My children get excited about selling things on ebay, although they are frequently over-optimistic about how much it will sell for...

Legacy - I feel your pain (particularly the pain when you have stepped on aforementioned stray piece of lego [ouch[)
your last 3 "HELPS" answers should all be NO!!
unless they are particulary attached just do it when they are in bed - box up as much as possible and organise the rest and guaranteed they will probably not even notice or will forget quickly ! we have about 20 boxes of toys in a container on the drive which have been there for the last 9 months whilst garage being built and my two havent even noticed they havent had the things in them! they just get overfaced and dont play with anything but if a particular favourite such as lego then just keep them really accessible but easy to throw back in a box at the end of a day.....

this year i am avoiding buying brand new palstic crap for xmas. i am buying second hand.

am slowly weeding out the toys, dd2 cuddly toys are the worst, they are taking over the house, i have bagged up 3 black bags of soft toys, so far, she hasnt notice they have gone. will keep them hidden for another month or so then sell them.

I couldn't identify more! I just want to chuck the lot on a skip. Having two boys (6 and 4) means the place is awash with lego, duplo, meccano, magnetic stuff, and other fiddly little bitty things. Then there are all the wretched light sabres and swords etc. Plus conkers and "interesting" stones from next doors inexhaustible supply of gravel. Not to mention about a million pens and pencils plus all the bits of paper with half-finished drawings on. And the toilet rolls with goggly eyes sellotaped on.I have stealthily got rid of quite a lot of the big stuff that only got played with occasionally - to fetes etc (but not ones I intend to go to...don't want to end up buying it back...) They don't notice for ages and then only get fed up for a little while. But yes - dreading the new onslaught of birthdays and Christmas especially as all the stuff we still have is pretty much age-appropriate and I don't feel able to chuck it yet.

We have just had dd1 birthday so our house is worse than ever atm, I got it down to one basket in the living room adn everythingelse is boxed in sets and has to be asked for but dd1 plays all the time with her castle and little figures so they stay out , now for her birthday she got loasds more figures and they have taken over!

Er stop buying so many toys?????? Don't panic though - they'll be teenagers before you know it...........

Oh dea, I feel your pain.

I have implemented a one in, one out policy, and ergularly have sort outs with DS. I trained him early on to not get too attached to plastic tat. Books we keep, lego we have huge amounts of, in huge plastic drawers under his bed, but things he doesn't play with any more get passed on to charity, friends or he can Ebay it.

I am ruthless with broken stuff. All broken stuff goes straight in the bin.

Other than that, could you stop buying new toys for a while? Make them have a sort out ready for christmas? Say they won't get new presents unless they each pack a box with old toys to go to charity?

I got rid of all the board books by stealth, as he was so attached to them. He didn't even notice or comment and it's been two years now.

If you have the room to store it all you need to train them to tidy up more often, if you don't have the room to store it all then you need to be rithless and get rid of lots. And even tell other family members to hold off on buying them toys if a lot of it is from other people.

soft toys are the worst aren't they? People love to give them as presents, and yet, really, DS i only attached to a few of them and couldn't care less about the rest. We recently had a soft toy cull.

Loft??

I have always been incredibly strict about crap toys, fortunately my DS has never been into Lego or similar toys with lots of fiddly bits. He knows better than to ever bring anything home from a school fair or similar - in fact he is as good as me now as when he opens a Christmas or birthday present he often says 'straight to the charity shop' - fortunately NOT in front of the person who gave it to him.

Children have far, far too many toys these days - agree with others, ditch anything broken, too 'young' etc, hide anything else and if they don't ask you know its not missed ...............

The last three questions -- the answer is No.
(Nobody needs percussion instruments. They are just as annoying when played with as intended as they are left lying around afterwards)

Keep the Logo. Instead of keeping the models, have your DS take a digital photo or several photos from different angles, and make a file on the computer. Then they can be dismantled. Lego will keep your DS occupied for years yet.

Little tea sets that the DD plays with? Hone it down to one. She still has a few years of teaset fun at 4.

Take a look through and see if there are duplicates of any items -- if so get rid of all but one.
See if there are any items that are 'baby' toys (little phones, etc) and throw away or donate.
Don't involve the DCs.

Set aside a time each day after you put dinner on or before bathtime or whatever to wrangle them into a tidying session. They need your help at this time as they are too young to undertake a task that will seem overwhelming to them, and children tend to not want to make a clean break with play and move on to other activities. They will resist at first but you need to persevere in a jolly but firm way.

where is the OP? What did she decide to do in the end? Her DS2 must be 9 by now!

Just seen the original date - well spotted Trying .

How do these old threads get re-started?