How many toys?

[Moodybint]

How many and what sorts of toys do your 3-4 year olds have? I feel as if we have rather a lot, tried to cut down but then I seem to buy more again. We do donate a lot to charity also.

Lots... lego and train gets played with the most, playdoh works in short sessions, and then the mountain of die cast cars gets a bit of time too. I'm trying to think ahead while buying toys but it's hard...

My 2.5 year old has:

• Large Brio train set
• 2 Playmobil sets jumbled up in a box
• 3 Duplo sets jumbled up in a box
• Hot wheels loop the loop ramp thingy
• Wooden ELC kitchen with pots and pans
• Lots of little metal toy cars
• Plastic animals
• 2 or 3 larger vehicles including a wooden London bus and a combine harvester
• Basket of cuddly toys
• Lots and lots of books

-Cosy coupe car

Half of that stuff was from this Christmas. I tried to put away the same volume of toys as he received, so the amount of toys in our living room hasn't increased. So I boxed up all his toot-toot cars as I feel the train set kind of replaced that. I also boxed up his old Happyland stuff as I feel the Playmobil stuff replaced that. We put the boxed up stuff in the loft.

The only reason I boxed up his toddler toys and stored them away rather than just getting rid of them is because we've got another baby on the way.

Maybe it's just a lack of space we have. We seem to have an awful lot with nowhere to store it. We have lots of princess Little People castles and characters, Paw Patrol stuff, doll
House, puzzles, building stuff, books and lots of stuffed toys. Just remembered another couple of play sets sets and arts and crafts. Have other miscellaneous things but they are chucked in a cupboard and will probably go to a charity shop. The stuffed toys are really taking over lately! I don't feel very organised.

Have you tried Marie Kondo method? I know it's a bit of a Mumsnet cliche, but that, along with reading quite a few articles about having too many toys being bad for kids, helped me to reduce the amount of toys we have.

Of course I'd never throw out something my toddler clearly loves but he very rarely plays with cuddly toys, for example, so I gathered all the different ones from all around the house and put them in a big pile. Seeing them all in one pile makes you see how ridiculous the quantity is whereas if you see a couple in a toy basket, a couple on your kid's bed, a couple on a chair etc it doesn't seem so bad. DH and I picked out all the ones we really love (DS probably wouldn't miss any of them TBH but his dad and I are big softies!) and we did manage to chuck 1/3 of them out. Now we just have the one small-ish basket of cuddly toys.

I also try not to keep any toys/nik naks that are 'miscellaneous'... i.e. if it doesn't belong to a set and it's not a treasured toy, we don't keep it. Basically stuff like Happy Meal or Kinder Egg toys that are just junk. That way everything has a clear category and can be tidied away into a specific place .

My dc are 4.

Their favourite and most played with toys are
Mr and Mrs Potato Head
Wooden track and trains
Play kitchen with food and cash registers
Marble run
Playmobil
Classic Lego box
They still play with Duplo from time to time
Shopkins
Scooby Doo figurines and mystery machine
Crafty stuff is a big one
Playdoh
Large dolls head they brush and style
Dolls house
Puzzles
Board games (they have about 7)
A huge selection of books but I sort them regularly so they are age appropriate
A basket of various plastic figurines and soft toys.

Mamushka, I actually have. Not sure quite what has happened since
I think I buy a lot of stuff we don't need really. My DD does let me know when she wants to pass things on to other children. Sometimes I feel I keep things in the hope that she will
play with them one day, or in case she asks for them in the future. Silly really!

I also notice I buy a lot more toys than other people I know, lately. Wonder if I have a bit of a problem!!!

Mamushka, I actually have. Not sure quite what has happened since
I think I buy a lot of stuff we don't need really. My DD does let me know when she wants to pass things on to other children. Sometimes I feel I keep things in the hope that she will
play with them one day, or in case she asks for them in the future. Silly really!

I also notice I buy a lot more toys than other people I know, lately. Wonder if I have a bit of a problem!!!

We have far too many, I don't even know where to begin!

I'm an odd one !!! Ds9 is waiting dx of ADHD & ASD. He's all about the electronic goods! DS 7 is severely disabled and functions 18-24 months !!! He loves Thomas trains and anything with flashing lights !!!! DD is 5 and cuddle toys are her life !!!

-A big box of ELC Happyland stuff
-A play kitchen with pots and pans etc

• A tea set

-A shopping trolley and basket with pretend food -A dolls house -Sylvanian families -Various baby dolls and a pram -A toy box full of cuddly toys in her bedroom -About half a dozen puzzles and board games -A train set -A big toy box in the living room which contains various dinosaurs, cars, figures, beanie boo toys, baby doll accessories, doctors set, etc -Lots of books -Craft stuff and play doh

This is just the stuff I can remember off the top of my head. I think it's too much to be honest although I suppose she does play with most of it regularly. Most of her toys have come from grandparents and other relatives. We did have a bit of a clear out just after Christmas as I was struggling to find a place for everything.

Excluding stuff packed away in loft, for 2.5yo DS we have:

-large basket of brio train track and trains
-small basket of puzzles (easy jigsaws etc)
-basket of toy cars and some miscellaneous stuff
-basket of wooden food, toy till and shopping basket, tea set
-a doll plus a few accessories
-2 x playmobil sets and a happyland set
-box of duplo
-bag of wooden building blocks
-paints, craft stuff and playdough
-a hobby horse
-some soft toys
-many many books
-a toddlebike
-sandpit and a little tikes horse in the garden.

To be honest we could lose everything except the Brio and he wouldn't care!