how do you decide what toys to keep (if any) for your potential future grandchildren?

[knickerelasticjones]

An odd one I know....

DD1 and I were a bit bored today and then I remembered that I had my old tin of marbles on the high shelf in her room. So I got them down and we had a brilliant time ( at how happy I was to see my marbles again - no jokes please!)

DD1 has got a couple of my old toys that my parents kept from my childhood (dollshouse, a dolly, fisher price garage and marbles of course) and I got to wondering if we should keep some of our DDs toys so they can have them when / if they have kids of their own.

Thing is, we have bugger all storage space so we can't keep much at all. So what (if anything) do we keep? The things they have really liked, or the particularly nice wooden toys?

What would / have any other Mners done?

Books and wooden toys only.

I just think there are too many kids who would love to have all the toys my DCs have so I'll donate them as soon as my lot are grown out of them. I can't bear stashing things away and not using them. Think it's a waste.

I agree winky - I only want to keep a very few things and I'll take the rest to a charity shop. But I'm really trying to decide - do I keep the awful plastic noddy that I hate, but DD LOVED playing with, or do I keep the lovely wooden pull along which I LOVED and DD thought was ok, but not as good as noddy.....?

Rocking horse and dolls house. My parents still have one of those push along trucks full of bricks and dds love it.

My mum is a bit of a hoarder and kept loads of my old toys that have now been passed onto my DD's.
Their faves are the pull along wooden toys, my old cars and farm animals, building blocks in a walker, a small armchair and massive boxes of books.
Also they love the lego/duplo and sticklebricks from their cousins!

I am going to keep these sort of things that they can then 'freeplay' with, and not keeping anything plasticky as it ages, at least teh stuff you could buy when I was little has, and it just looks old (like my big yellow teapot!)

We have recently put some books up into the loft - whether it is afor a furture child of my own or other I don't know.

Everything else goes when grown out of so far. In the past we simply didn't have the storage space.

I still have DD's Sylvanians in the loft, which I am planning to keep here for potential GC.

I also have all her Barbies, but I'm not planning on keeping those - I just haven't got round to sorting them out so I can sell them...

I haven't kept anything.
DS are 8 and 10, and when they grow out of something it goes straight to a charity shop or passed on to someone.

But then I like throwing stuff out and am not at all sentimental. (I have also not kept any of their baby clothes or first shoes or anything like that.)

I am a squirrel and really struggle with this. My mom kept absolutely nothing of mine (and I wish she had) but I hung onto a few soft toys wich dd now has. Will probably keep some of those, some books and some wooden/hardy stuff. Also some clothes.

My 'system' is to store as much as I can, then when I want to add to it I have to get rid of some of it so that I don't have to make a final decision on one day.

i kept my triang bear walker from when i was little..it is now 50 years old..and has ben played with by my children but also dgs plays with it here..like me he believes it is a dog

i kep a little tykes digger that was ds and it is now dgs but he managed to break it

brio railway has been passed on to dgs as has duplo and lego

and some thomas tank ertl engines

i didnt have to store mine for long tho

The lack of storage in the average house is appalling, it means it is impossible to keep treasured items, instead we recycle and give to charity shops, so maybe not such a bad thing.

What I would have liked to keep most of all for my children was actually bedding (now sold in the sales boards).

Why I hear you ask?

When I take the kids to see my parents, my mum has kept the bedding from when I was little (they have a huge loft and a real aversion for throwing things).

It is such a pleasure to make my children nice and snug in bed by the very same bedding that made me warm and cosy and safe as a child. The colours and the fabric has kept beautifully despite being over 30 years old. The patterns are beautiful, with rocking horses and cowboys, and depicts well known toys from the time period, and stories from books such as Pippi Longstocking, etc
They are beautiful, and bring back nice memories.

Toys are fun, but kids tire of them so easily, and they are not made to last these days. But if there is one thing I would like to keep, it is a wooden zebra ride on from ELC, and the huge chest of Brio train tracks.

My mum kept mine and my brothers old toy cars, which my 7 year old stepson now plays with - he calls them the old fashioned cars - I'm only 34!!

I have already put some things in the loft for my grand children {grin]

I am keeping decent condition books, Duplo, games. That's it so far.

my mum has kept all the animals and a few cars. our toys were mainly cheap so haven't survived. i hope she's got the lego, there was tons of that.

Some books and maybe Brio and toy cars. Would love to see these being reused; dcs have some books kept from when dh and i were children.

That said, one thought at the back of my mind is that I don't want to be the object of bad feeling from a dil or sil because I've palmed off "old junk" that I "can't bear to part with" onto their children !

I have:

Sindy's horse
Teddy
Little plastic horses by 'Britains'
A few books

DH has:
Teddy
Push along dog
'Rebound' game
Plastic train track

So far from the DSs the main things we've kept are:
Books (loads)
Brio wooden railway
Plain Lego not the themed kits
Various wooden toyas that fil made - Brick truck, sit on trains, toy cart
Teddies

oh yes all the books even the crap ones.

Books and wooden toys and their favourite cuddly toys

my mum kept my tiny tears which has not aged at all well and looks terrifying, sindy horses which all the dcs have loved, and lots of half jigsaws that have gone all mouldy.

I know what you mean about the bedding shadow I had a duvet cover with a girl in a brown bonnet (sarah kay?) on it which takes me right back when I put dd to bed under it.

It hasn't occurred to me to keep anything.

DH's parents have kept their sons' Hornby train set (which was given to them second hand) in their loft for their grandchildren. They keep asking if we want this for our children, but I'm not sure I want the kids playing with a 50 year old electric trainset. We think they should sell it on ebay as there is a market for this stuff.

My mother held onto some of our books, but really after 30 years they smell really musty.

Something like Lego would keep better I guess.
I wouldn't keep something like cuddly toys unless they're machine washable.

I just recently bought a lot of my old books from my Aunties attic . (DD is too small for then as yet) but it was so nice to see some old friends.

While reading this thread my dd has come downstairs wearing my old 70's party dress and carrying my Sasha doll babies! Ds3 is wearing my sisters old 70's party dress! My daughter also plays with my old doll's house and loves my Sasha dolls. DH's grotty, but much loved panda also takes pride of place on her bed.

I think I'll keep brio, lego, favourite books, dolls, playmobil and sylvannians but that's easy to say while we have a fairly big loft. We also have a fairly big family and will probably need to convert the loft one day if we can ever afford to..

I think I'll keep things