Do your DC share toys? How do you differentiate between who owns what?

[Homehelpp]

Currently have 1 DC who is 3.5 and have another on the way.

I was just wondering how future gifts/toys work?! DC has EVERYTHING (a first grandchild on both sides!), and I think we’d really struggle to buy DC2 anything in the future, toy wise, that DC1 doesn’t already have.

Say both children get a Lego set - do these both go into the same box at most people’s houses? Is it acceptable for DC2 to get some extra trains for the trainset that DC1 already has?

Do young children each have their own toys, or is everything just shared?

Mine have a 3 year age gap and each has their own toys (except bigger garden toys). They still play with each others or mix them up, but generally who it belongs to is determined by who's bedroom it lives in. Every now and then I have a toy short out and some of older DC's outgrown toys relocate to younger DC's bedroom, which in our house signifies a change of ownership.

However when they're playing, who was playing with it first trumps who owned it, so you don't get to demand something back mid game.

We keep all of the toys in a playroom downstairs (we only keep a dollhouse and some books in DD’s bedroom) which I think will blur the lines more between what’s whos!

I have two of the same sex with a 2 year age gap and most things are just shared. They tend to know who was given what for a birthday or whatever but in actual terms it makes little difference. We have more toys in the bigger bedroom and some downstairs too. They are quite reasonable children and generally play together very nicely; I can imagine it being more of an issue if they didn't get on.

I think generally shared but allowed a few special toys no one needs to share favourite teddy or comforter, Also when you have a 7 year old and 3.5 year old , the 7 year olds things might have too small parts to be safe with the the 3 year old, also . Remember little kids can break things by accident and it's not fair if older one gets stuff ruined. Not talking about lego or trampolines but more intricate personal items.

i have three DC and most toys were shared, with a few special things that definitely belonged to one or other of them.

I have a three year age gap between my boys. They had their own toys, kept in their rooms. Art stuff was shared.

To be honest, they were into very different things from a tiny age.

They sometimes merged stuff for games, but they knew exactly who owned each toy. They always played fairly, never argued, but they knew.

It was deliberate. I had a younger sister who claimed most of my toys and I was hardly ever allowed to get attached to them, because she would just take them.

Mine are 20 months apart and I have decided all is shared except very special comforters. For the occasional toy which was given specifically to someone and they are very attached, we say receiving child gets to play first but other can have a turn.

I totally get what you're asking but for us (and I hope most families), it just all worked out fine through a mix of what PPs have said.
A bigger challenge was that even with a 3 year gap, it was often more like having twins: if one had something, the other wanted one too so there needed to be obvious colour differences. This could be tricky since one (e.g. waterbottle, jacket, notebook) might be v. girly but the other would not.
It's a completely reasonable question but I think it will all sort itself.