we are drowning in toys and DS doesnt want to let ANY go I need help!

[longtermfamilyplanning]

DS has loads of toys - he has 2 big plastic toy boxes in the living room mainly full of cars & weird odds and ends. Two small wicker baskets with games. Then his bedroom is full of them. He has a toy trunk, box, several big toys that take up a larger amount of space like a black & decker tool bench, his lovely ride on doggy that he got for his first xmas. He is 3 now by the way. The wardrobe in his room is also full of plastic storage boxes with things like puzzles, marble run etc

I feel he has too many toys, it feels claustrophobic here and we dont play with many of them at all. Most of them we do play with in a big rotation. We have a clear out every couple of months where I ask him to choose "loft, bin or give away" and he does do it but it just seems to make a teensy weensy dent. I am realising now Christmas is just 3 months away and more toys are on their way and while I have changed how I buy for him i.e. I try to buy him less now as I want him to use what he has more before getting new things, I know he will get new stuff for xmas. Most of that will be more medium-bigger stuff though from family and friends.

Anyway DS is very sentimental and is afflicted with that thing many children have where as soon as he sees something its his number one favourite toy ever and all the memories come back and its getting really hard to get him to part with stuff. How can I seriously pare down what he has? Like, 1/3, without being cruel!

Tinkjon, I like that idea a lot. She does have a small chest of drawers, and I put all of her colouring-in paperwork in there, before making their way into the bin after a few weeks. So her precious bits of left over party bag items etc can go in there too!

Sometimes they do notice. My Ds (8) was hysterical a few weeks ago because he missed some babyish pictures I'd sent to the charity shop. (whence they came in the frst place)
I've now realised that DS needs to see me getting rid of MY stuff sometimes, and even see me being sad that some things have gone. Like "I really used to love that dress, picture whatever, but it was getting tatty and you can't keep everything."
One trick that has helped us with Christmas presents is to tell family what to get, and go for things like lego or k'nex that hopefully end up all being stored together in one big box.

"Tell family what to get" ... the cheek of it I mean when they ASK what can we get, be ready with an answer that doesn't take up much space

Another one who grabs bin liners when they are at school!

I just tell them that I had to throw away the broken toys because broken toys are dangerous.

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I have a box of toys hidden away - if they notice something is gone then I say "I'll have a look later" and get it back out of the box while they are asleep. If they don't notice for a few months then it goes to the charity shop. And I fill the box up again. It's my holding cell .

I also fill the odd bin liner of outgrown toys / junk when they're not looking.

This doesn't work for dd (7) who remembers everything. For her, I give her a bag and tell her to fill it, else there will be no room for Christmas/birthday presents. Her birthday is in May so we get a 6-monthly cull. It helps that I have younger nieces and she likes to give stuff to them (and SIL can lose it before it gets to the DNs if she wants!).

Well I culled his book cupboard today and cleared out a whole bin bags worth of books that are either way too young or ripped to shreds. He was with me and happy for me to do it and they are going either in recycling, charity shop or loft depending on how much he adored the book.

I am doing the holding cell thing for anything I am not 100% positive about. I do pretty much know the stuff he is likely to notice at some point and he wont be upset if I tell him its in the loft. But loads of his crap he doesnt even probably know he has. Too many trips to a boot sale where I've said "here's a £1 have anything you like from the 10p box!" thinking I was super clever! well I was... at the time! But not a year down the road!