Post by icedcoffee on Nov 12, 2023 21:50:25 GMT -5
Does anyone else feel like they have a million toys and their kids never play with them?
My boys are 7 and 4. They legit like never play with them. We are so busy. The kids are at school daily until 5 or 6. Then sometimes a sport after. They usually end up coming home and getting an hour of iPad. Weekends they have religious school, 2nd language school, birthday parties and sports. The rest of the time they whine for screen time and I usually give in because we’re tired and I figure they want to relax too.
So I legit feel like the toys just sit here. I’m thinking of purging like everything that’s older than a year. Has anyone done this and regretted it? I feel bad but…I’m tired of staring at unused toys.
One thing that gives me pause is the 4 year old is so young still but he seems to just end up doing whatever the 7 year old does.
Post by fancynewbeesly on Nov 12, 2023 21:59:08 GMT -5
So, I am struggling with this today. DD1 who is 12 is a toy kid, and she has ALL her toys. And still won't part with them. We have a small playroom but it is chaos. We were cleaning it out today and I realized that DD2 who is 5, has very few toys of her own. She has a ton of toys--but 90% of them are handme downs from DD1 or toddler toys. So I had DD1 do a massive purge that way, we can actually buy and get her sister new toys for the holidays and have room for them.
Yes, we do. We (DH and I) are slowly working through it and have had some luck with selling stuff on fb marketplace. We do still have a 4 year old so I'm not purging everything but she is very against playing with "boy" toys so we've been trying to purge what I know she will never play with
Post by icedcoffee on Nov 12, 2023 22:03:46 GMT -5
fancynewbeesly. We were purging today too because the 7 year old had a birthday this week and we have Xmas coming up and I’m like why do we even have toys?!? No one plays with them!! And then the 7 year old had a meltdown about a melissa and Doug train he hasn’t touched in at least 3 years. 😭
Post by pierogigirl on Nov 12, 2023 22:23:01 GMT -5
I used to pack up toys in bins and then put the bins out of sight. Usually no one asked where something was, so I'd purge it. My kids are older (pre-teen and teen) and almost never play with toys, but we still have too many. Slowly they are getting rid of things. We want to turn the playroom into a gym, so a lot more will go this summer.
ETA- I saved a few favorites from when they were really little in bins in a closet. That was probably more for me, but my ILs had some toys from when DH was little and they loved to play with them, so I'm keeping some. Stuffed animals are the hardest. They have parted with none.
Post by purplepenguin7 on Nov 12, 2023 22:40:23 GMT -5
Do you have a basement, attic or big enough closet somewhere? I usually gather up a few of my daughter’s least played with toys and hide them somewhere. If she asks about them I bring them out and if she doesn’t look or ask for them I give away after a few months.
We have a similar problem where she loves her toys but she’s almost she never home to play with them.
Post by fortnightlily on Nov 12, 2023 23:56:38 GMT -5
For the longest time my kid threw such a fit when I tried to purge toys, and I could never find enough time to go through them when he wasn't around, so they just continued to clutter up my house. Now that he's finally 10 he's gotten better about recognizing he's not going to play with things he's had since he was much younger.
I do find that there's an 'out of sight out of mind' element. So if I do move something to where he can see it he will start playing with it again for a little while.
Also, do not get me started on the holidays, birthday parties, etc. where he gets like 20 new things because family will not stick to just giving him like 1 thing apiece. It accumulates so fast.
I agree with boxing stuff up and seeing if they even notice - then just quietly get rid of it in a couple/few months.
I find my kids played more when there were fewer options - it can be overwhelming for them too! So if it doesn't fit in my son's room, something has to go. My daughter is past toys but she's still holding onto a couple of things and I'm not pushing her - we slowly downsized over the least few years.
I think it's really nice for them to understand what happens to them next too - we have done a few clearouts where I explained I was giving 'x' to a friend's child or donating it for a child who didn't have any toys etc. My daughter in particular really got into that concept. We've also donated tons to their school as we live in a low income area and they have a wish list - my son's cars were well appreciated by the nursery class, etc.
Yes. They barely touch them. My kids are 11 and almost 8. We tried going through the toys with them this summer and they wanted to keep everything. So irritating.
I did box some up and put it in the garage. They haven’t asked about it, so I’ll donate that. We have limited space so I need to go through it again. I’m not getting any toys for them for birthday or Christmas. It’s kind of sad!
We’ve purged so many times. I didn’t use the over a year rule more like broken/ missing pieces, don’t play with. Mine are pretty good at letting things go.
Post by minniemouse on Nov 13, 2023 8:09:03 GMT -5
Good luck. It’s my most hated chore! My kids are/were so attached to every.little.thing, even ones they never played with. If I could go back in time, I’d make a rule that they keep one tote of sentimental toys, and once it’s full, if they want to add to it something else has to be donated or tossed. Otherwise, only keep what has been used within the past 6-12 months. I may do this with my 10 year old over winter break. She still has a lot she hasn’t touched in years but refuses to let go off.
I still have so many toys, DD is 11 and doesn't play with them anymore. My problem is how to get rid of them, there's so many and none of the donation places around me take toys. I don't really have the energy to post them individually on facebook to sell or give away and I can't bring myself to trash them. My DD has always been good at getting rid of unused things and we have not regretted getting rid of the unused things so far.
My kids seem unusual in that they love toys. And I love toys. So we have tons of toys! My youngest turns nine in January, and I am really sad that we’re going to be moving out of the main toy era soon. Last time we went through toys, there were a lot of toddler type toys The kids did not want to get rid of, but those are the ones I want to purge now. I struggle with myself on this one, too, because we have a lot of really great quality cool toys that I don’t want to part with. When they get ready to purge the bigger kid toys, it’s going to be hard for me not to keep too much.
That said, I feel like a four-year-old needs to play with toys. I would definitely still keep some things at your house, even if you get rid of a chunk of it.
The kids will whine like crazy, but you could always try to do a tablet free day once a week or something like that.
I still have so many toys, DD is 11 and doesn't play with them anymore. My problem is how to get rid of them, there's so many and none of the donation places around me take toys. I don't really have the energy to post them individually on facebook to sell or give away and I can't bring myself to trash them. My DD has always been good at getting rid of unused things and we have not regretted getting rid of the unused things so far.
I don’t know if this is helpful but on my local buy nothing group and a family list serve where people post stuff for free most people post "bundles." So they don’t list everything individually but lots of stuff together and it all seems to go pretty quickly. That’s what I plan to do when the time comes to give our toy stuff away.
I still have so many toys, DD is 11 and doesn't play with them anymore. My problem is how to get rid of them, there's so many and none of the donation places around me take toys. I don't really have the energy to post them individually on facebook to sell or give away and I can't bring myself to trash them. My DD has always been good at getting rid of unused things and we have not regretted getting rid of the unused things so far.
I don’t know if this is helpful but on my local buy nothing group and a family list serve where people post stuff for free most people post "bundles." So they don’t list everything individually but lots of stuff together and it all seems to go pretty quickly. That’s what I plan to do when the time comes to give our toy stuff away.
I've been doing this also. Toys can be tough even on Buy Nothing. The good stuff goes in a snap. We have some not as good stuff (that they got as gifts) that is much harder. I even bundled 5 not good things together.
Usually I give these things to my sister who has younger kids and make it her problem. LOL
The really good stuff I do sell. Yesterday I spent a couple hours sorting and building all of our Duplo sets to sell on FB. Someone's coming today to buy them because it's rare to find used toys that have been sorted and restored to order.
I still have so many toys, DD is 11 and doesn't play with them anymore. My problem is how to get rid of them, there's so many and none of the donation places around me take toys. I don't really have the energy to post them individually on facebook to sell or give away and I can't bring myself to trash them. My DD has always been good at getting rid of unused things and we have not regretted getting rid of the unused things so far.
I don’t know if this is helpful but on my local buy nothing group and a family list serve where people post stuff for free most people post "bundles." So they don’t list everything individually but lots of stuff together and it all seems to go pretty quickly. That’s what I plan to do when the time comes to give our toy stuff away.
Thanks! I think we have a buy nothing group in the area, I may try this, I assumed everything was listed individually. I've seen some curb alerts in the local facebook group as well, but I'm not sure how well they work. I live in a rural area, so my options are limited. I've been giving my parents a box or two for their respective thrift stores, but they are 4 hours away and only comes out a couple times a year.
I have a method that works well for us! Instead of picking toys to get rid of, we pile up all the stuff and then take turns picking things to KEEP. Then everything else gets purged. We sometimes do a number, or sometimes pick to keep until a given shelf or bin is full.
We have a big jar that we use to do the same thing with Halloween candy. We take turns putting a piece in until the jar is full.
My kids are 8 and 10 and rarely play with their toys but have a hard time letting them go. I currently have 2 laundry bins full of toys I am trying to sell and their bedrooms are still FULL of toys.
The approach I have had the most luck with is picking a container to keep whatever toy category in and having them choose X number of their "favorites" to keep, so it is more about picking what they love and less focused on what they are getting rid of.
Donating works to a certain extent because they do want to help others, but those donation bags need to be black, tied tight, and out the door asap.
Ugh, I really need to do this too. My 7 year old still plays with some toys, but everything is just such a disorganized mess. I really need to get it all out and lay it in the same space, and pair everything back up that goes together and throw out broken stuff, etc. before Christmas.
I mostly post things on FB or give them away when our town does "junk weekend" where they will take anything.
How do you purge books? We've purged all the toys down long ago, but DD has 3 full bookshelves full of books; picture books, early chapter books, easy chapter books, textbooks, and then her middle school read books that she is currently reading.
How do you purge books? We've purged all the toys down long ago, but DD has 3 full bookshelves full of books; picture books, early chapter books, easy chapter books, textbooks, and then her middle school read books that she is currently reading.
My kids each have a large-ish bookshelf in their room. As DS1 outgrows a book I put it in DS2's room (I ask him periodically to go through his books and pick X number for DS2). Then I go through DS2's shelves every so often and cull that. Also we read every night and if they pick something and I don't like I pull it out the next day when they are at school.
We have a little free library across the street where I put them. Sometimes this backfires because my kids will stop there and bring the book back home. LOL
90% of our books are used so it makes it a little easier to get rid of them. We do have a few series of chapter books that I will probably sell for $1 a book once they outgrow those since I know those are in demand.
icedcoffee, I've seen a couple little lending library boxes in our neighborhood. I could also check with the library and DD's school to see if they take donated books.
Post by simpsongal on Nov 13, 2023 13:25:01 GMT -5
I swear I donate half of what they get every Christmas by the next Christmas. I keep and eye on what gets played w/and slowly siphon things off. If they don't protest for a month or two, it's gone. I also ask about the big stuff. I think Barbie's days are limited....though her friends kind of like them, so we'll see. I've paused the purges bc we're cutting down on Christmas toys and I think we're hitting the ages where they're age out of toys.
Now that they're 7 and 9, I'm getting more discerning re what goes under the tree, fewer "oh it's on sale" extras. Plus my newly-turned 7 year old just told us she doesn't believe in Santa....so that helps w/the gift count even more.
They both love legos and magnatiles, so those will be under the tree. She's a play doh addict and DS wants a play station 5.
How do you purge books? We've purged all the toys down long ago, but DD has 3 full bookshelves full of books; picture books, early chapter books, easy chapter books, textbooks, and then her middle school read books that she is currently reading.
Books either go on buy nothing or we took a huge bag down to our beach house to put in the libraries there. My kid was very sad that there were few kids books in the 3 in our neighborhood and insisted on bringing them down to put in those libraries.
Purging got easier when my kid realized she could make money from what she got rid of. We used to have a big children's consigment sale and we would decide was we could sell. (Sadly it folded during COVID.) Now I will take some stuff to a local small consignment store. We did a big Lego friends rebuild this winter and I took about 6 sets to consignment that weren't favorites.
Our school library takes books - they either add them to the collection or put them on the school's free bookshelf. Some teachers also accept middle grade or graphic novel books or quality pictures books. Of course, Goodwill also takes them.
One other tip - goodie bag junk (the stuff that doesn't get immediately broken and the stuff that doesn't go in their mouths), I set aside after bed time. Then I periodically bring it to the elementary school for teachers to put in their own prize boxes. I hate just tossing it and this extends the lifespan a tad.
How do you purge books? We've purged all the toys down long ago, but DD has 3 full bookshelves full of books; picture books, early chapter books, easy chapter books, textbooks, and then her middle school read books that she is currently reading.
Anything that is in poor condition, worn/ broken binding/ torn etc. gets purged.
I only keep sentimental items from the younger ages. So for your DD, since she is in middle school, I would get rid of all picture books and easy chapter books unless they are sentimental for either of you I am not sure why you have textbooks at all since most everything is online, but only keep current. Keep all middle school books.
DD and DS both have 1 large bookcase each. I also have a book case that is not totally full in the living room with combo kid/ adult books.