Thinning Toys

[mommyatty]

We have way, way, WAY too much play stuff. It's horrible and crazy.

Has anyone else done a major toy thinning? I mean, not just stuff they have outgrown but a massive thinning.

My issue is that they play with EVERYTHING we have, and they are incredibly creative with it all. So it isn't like I can say "oh, they haven't touched X in months so buh bye!" But honestly they just have so much. We noticed on vacation that they had cars, a few Little People, a couple of little stuffed animals, and a ton of puzzle erasers and they were perfectly content for 6 days.

So, where do I start?

[2chatter]

mommyatty - I hard core thinned and got rid of peripheral things. Like one Disney doll? Gone. It left us with "sets" of things like ponies, superheroes, cars, musical instruments. Anything that couldn't easily be grouped and stored was tossed.

I hoard miscellaneous art supplies - that's the hard one for me. Like a watercolor tray with a perfect black but no other colors? Saved. Ugh.

[jlaok]

Since they play with everything can you rotate instead of thin? When DS was little we used to have all his stuff in bins and we'd rotate the bins every few months. This might also give you a better idea of what they play with the most.

I feel like we are on the brink of big kid toy land but I can't seem to part with some of the little kid toys (Thomas, duplos, cars) because *they play with them sometimes and when we have friend's with kids over it gives them toys to play with.

*not really "they" but more DD. DS acts like he's allergic to playing with toys and would just rather be "so bored" all the time.

[erinshelley21]

2chatter, did you kids know you were thinning when you did that? Because what you did sounds like my dream.

[2chatter]

Jun 29, 2017 13:21:46 GMT -5 erinshelley21 said:

2chatter, did you kids know you were thinning when you did that? Because what you did sounds like my dream.

Nope. They had no idea and I responded to questions like "where is the little yellow drawing thing" with "I don't know, there are pencils and paper in the art drawer though". Redirection worked!!

[186momx]

I need to do this but I can't with DD around. Last Saturday I went through the 2T-3T and 6-9 month clothes boxes (in her closet) to donate while she was at a party.  When she got home from the birthday party she had a cow and started pulling things out because they were cute (I hadn't finished yet).  Also DH is worse than DD.

Toy thinning is on my list for September. I think I'm leaning towards 2chatter , method and then thinning out a lot of duplicates.

Where do you take your toys and nice clothes? I want something other than Goodwill and St. Vincent but all the nonprofits in my area that deal with foster kids only want new stuff.

[mommyatty]

186momx - I take my stuff to a women's shelter that helps the families transition from the shelter they run to their own apartments. Many of the families run with absolutely nothing. No pjs, no toys, no extra underwear, nothing. So they need everything when they move out of the shelter.

[waverly]

I feel like all I have done is purge especially toys, but outgrown clothes too.

I start with anything old, broken, annoying, outgrown. I like to get rid of bigger items especially if they don't play with them so I have more room. I concentrate on having more smaller toys as they get bigger. I get rid of miscellaneous category- that I learned from 2chatter. I get rid of duplicates. Keep whatever number of similar items that is reasonable, for example 2 firetrucks instead of 5 firetrucks. Keep educational toys and motor skill toys.

I label the bins and sort everything, and if it doesn't fit or work with that, then I get rid of more. My kids are old enough to help and will occasionally initiate themselves, "so they can get new toys" -even though I tell them they are not getting new toys until their birthday/ Christmas. I purge toys before every birthday and Christmas.

I direct people that are willing to take direction that I need sports stuff or art supplies or clothing for gifts for birthday and Christmas rather than toys. Most people know not to buy toys, but I still have a lot and most I did not buy myself. I only buy toys for special occasions like difficult doctor stuff, but that has been more often than I might have liked still. Otherwise just Christmas and birthday.

[erinshelley21]

DS is staying all night with my mom tonight and the plan is for him to come home to less shit.

[vasc]

I am pretty militant about getting rid of toys and clothing on a regular basis. By no means does DD play with all she has, so it's easy to quietly donate or sell items that she hasn't looked at in awhile.

I also get rid of things that *I* don't want to play with her...like I just took a board game she got last year to the consignment store along with a load of clothes because the rules were obscure and DD never showed interest in it. I certainly didn't want to help her navigate through a complicated game, so off to the store it went. We will stick with classic games.

Another thing I keep in mind is that dD is in daycare full time so we don't need every single toy that exists. She gets to play with Legos at daycare, for example, so I'm less interested in buying her a huge stash at home. Same for outdoor toys. We have a neighborhood pool and playground, so no need to invest in lots of outdoor things because we just use those instead.

[mommyatty]

What about toys they love but you hate? There are two in particular I have in mind. One is a doll stroller. They both play with it at least weekly. I keep hiding it, and they keep finding it. The second is this stupid game where you are supposed to catch fish. There are eleven billion little plastic fish that go in holes, then they pop up and down as the thing with holes rotates.

Maybe I won't mind the doll stroller so much if there is less stuff altogether.

[kbw]

I struggle with this because DS seems to notice any toy that's missing. And he doesn't actually have a lot I don't think, its more the size of toys.

I do need to put this on my list as his birthday is approaching and not soon after is Christmas. My family/friends don't do the whole buy experiences thing.

[waverly]

I don't mind the doll stroller. I don't have the fish game. If it's super annoying and they don't play with it often maybe get rid of it. DD still plays with her stroller sometimes but she would probably be ok if it disappeared but she wouldn't voluntarily give it up. purge everything else first and then decide on those two.

[mommyatty]

kbw - that's my problem too! Then they explain they want the blow up light saber from Jake's party because it's supposed to be the rocket that takes the Little People to the moon, and I feel like the asshole who just ruined a really creative game. Trying to get over that and just redirect as 2chatter says.

[erinshelley21]

mommyatty the fish game pisses me off. DS too. He's been known to shut it off and get fish without it moving if he can't hook one in a few turns lol

[librarychica]

Saturday confession: I mind neither the doll stroller nor the fish game. We did get rid of a ton when the kids started daycare, though, for reasons mentioned above.

I quietly get rid of some, involve DD1 in choosing what we get rid of other times. Honestly, I don't pretend I didn't get rid of it when they ask and she's used to it now. We will see if that works on DD2.

[mommyatty]

I wouldn't mind the stroller except it's an umbrella stroller and the %#$& handle catches on my clothes every single time I walk past it. It's like the thing is possessed and out to get me.

[greenmonkey1]

mommyatty I also have a strong dislike for the fish game, which we got as a gift from a neighbor. It is not really age appropriate for either DS, but DS2 really does not have the motor skills to be successful. But he wants to try and then he cannot get the fish and just gets frustrated. And it was a cheap one so the fish and fishing rod were breaking. I hid it in an upper kitchen cabinet then pitched it. Did not need that frustration. If they asked I redirected to another toy. Eventually they stopped asking. Doll stroller might be harder, can you make it a basement/outside/bonus room only toy?

[waverly]

I would get rid of the stroller then. If you are feeling really generous replace it with a plastic non umbrella kind.

[k3am]

Seconds on rotating toys in and out.

But. (Always a but, right?)

I periodically rotate. We sort out good toys from damaged/crap, and ones she likes from ones she's outgrown or doesn't like, which helps cull the invasion some.

Then we load up a bin or two of toys to keep in the garage for a while. My "but" is basically that in general, the toys that are rotated out don't get rotated back in. I'm okay with it. (Although.. this is how I lost a cellphone in 2013 and found it in 2016. DD or I put it in a bin of toys to rotate out that never got rotated. I found it when I pulled them out for DS)

[saraml13]

Things I hate, I give or throw away. Things that aren't being played with much, I sometimes try moving to a different area to see if they get more activity. I do rotate a lot of stuff out. Before I give something away, I often rotate it out for awhile and see if it's missed at all. There have been a couple items that were immediately missed and reinstated, but mostly DS1 forgets about them.

I have a semi-related question. People talk about taking one toy/activity out at at time and then putting it away before playing with something else. Maybe it's just an age thing, but that's not how DS1 plays. I like the idea in theory, but have a hard time enforcing it. I feel like he plays with a lot of stuff in a very creative manner, so he's always mixing activities together. For example, he'll play with his blocks and build a firehouse for his trucks, and his farm animals will be riding in the trucks. Then the firehouse "breaks" and he gets his play tools to "fix" it. So there you have at least 4 categories of toys out (blocks, trucks, animals, and tools), and yes, it does end up in a big mess. How do you start enforcing a one activity at a time rule when it seems like it breaks up the flow of play?

[k3am]

saraml13, we only do "one at a time" rules for messy toys. So if she wants to have playdough out and then decides she wants to paint too? Playdough gets put away first. I can handle multiple toys and clutter. I can't handle multiple messes.

[frozenpeas]

saraml13--we choose to interpret that rule as only one messy area of the house at a time. So before moving to the art table, they need to put away the toys in the living room. Before going outside, they need to clean up inside. Before playing upstairs, they need to clean downstairs. Etc. And then whatever is messy at the end of the day needs to be cleaned up before reading bedtime stories.

[sweetptater]

I've found that as soon as I think to myself "DS and DD haven't played with this toy in "X" months. I'm going to pitch it," they start playing with it. Case in point: Last week I thought to myself that I needed to get rid of DS's Thomas train sets because he hasn't played with them in over 9 months. Not even 15 minutes later he was dragging the box out to the living room. It's like they can read my mind.

[twinmomma]

mommyatty, Ditch the umbrella stroller. Get a grocery style one instead. Way better.

Also hate that fish game. We keep all board games up high so that an adult has to help with it to avoid losing pieces in the playroom abyss. That one has just "disappeared" to the back of the pile where they can't see it.

[mommyatty]

Update: DH and I spent all of Monday cleaning and clearing. We got the play kitchen moved from DD's room down to the playroom, two new toy organizers built and loaded up, and we moved a hope chest my grandfather made from the toy room to our living room. I think I bagged up three lawn and leaf-sized bags of toys to give away and 2.5 of garbage. The toys we got rid of were mostly stuffed animals and balls. My kids had about a bazillion balls- nerf-type ones, ones with faces on them, bouncy ones. We culled it down to a basket of larger ones and a small bin in the organizer of smaller ones.

So far, they love it. They can find and see everything, and they have plenty of room to spread out and play with stuff.

My last to do items for that room are rearranging the toy shelves so where items live is more intuitive and making their bookshelf more easily accessible. Also we have two storage cubes of stuffed animals that haven't been touched since the remodel. I may use those cubes as storage for rotating toys and try to further cull the herd of animals.

A couple of things I learned through this process:
-smaller organizers are better than bigger ones
-see thru are better than opaque
-the stuffed animal "zoo" I bought for stuffed animals was an utter waste of money and went in the garbage (the ultimate big "organizer")
-my kids are slightly weird since I have bins for "creepy rubber animals" like snakes and lizards and a bin for detective toys like flashlights, magnifying glasses, and tweezers.
-if you hide things, sometimes they can be forgotten and thrown away later, like the gigantic tub of rubber ducks that I had purposefully buried, because who actually needs a huge tub of rubber ducks? We kept about half a dozen little ones instead.