How many books does your child have? How many toys?

[AnyDream]

Ok, just wondering how many books/toys your child has.

We've just had a birthday for Missy 2 yo and suddenly I'm having trouble fitting everything into her toy cupboard (2 door pantry style cupboard). Obviously I need to weed some of the younger toys out (removed a garbag and a half to charity only about a month ago) ...do we just have an excessive number of toys?

Same goes for books. She has a narrow but tall bookcase in her bedroom and it's full with either books or large dolls, etc.

Ok, well some of the stuff is DD1's castoffs (keeping them for when Missy E gets interested) but...do we just have way too much "stuff:???

[Junglemum]

You can never have too many books! We have loads.
As for the toys, i think we all probably have too many. A good cull and clean out is great. That whole rotating box's of toys thing is a good idea too. If i was ever organised enough i'd do that! We have a toy box, if the toys don't fit in that box then it's time to cull.

I guess it's a bit harder with DD1 being a little older, you don't want to cull all her toys b/c E will want them in a few years. Maybe just box them up for a bit?

[skybie]

DD1 has well over 100 books, something i never thin out and chuck, she has no toys in her room (coz she breaks them when she's ment to be sleeping!) so she loves to look at her books. as for toys....4 toy boxes
2 for mixed toys, 1 for barbie only and 1 for doll accessories. it never fails to amaze me how much we've accumulated in 3 short years!

[fionas]

I consciously haven't bought DD many toys because we haven't got any storage in this house. I guess she's probably got a toybox full if I put them altogether. Probably about 15 or so books.

I am silently laughing and grimacing to be calling a toybox full 'not many'. Obviously way more than a lot of kids would have.

[briggsy's girl]

i don't think you can ever have too many books - yeah, they might be a bit young for your older daughter at the moment, or a bit old for them both - but books are something they can go back to. i'm suprised how often my bro's kids pick up their "baby=ish" books when we're visiting and read them to DD - even though she really doesn't get it.

we have (gulp) four of those 50odd Litre tubs full of kids books. dr seuss, disney, harry potter, pony pals, ummmmm lots. we have pooh bear, learning the alphabet, learning maths - heaps of them! obviously DD isn't reading them yet - but it doesn't stop me looking for other books for her....

as for toys - well, that's a tough call. if they're in the cupboard and haven't been used for a long time, are too young for all your kids, then yeah, maybe it's time to cull. if it's something you have more of than they could ever use (my nieces Bratz collection comes to mind) then it's time to cull.

DD has probably 15 toys that we rotate at the moment. some live in the car, some in her pram, some on the floow, some on the highchair, some on her bouncer. some in the nappy bag - we like to make sure she doesn't get bored. she doesn't get them all at once, and she seems to like the stimulation of the different items....

get rid of stuff that is clearly too young (and doesn't have sentimental value) and see how you go.

[Junglemum]

I am curious how the librarian extraodinaire can think she may have too many books?

[Visitor7]

I would say we have about 120 books for the girls. We have some in Nina's room, and some in Emily's room.
Toys, don't go there! I've recently given 6 boxes of toys to Vinnies and there is still a billion around the house!

[AnyDream]

I am curious how the librarian extraodinaire can think she may have too many books?

LOL you know me too well...it's more a case of not enough shelves rather than too many books.

OMG I'm falling about Fiona at the thought of ONLY 15 books???!!! That's like book starvation in our house, I've got 15 books just next to my bed

[Jennifer13]

It sounds like you have a case of needing a new bookshelf, rather than too many books!

We have lots of books for DD. I don't want to cull any of them! We have lots of books for ourselves too, so if I have to set a precedent I'm not keen!

I get rid of anything broken, torn or damaged so that it can't be used as originally intended. Anything that was given to DD free in something at some stage (small plastic things, for eg, like the McDonald's toys, not that we have any of those). I send away pictures, paintings and constructions of DD's to relatives (aunts, grandparents and godparents particularly love DD's homemade cast-offs!). Once you get rid of the rubbish, it's amazing how much clearer your space is.

I keep aside a box of toys for younger kids, even if DD has grown out of them. We always have visitors who have babies and DD often finds a secondary use for them at some point! I put away those baby toys that I want to keep (for another baby or sentimental reasons). And I give the rest away on Freecycle. (For some reason there's always a bag of stuffed toys, those things are unbelievable!) I do a cull before every birthday and Christmas, when I know she's about to get a whole heap of new stuff.

Best thing is that I keep them organised. DD has a playroom and a very large bedroom. All her toys go in her toybox or boxes I've made for her that sit neatly on shelves (with the exception of the dollhouse, pram and kitchen, you get the idea). I covered Huggies boxes in contact paper (DD loves to pick the designs and has everything from Bob the Builder to Barbie to Dora, etc, etc). Contact paper costs very little, the boxes look bright and pretty, they're small enough for DD to pick up and put back on the shelves and having plenty of small-ish boxes means you can separate the toys into categories (playdough, dress-ups, barbies, kitchen, etc, etc). I watched something once that said children cope much better with cleaning up and finding things if you use a system.

I'm actually rather proud of my toy-sorting system and boxes (can you tell ). Every mother who comes over comments on it! And I might add, I am actually not that anal about tidying or sorting in general (which you would know if you saw my place!). This just works well for DD.