I had a massive cull about a year ago. My friends were horrified that I got rid of four binbags full of toys either for the dump, or for the op shop. But do you know what, my kids were never bored or lacking in toys. I just picked carefully the toys that could be used for a million different things and kept only them.

Now we have emigrated to Australia I have only the few toys we could fit in our luggage, plus a few wee things that we have bought since then. I am actually dreading all the rest of our stuff arriving and plan to cull most of it before the kids see it. From my own experience many toys limit imagination and it is only by removing them we set our children free.