My kids have too much stuff!!! Help!

[MummyNaomi]

We have a very organised playroom (anal Mummy ) and we also regularly get rid of things that are grown out of / no longer played with. Anything broken gets chucked. We usually pass on toys to friends with younger children who will play with the 'grown out of by us' stuff. I enjoy passing it on and its nice to know the kids that will play with it, and its just not worth the effort to sell individually in my opinion.

For storage we have a heap of expedit shelving and storage containers in the playroom, and a few miniature wheely bins for all the train tracks etc. The only toys in bedrooms is DSs Lego so DD doesn't smash it. Otherwise the bedrooms would get overrun. I highly recommend (assuming you have the space) to have a dedicated toy area!

However I am going to sell all our no longer needed stuff in one go in about 6 months. We have a heaps of stuff boxed up in the garage/roof space/DDs wardrobe as as soon as I have finished with DDs highchair/cot/change table I am going to get a market stall at one of our kids markets, take it all there (no longer used baby stuff/breast pump/monitors/jumperoo/baby furniture etc and whatever toys are no longer needed and just sell it dirt cheap to get rid of it all. If I have anything left I will take it to a charity shop on the way home and come home empty handed!!

[~me~]

I culled right after Christmas. Kids got toys they simply do not need, so I took those out of sight and put them away.
I had a day off, kids were out, DH was not home.

I piled all the toys up that they had not played with and the brand new toys that they were given at Christmas and gave them to a local charity called The Welcome West Wagon. They help refugees who have just been released from detention into the community. They move into a house with nothing and the Welcome West Wagon help them get started.

I had two green waste garbage bags full and also some loose, including books. I was pretty ruthless and kept some toys that had sentimental value.

The lady came and picked them up and sent me a message later that week about the family who got them. It was so nice to hear how the family who got them were so excited and even more so that some of the toys were either brand new or virtually brand new.

Pay if forward

[AnyDream]

Lovely idea, H.

I like your idea of whipping away the new, surplus toys before they get played with/form attachments to. We are pretty selective about the toys we give our kids but from the rellos it's a never ending tide of crap.

Do I sound ungrateful?

I containerised all dd's toys into those big plastic drawers (from big w) and labelled them. The process made me think about what toys dd plays with & how she plays with them. I kept one drawer for the random toys, so that one gets cleaned out the most. But DD is 6 and she still enjoys playing with stuff like dolls, wooden trains, and blocks (which get used in a variety of weird & wonderful ways) so I'm not about to get rid of those just yet.

Re sentimental items: I have ONE (and one only) small tub for each of my girls with a few of the most treasured things). That's it.

If you're worried you might get rid of something your child really wants/loves, you can always try a 2 step process. Step 1 - place toys in a large tub out of sight (eg in garage). Step 2 - if kid has not looked or asked for those particular things after 6 months, they go straight to charity. Then you fill the tub again and so on, twice every year.

ETA - my other hot tip is that often the worst clutter isn't even toys - it's all the other random stuff, like hair clips, extra hats, stray socks, half-coloured in coloring books, packets of pencils & party bag bits, household stuff like the tissue box that was Teddy's car for a few days, play money, things they were using for dressups that aren't dressups, bit of "treasure" they've found etc. So focus on that as a category to clear out too.

[Astrid]

ETA - my other hot tip is that often the worst clutter isn't even toys - it's all the other random stuff, like hair clips, extra hats, stray socks, half-coloured in coloring books, packets of pencils & party bag bits, household stuff like the tissue box that was Teddy's car for a few days, play money, things they were using for dressups that aren't dressups, bit of "treasure" they've found etc. So focus on that as a category to clear out too.

Oh yes this. Amazing how much of that stuff there is! I set up small containers/boxes so I can sort that stuff easily as I am going through the rooms.
I was finding small things stuffed into small bags or tins, stuffed into larger bags, stuffed into boxes, on shelves etc
I have tasked DH to organise the girls to deal with their bedside drawers. I opened them and panicked

[Mum2SweetCs]

Subbing
I have a room up to the ceiling with toys.

Im also a hoarder!!

[OceanPrincess]

Well - we have started!!! Full report tomorrow!

Let's just say the difference in my big two becomes apparent yet again - DS1 lets me do my thing, doesn't even care what I toss, as long as its not his tools or his octonauts!!!

DD is a pack rat hoarder and cried anytime I suggested throwing something out!!!

Sigh!

[~Kim~]

Colouring books! Argh aren't they awful? I got rid of them ages ago and they never even noticed.

OP sadly sometimes you have to 'just do it'. I find school hours the most productive time often they are so excited to see what's been 'found' that they forget about their losses.

[black_rose]

Yep I have to do it with the kids out of the house especially dd2 as she is a pack rat and collects all things broken, colourful and rubbish they are all her treasures not one thing can go! I do explain that we are donating toys to children who need them but can't do the sorting and throwing bit with them around.

[AnyDream]

My oldest DD is also a pack rat & for many years I would head into her room with a plastic bag after she went to school, just to retrieve all the random stuff and junk. And she had lots of it, incl lolly wrappers she had found, screwed up & torn drawings, she even went through a stage when she was "collecting" beer bottle caps... Even though no one in our house drinks beer (!!! ). She would keep it stuffed in a million different places, so I would just go through and sift some of it out, chuck it in the bin. And she never once noticed that any of her "treasure" was gone. LOL

[black_rose]

Dd has a container of beer bottle caps in her collection right now she loves finding a new one!

[OceanPrincess]

Another prodcuctive day.

Our totals so far:
Rubbish - 5 garbage bags
OP shop/charity - 4 bags
Keep for me - 1 bag
Nappies to go to Project Uplift - 1 massive bag (google if you're interested in what Project Uplift is...)

Plus random toys and baby bits that I'm now going to try and sell. Nappies, bouncer, an aquarium...

The boys rooms are done. It is just DD's room that I need to finish.

In cleaning out DS2's wardrobe I found shoes for DS1 that I bought on sale, for him in future. He's in that size now. Lucky I found them!!!!

DS1 is down to one toy bin, one box of tools and some bigger toys in his shelves.
DS2 is down to one toy bin.

DD still has stuff. She was sick today so I didn't want to get in there and upset her. I need to do her cupboard shelves and her toy bin. But we filled two massive bags of toys to go to the op shop. Win.

I feel like we are making progress. I've been ruthless. I think.

[OceanPrincess]

Colouring books! Argh aren't they awful? I got rid of them ages ago and they never even noticed.

OP sadly sometimes you have to 'just do it'. I find school hours the most productive time often they are so excited to see what's been 'found' that they forget about their losses.

Just saw this - omg yes we have so many colouring books!!!! I think that's my next thing to cull.

And the boys have been great with their "new" toys. I relocated a wooden car garage thing (where you can whizz cars up and down, use the lift or the roads etc) and a fisher price thing that has these five cogs that all work together when you press a button. Miraculously we still have all the cogs! Anyway I moved these two big things out into the lounge room and the boys are loving playing with them! They were in DS1's room and just didn't get touched.

I'm quite amazed really!

[~Kim~]

Wow that's a fair effort! Well done OP!!

[Mum2SweetCs]

Hey op
Just a note on the op shop charity. Last time i did a cull i had 5 bags full of toys. Alot were fairly new.

The guy at my local st vinnies told me to either sort out all the new ones or take all of it back!!

Yep thats how rude he was. I was fuming as i had dd2 screaming in the car too.

So i told him if i can just chuck them in the bin and he told me off that their bins cost money and i had to bring everything back.

Sorry off topic/rant.

[~Kim~]

Really that's horrendous!
Though in the last town we lived in Vinnies were exactly the same. They had lots of rules, so I used to just take it to the Salvos, or the local Women's shelter.

[Heaven]

Wow! Well done OP!

[Rowellen]

Just on the sentimental side of things... you don't need to keep the item. Take a photo instead. I've been doing this as I have a rather small house & just don't have the room for any excess. Toys and artwork. Take a photo, toss it out or donate. You can still take a trip down memory lane but you save yourself a heap of boxes to store and move from house to house.

And please do me a favour. If you want to keep any "for the grandkids", keep it for yourself for use at your own home rather than for giving to your children and cluttering up theirs. They won't appreciate it and their partners will probably resent it. In my experience as a DIL!

Great job OP!

ETA: I have one box of items for each kid that I have kept that are special to me. They are "for the kids" but I don't kid myself that they are really for me. I put things in there that I want to keep for me. Like mother's day cards and artwork, their fancy birth certificate, baby handprints and footprints. I expect it will be nice to go through with them when they are older but I have no intention of ever giving it to them to keep unless they specifically want it.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I need to cull a lot more (especially arty crafty things form kinder / school) but I find some items hard.
I did however go through some stuff yesterday and bag up toys not played with to go to charity, took some old paper etc from the craft desk to school and gave some Dora stuff away to a little sister of a kid at school, today I might just bag up all the Dora DVD's and palm them off too and whatever doesn't work or they have they can throw or give to someone.

I really need to cull the toy room or find a better storage solution (thinking ikea) so everything is a bit more stream lined, easier to pack up and use etc.