My kids have too much stuff!!! Help!

Their rooms are full of stuff. Just junk, lots of it! Problem is I don't want to just throw things out. There are toys that were gifts but just don't get played with. Things that I bought for them but they've only shown a cursory interest in. Things that I think might be good in a few years. Etc.

Part of me thinks I could just chuck stuff out. Get in there when DD is at school and be ruthless. Cut back to one box of toys, which she actually plays with.

Storage isn't great in her room. In DS1's it is non-existent. But I need to do something about the clutter.

So what do you do?? With toys that aren't played with but you know have value? With the forty thousand stuffed toys?

Lol about he forty thousand stuffed toys hun! Sorry I can't help, I'm in the same boat, would love to hear what others do. Currently I have bags of stuffed toys in the garage, I refuse to throw them out (too much sentimental value). Plus the ever growing number of toys around the house....clutter everywhere!

Curse you sentimental value!!!! *Shakes fist* :p

I'm a chucker! - If it's causing clutter and therefore stress - it goes! Donating to a charity or needy family means that the item/s are going to do some good for others. If the items actually have decent $$ value - try selling (lots of FB groups for this) but I've found most items sell for a tiny fraction of their RRP second hand and it's not worth the hassle. As for stuffed toys- I just filled several garbage bags and took them to the dump! I loathe them - they take up space and rarely get played with here!

Yes, clutter = stress for me unfortunately. I think I'm a bit of a hoarder like my mother :redface:. Although I know that two much clutter is bad feng shui. I once sold something on ebay for peanuts (I agree with you Amaunet, on ebay you get a small fraction of what it's worth/you paid for) and I ended up packing up loads more in the box as it was going to a school with special needs kids, that made me feel so good. They were looking for a car ramp only ELC sold but theirs broke and they couldn't get it from ELC as they shut shop. Ebay for me is a hassle as well. When I was packing up the box DS was saying 'mummy, what are you doing with this?', so I said it's going to someone else who is smaller than you who will play with it, and he was like 'but I'm still playing with this', lol. Next time I'm doing it in secret haha. I wish I was a chucker! And yes OP, 'curse you sentimental value'!! lol.

I have divided all my kids toys up into tubs. The boys have three tubs: one has their favourite toys that get played with ALL the time, and the rest of their toys are divided into 2 tubs which I rotate through. They get so excited when I get the other tub out.
DD who is going on 7 her toys are down to one tub as she is really starting to grow out of so many toys and more into crafts/drawings/writing.
I have used under their beds for storage too.
When a toy is broken it's thrown out straight away now. As soon as they start growing out of a toy and as long as it is in good/clean condition I donate it.
I have started being ruthless - sadly it's only the thing to do.

I have taken all soft toys into a bag in the shed. I figured if no-one asked about them in 12 months they'd go, but I reckon they've been there at least 2years lol. Out of sight out of mind :D
My kids have al their toys in OSS Ikea drawer/tub thingos. Each type has its own cars/ponies/lalaloopsies etc. each child also has a small random tub where random (:D) stuff goes.
Dd2has a basket for her larger stuff out in the family room. It's getting culled soon.
I tried rotating tubs but it didn't really work for us, so I just got rid of the excess that wasn't played with. We have a great Buy, Swap, Sell local page. I gave up on eBay a long time ago.

When gifts are due (birthdays etc) I try to buy extensions of what we have. Because we live so far away from out families, they usually send money, and my mum was as fussy as me, so she knows how it works.

Lego however is my biggest 'problem'. I have it in every room. Dd2s duplo is stored in a large coffee table drawer. Dd1s friends stuff is stored in a rolling box under her bed. My old stuff is in a large tub and kept separate from DS' new stuff.

I'm not terribly sentimental I don't think. I've kept small but precious stuff in a single box each. My mum just moved out of our house of 30 years and had kept all this 'stuff', for us, but none of us really had any attachment to it after all these years. It was more for her.

I also do rotating boxes. At the moment we have the Kung Zhu hamsters, lego and scalectrix out (ie in the hidey behind the sofa, so within easy reach). Maybe next time we'll have the nanobugs or the railway or the cars... who knows!

We have a lot of lego, so we'll swap around various sets of lego.

I also chuck out a lot. I'll keep the "good" stuff (the duplo, brio, baby play mat, wooden activity cube... - well, we'll have grandchildren some day) and get rid of the cheap plastic stuff to a charity shop. Or the bin, if it's broken. How sentimental can you get over a toy? Yes, a favourite soft toy or some expensive bits of lego/brio, or the odd toy from a now-deceased relative, but the most sentiment I have is over the big items I wanted as a child that I buy for Liebs (the lego and the two-story shed we're getting this summer so Liebs can have an outdoor sleepover!).

Can I ask why the toy is sentimental? Thinking about this may well help you decide if it does need to go or not.

I have two big storage units that we had made specifically for the big blue ikea tubs. It's amazing how much can fit in there! The tubs have specific toys in them, for instance 3 are used for the train stuff, 1 has dress ups etc. i was never very good at rotating stuff so needed something to contain everything! I am good at donating things the boys have moved on from, I do keep some things for the grandchildren too!

when I was a kid, I had a chain hanging from the roof with clips to hang stuffed toys from. I think I am going ti look around for them and get one each for the kids. I am trying to create spaces for toys, and go with things have to fit here, or they go out.

I just did a huge cull. About 1/3 of all their toys are gone including reducing collections (200ish bits of plates, cups and play food to about 50, 19384829 wooden blocks to a small tub of the good stuff, halved the matchbox car collection). Anything that they haven't played with in 6 months is gone. Anything that gets a cursory play and then dumped on the floor is gone. I have pretty much stripped it back to what I consider to be the basics: blocks, trains, cars, toy animals, dolls and clothes, play kitchen, a few favourite stuffed toys and the good quality puzzles. You know what? They didn't notice! Apart from being delighted that I set up the play kitchen in a way that's more user friendly and has had them playing 'cafe' for two weeks solid. They have not asked for one missing thing. And they're actually focused and more organised in their play because they're not wading through stuff and dealing with the distraction of me telling them to pick up.

I planned ahead, listed what I was culling and put ads on freecycle, for things to be picked up on a day that they were away. Anything that didn't go, I took to Vinnies.

I am SO GLAD I did this. No regrets at all, even if some gifts or things I had memories around went in the process. I don't miss any of it and feel so much better about the space we have and the effect it's had on both myself and the kids. Get rid of it Hun. Kids have grown and thrived just fine on the strength of a single rag doll and trees to climb. Your kids will do just fine without the majority of their toys.
xo

Just quickly- I saw a great pin on Pinterest about beanbags filled with stuffed toys.
It's a great storage idea if you don't want to get rid of them.

You have to cull! I am a hoarder too. I have trouble throwing anything out. But I have just had to do it with toys. They get given so much stuff and I just don't want it. I don't think kids need many toys at all. When they start to get too many I notice their behaviour is not as good either. I think they feel as overwhelmed as me. Nothing gets really played with, it's just a mess, and things are not looked after properly. When they have fewer toys, they respect them and find it easier to keep them tidy. So I keep the good quality open ended toys, and everything else gets chucked or donated or sold. I have a box of sentimental stuff that I can't chuck in the garage. And then I make sure everything has a place and is easy for them to find to that they can get it out and put it back themselves easily. When I don't have too much stuff they play better together, they look after their things, they use their imaginations more, and everything stays tidy a lot more often! SO I guess what I'm saying is it's really hard for me to get rid of stuff too but what I do is focus on what I am giving them instead of what I am taking away. And they rarely even notice when something is gone anyway, lol.

Craft stuff on the other hand, don't get me started, I have a whole room of crafty mess that I can't throw out because I might use it for something ROFL.

Box up anything that you really really really can't part with. Toss out anything that is scrappy (you know, the kinder surprise/happy meal kind of junk). Toss out anything that has missing bits that you're sure you can fix/find the missing bit that has been lost in over a year. Don't worry about the sentimental value - if you don't have room, you don't have room!

Anything that you think has value for down the track, box it up. No point in it taking up space now.

Once you start, it's easy. Last time I did it. DD1 actually helped and wasn't bothered by the toss out pile. I do it before Christmas each year.

Expedit units (or whatever the new equivalent is called) from IKEA are sensational. They are a grid. Both my girls have one, they have two baskets in each for smaller toys and larger toys fit into the spaces or on top. It keeps things tidy and the kids can see where everything is. They're cheap to buy as far as furniture goes.

For me it comes very easy to let things go so I don't have much trouble. Each of my kids have a keep storage bag that has things I want to keep (clothes, a pair of shoes, toys). Every 3 months I go through their toys. If I have not seen them play with something in that time we decide if we (the girls are alwas there when I do it) give it to vinnies or we pack it away for the next three months. If I do pack it away and bring it back out for the next 3 month cycle and it still sees no play time it goes. Majority of the time though it sees some action.

Thanks so much guys. I'm off into DS1's room. He just asked me to help him clean it up, so Heaven I think you're right, he's feeling it's a bit out of control too.

I'm going to take a box in for charity donations. Great idea.

TFB: things with sentimental value like that first toy that my cousin gave to DD when she was born. That rainbow echidna that all three of my kids have loved. The first doll i bought DD. That sort of thing.

Going through the same thing. I am getting better at dealing with, but still need to improve.

There is a lady at work who I pass things onto, small clothes, some toy sets etc. I feel better knowing that I am passing it on to someone who will appreciate it.
I still do donate to Charity OP shops. I used to get all worked up about the "what ifs". What if someone bought it for $1 and sold it for $20? That type of thing, but then I realised after talking to a close friend that relies heavily on OP shops, that often it is people like her that will pick up the item and really appreciate it. So that makes me feel better about it al.

Like Kim, these days we try to stick to adding to existing collections in order to stem the tide of stuff.

I have had to learn to let go of my sentimental feeling towards toys as were were drowning in toys and my kids were overwhelmed and would tip everything out. We are moving and had to change their play space into a study so everything had to be packed and sorted. Any broken or toys with parts missing were thrown away. Baby toys were donated and some which they hadn't played with in a long time were culled too probably about half their toys are now gone. Right now all they have is duplo, trains and barbies along with favourite soft toys. We filled two of those big stripy bags with soft toys but will do a cull when unpacking as it's way too many and most are untouched. Think I will do the rotation thing too as they are being much more creative with their play with only a few out.

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!!

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 :)

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? :lol:

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.

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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.

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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 :hiding:

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

Im also a hoarder!!

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!

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.

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.

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 (!!! :lol:). 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

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

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. :lol:

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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.

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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!

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

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.

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.

Wow! Well done OP!

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.

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.

Ooh Ikea...!!! Maybe I could head there today...

I am totally jealous of your ability just to 'head there' today. We have the trofast system. Love it.

Lol Kim the only reason I could is that DD finally went to school, the little one is too sick for playgroup and DH is home because he doesn't have any work on at the moment. Not really good things... But I'll make the most of it!!!!

I saw some good options. I could sort these toys and books out here.

I'll have to look at the Trofast!

I have the Expedit shelf system and seriously love it - we've have this system going for almost 4 years and it keeps everything organised easily :) 3962