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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 03 2008 at 5:22pm | IP Logged
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OK-
So there are the very favorite toys- the ones that get played with over and over, day in, day out. They never wane in popularity; the kids always have them out.
Then there are all the rest. The "sometimes" toys, the "minor run" toys (popular for a few days or weeks but no real lasting power), the "OK for awhile if they have been hidden in a closet for 6 months and just taken out" toys... all the "lesser knowns" and "has been" toys, the toys they might be interested in later, the toys that were neat presents from dear relatives but the kids never looked at...
Has anyone dug in her heels and just kept the tried and true toys? Given away all (ALL) of the has beens and lesser knowns?
I can only imagine how liberating and space-freeing that must be. But are there regrets down the road? And how long do you keep a toy thinking the kids might play with it later? A really neat toy that isn't being played with is so sad to me.
I feel as if, despite my best intentions, I still can't predict very well which toy will be a big hit and which will gather dust. I"ll think: oh, ds would love that! and then find the reality is the opposite. Maybe I'm subconsciously judging the toys based on what *I* would like to play with.
But, anyway, I have purged a lot lately and want to go a step further... weed out more deadbeats. Any thoughts?
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Philothea
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| Posted: April 03 2008 at 7:54pm | IP Logged
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Watching this thread intently. I have considered the same thing.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 03 2008 at 8:03pm | IP Logged
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I have gotten rid of many, many toys lately and are pretty much down to essentials:the blocks (several different sets), the train set, the cars, the puppets, puzzles, and the toy kitchen are the biggies. I also have a few things put away to rotate out to keep interest and save space: a farm set, more puzzles, and such.
Other than that it is just a few odds and ends here and there, and school stuff. The kids absolutely do not seem to miss the rest of it. And hopefully some other child is giving them a happy home!LOL!
BUT this applies only to the younger three. Superboy is a complete pack rat and it is like pulling teeth to get him to part with anything! But give me time and I am determined that I will get the job done!LOL!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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missionfamily
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| Posted: April 03 2008 at 8:55pm | IP Logged
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Okay--I'm probably far from total pare down, but we have diminished alot lately. And my decision has been to focus on a certain type of toys for a certain age range...for baby toys I kept wooden teething and grasping toys and soft dolls (mostly made from knotted blankets).
For crawlers and early walkers, I am focusing on soft balls and pushing/pulling toys.
For toddlers, I am collecting wooden food and cooking play and large wooden blocks.
For preschool, a really great dress-up collection and wooden train set.
And for preschool up, great scene-bulding toys...we have all shapes and sorts of wooden clothes pins and men, Lincoln logs, animals, people, cars,legos, and playmobil and Schleich collections.
Each item has a basket and I will not collect any more than will fit in the basket with the exception of a child growing older and continuing to collect something of his own accord.
There is a baby/toddler toy bookshelf with baskets, a preschool shelf with plastic buckets, and a storage unit with nine wicker baskets for the older kids stuff.
After the pare down, there is an empty shelf in each and three empty baskets in the storage cabinet.
The open space is so wonderful...on a rainy day last week, I even let them ride scooters in the play room!
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Colleen
dh Greg
mom to Quinn,Gabriel, Brendan,Evan, Kolbe, and sweet St. Bryce
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CAgirl4God
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 3:22am | IP Logged
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we pared down before this move...
we have a couple of smaller baskets with 'for now toys' in them. they don't last long.
I get rid of them when I see the interest drop.
every once in a while I will store a toy... like I do for some 'baby' toys....but our tried and true take up most of the kid's time... lol.
I love purging!!!
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LucyP
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 4:35am | IP Logged
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It's painful to get rid of toys that you know are "nice" - my sister bought DD a nice wooden chicken that you hammered balls through and they rolled out and rung a bell. It was a nice, good quality toy. But DD and DS were both bored of it. They would roll the wooden balls around and that was it - there was no potential for any extension of the toy beyond just hammering balls. So we kept the balls and threw the chicken away. It felt so brave!
I do get rid of the toys that don't make a difference to my little ones. That's it. I would like to pare down more. The wooden blocks are seldom played with - maybe once a fortnight to build towers to knock down. That will be the next thing to go.
I tend to remove toys when the children are sleeping, and then store them for a month - if our son doesn't ask where it is I move it on. It is hard to watch our money or our relatives' money being "burnt" but we use it to help us stop buying more stuff, and we do warn relatives. We have said NO MORE SOFT TOYS and if they keep coming, they keep quietly leaving by the back door to the charity shop.
Space, space, space! My children get overwhelmed with too many choices to make. They just dump everything out and leave it.
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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 10:30am | IP Logged
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This is all such good food for thought.
I can't help but wonder what makes a game like "Don't Break the Ice" so enduring (I mean- it takes longer to set up than to play! And there is no hope of any type of extension play with it) while something like a really nice wooden ferry boat with ramps and cars and wooden people collects dust.
Do I keep the ferry boat? It has so much potential...
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Michaela
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 11:10am | IP Logged
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There was another thread that I mentioned that I got rid of EVERYTHING.
My boys were awful about cleaning up their toys. Just walking into their room would cause serious damage to anything on the floor. I got serious, and decided that if they care for the toy it wouldn't be on the floor. (..and just because it was on the floor doesn't mean they were playing with the toys...they had to dump several toy boxes to find that ONE  piece)
Any way, they have the very basics now....their legos are the most important toy(s), action figures, and some vehicles. That's all that they really played with.
My dd is different. We've actually increased toys for her. Since the birth of our little one, Olivia has taken a great interest in baby dolls...and has a lot. Puzzles, tea party/make believe fun...there's enough.
My focus has been to increase their outdoor fun to get them more active. Jump ropes, hockey and soccer equipment, bikes, skates, chalk, tree swings....
Very little toys with all the latest bells and whistles...and batteries.
We won't make the greatest house to come to for a playdate, but at least my home is in control now that I can actually have one.   That's the only negative....I wonder how their friends will feel..."Is that all you have?" kinda thing. Oh well. My boys are even happier....they can independently clean their room in minutes instead of hours.
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Michaela
Momma to Nicholas 16, Nathan 13, Olivia 13, Teresa 6, & Anthony 3
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Philothea
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 1:41pm | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
I have gotten rid of many, many toys lately and are pretty much down to essentials:the blocks (several different sets), the train set, the cars, the puppets, puzzles, and the toy kitchen are the biggies. I also have a few things put away to rotate out to keep interest and save space: a farm set, more puzzles, and such.
Other than that it is just a few odds and ends here and there, and school stuff. The kids absolutely do not seem to miss the rest of it. And hopefully some other child is giving them a happy home!LOL!
BUT this applies only to the younger three. Superboy is a complete pack rat and it is like pulling teeth to get him to part with anything! But give me time and I am determined that I will get the job done!LOL! |
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That's all I have, and I feel like it's too much .... it just doesn't all get played with! Every once in a great while my older son plays with the Legos or blocks .... but it is pretty rare. Yet I WANT him to play with these things, so I keep them around.
If I got rid of everything but his matchbox cars and trucks, pretend tool set, kitchen, music equipment, playdoh and art stuff, books, and outdoor toys (i.e. the stuff he actually uses regularly), he'd definitely notice and protest.
But he doesn't play with the other stuff! I have bins full of Legos and blocks and puzzles and train tracks and marble runs and even Playmobil (though he's been getting more into those lately) that sit untouched.
Should I give it more time? I am noting as I look at this list that it's the stuff that requires a lot of fine motor skill that he's not using. Maybe keep it, but put it all away until he's a little older so he doesn't get frustrated and develop negative associations with these toys?
Thoughts?
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 2:11pm | IP Logged
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My oldest wasn't very good at fine motor skills, so he hardly played with legos and building type stuff. He goes for balls, costumes, and books on tape. But my next two love lincolns logs, legos, train tracks, etc. So he may grow into it or he may not be interested at all!
We don't keep a lot of toys - I have Theresa's list plus Lincoln Logs. But enough to keep them interested, enough to be able to put away quickly and neatly, and enough for friends to play too.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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Lauri B
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 2:22pm | IP Logged
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I always put toys away for a season - just before the Christmas tree goes up, just before summer, just before school, etc. are great times to do it. The kids always loved bringing out the old toys after a season! The same goes for clothes - it feels like getting a new wardrobe when I bring out the little box of summer clothes.
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Topic: The pecking order of toys
