toys toys everywhere

Gena - posted on 01/03/2011

In my house, when you get a new one you give a old one away. I do this for myself too, when I buy a new shirt, I give an old one away. God has blessed us so we should share our blessings.

Jess - posted on 12/29/2010

Ava's toys aren't taking over the house, but they aren't far from it. She has toys in her bedroom, the lounge room, the back patio, her dads house, her grandparents house, and a toy room here at our house. I cant bring myself to get rid of any of them !

Alexis - posted on 12/28/2010

My sister in law is like that with her only 2yr old girl. They moved into a house to make more room and give the little girl a play room. Now her playroom is the large dining room (the size of most living rooms) and all walls have toys on them as well as 6 large bins in the middle of the room overfull of toys. Even with this the living room is always covered with toys and so is my nieces bedroom. We won't even get started with the backyard! She has multiples of everything and anytime anybody wants to get her something for the holidays or her birthday we can't because she already has it. She only plays with a select few toys and most just get thrown about or stay in the bins unused. My son (16months) has enough toys to fit on the bottom two shelves of a book shelf in his room. He has a few riding toys that stay on the patio and some giant stuffed animals on his bed. I can put all of his toys away in his room and on the patio in an organized fashion without any spilling over into other rooms. For Christmas we went through and boxed up all toys that he had outgrown\broken or he did not play with. Some we gave to charity or threw out and some we are keeping for when we have our 2nd child. How many kids does your friend have? I think sometimes with the first child parents can go overboard with the high of a new baby and not notice how much they have acquired until later. Maybe they also have an issue with letting stuff go and so it just accumulates without ever getting rid of anything.

Danielle - posted on 12/26/2010

Our son's toys stay in his room (or if they're outside toys, then outside). He can bring them out during the day, but we always put them up (he likes "helping" when it's clean-up time). However he does have a BUTT-LOAD of them (I literally have a pathway to his bed/changing station (which is on one wall) and a pathway to his closet). I have considered packing up some he doesn't play with, but he seems to pull out different ones everyday, so...idk what we're gonna do when Abigail gets here (in March)! The only toys we have been able to put up are the baby ones such as rattles/teething rings, crawl balls, etc-and even those are staying in the top of the closet until Abby get's here then they will prob come down again lol. Our kids are sharing a room until we build our house, then they will each have their own room so hopefully this will help :-)

Amber - posted on 12/26/2010

wow!. well for some reason i feel like im always getting rid of toys and it always seems as if she has more than she did before i got rid of them. to avoid toy overflow though i'll get rid of toys i see she has no interest in anymore.

Shontae - posted on 12/24/2010

My girls used to have alot of toys. So many toys they didnt even play with them all, some still in brand new conditions. So every year, right after school lets out for the summer, the girls and I go through all their toys and they decide what they'd like to get rid of; we pack them up and donate them to a thrift store here on base that's free for families. I couldnt imagine having a house full of toys. It would drive me bananas!

Meghan - posted on 12/24/2010

The only good thing about them is it makes for GREAT clean up practise :)

Sapphire - posted on 12/24/2010

I admit we have a lot of toys as well, and it's just one kid! He's downright spoiled by several grandparents and I have a friend who passes things down to me. But, every now and then I get inot a cleaning kick and gather up stuff to sell/donate. I just sold a bunch of toddler stuff, tricycle, and lego table this morning from Craigslist for $25. I have to get to the toyroom soon to organize but it's also my husband & son's job to help too. 6 weeks from now is my son's b-day and he'll be getting more stuff.

Good Day! - posted on 12/24/2010

Meghan...Eliza just got her first Lego set from my aunt for Christmas...arrgghhh!!! I'm debating on if I'm going to let her play with it or not. I probably will, but I'm not looking forward to having all the pieces everywhere.

Meghan - posted on 12/23/2010

J has soooo many toys. I just went though all of them and donated the ones he never plays with to a local woman's shelter.
It's all the toys that have like 900 pieces...lego, kitchen food, mr potato head-who makes these things?

Anika - posted on 12/23/2010

My parents are packrats so that scenario in the OP is my nightmare! I have some stackable containers for my daughter's toys and then she has 2 shelves in the bookcase in the lounge for the toys she's currently playing with and some board books. All her other books are in her room because she's too rough with them (she's 14 months). I'm very careful with the toys that I buy her (e.g, she has only 3 books that make a noise for example. and I didn't buy any of them. Evil fucking things) so most of them she'll hopefully be able to play with for quite awhile. She is the only grandchild with 3 sets of grandparents though so I am worried about this xmas. Her birthday wasn't too bad but I don't see it getting any better with time because it doesn't look like she'll be getting any cousins any time soon.

Stifler's - posted on 12/23/2010

we have so many toys, i purchased none of them. people are always bringing over new toys and their kids old toys for logan. it's great. i love the toys in the house, it makes it feel like a baby lives here.

Kathy - posted on 12/23/2010

AS a mum who's been through it all (and come out the other side!) I have to say, the best toys ever are boxes! Especially big ones - kids have so much fun! So next time you buy a new TV, washing machine etc, keep the box!

And the good thing - you can throw the other toys in them when the kids go to bed - it's an easy way to tidy up!

Sherri - posted on 12/23/2010

We go through and weed out right before birthdays and Christmas.

Shannen - posted on 12/23/2010

All toys in our house are stored in the kids bedrooms. They have a toybox that they all share and then they each have a set of big draws for their special toys. They bring them out and at times our house gets over run with them but they know to pick them up or will throw them out (charity).

Julianne - posted on 12/23/2010

Gabby has a toy box in the living room. When i get new ones, i take the old ones away. That way i don't get overwhelmed. If it doesnt fit in the toybox in my living room. It gets chucked(to charity of course). Her room has her teddys and books, any toys that will fit on the shelves or in the toy box there, stay. Just keep a steady flow of toys coming and going.

Jodi - posted on 12/23/2010

My daughter's toys have taken over. I'm hiding quivering in a cupboard right now plotting how I can take back my home.....it is scary. I am pretty sure Mattell has implanted the Barbie doll with some sort of takeover microchip. She is everywhere. HELP!!!!



Seriously though, I am in the process of filling charity bags as we speak. There will be no room for the next influx if I don't. I tried not to buy too many toys for Christmas, but I finished wrapping last night, and I swear, I need to listen to myself more often.

Candi - posted on 12/23/2010

we have too many toys. My daughter plays with all of them depending on her mood. I have 3 kids aged 11, 10, and 5. Tthe older 2 don't play with toys anymore and since the 5 yr old has so may already, we decided not to buy any toys for Christmas this year. Wew will slowly get rid of them as they break or she outgrows them

Amanda - posted on 12/23/2010

Wow! Lol...we have 4 children and I also do inhome daycare, and I have the back half of our house set up as the playroom, the arts/crafts room, and my 3 daughters 2 bedrooms. My 2 younger girls share a room, and my oldest daughter has her own room. The toys are put in toy boxes or toy chests after they are done playing with them, and in the arts and crafts room we have totes, and cupboards labeled so they know where to put things when they're done. The front living room is my fiance and mines room. Toys aren't allowed up here. They usually bring a toy or 2 up front to show us something than take it back to the back. My sons room and our room is up at the front of the house, and his room has toys but they typically stay in there. I think it's absolutley unneccassary to have toys all over the house. When my kids were younger they had a small basket of toys in the living room, but now since we have the back of the house set up for them, they have no need to bring toys up front.

Teresa - posted on 12/23/2010

Toys kind of overtake our house, but that's cuz it's so small. The girls don't really have many 'toys' anymore, but w/ them it's art supplies, books, etc.... everywhere. My son doesn't have his own room, so his toys go on our 4 bottom bookshelves in the living room.... obviously they get everywhere at times. ;)

Kate CP - posted on 12/23/2010

I don't see the purpose in having so many toys, honestly. The kids just get overwhelmed by them and make a huge mess. My daughter has a basket of stuffed animals, a play kitchen with fake food and cooking utensils and dishes, art supplies (not where she can readily reach them because she likes to paint on the walls), and some toys like dump trucks and a doll house, etc. Definitely not enough to take over the house, though. :/

Good Day! - posted on 12/23/2010

My daughter has two baskets on the bottom shelve of the my bookcase in the living room. One is for books, the other for toys. The rest of her toys must either fit into her closet or baby doll cradle (except the kitchen).

Like everyone else, we go through toys before every Christmas and birthday. I actually put them into storage. If we didn't have space for that, we'd just get rid of it all. After baby number 2, we'll start getting rid of stuff.

Amber - posted on 12/23/2010

We go through the toys 1-2 times per year and get rid of half to charities. We have family and friends all over the country who don't see him often, so they like to send him little things to let him know they are thinking of him. I'd much rather they saved those gifts and paid for swim lessons or soccer, but it is what it is.

We allow him to keep some of the smaller toys in his bedroom. All the big toys are in the informal living room downstairs, as well as a toy box with small toys. I don't mind if he drags toys out into the upstairs living room, but he has to take them back to his room at night.

I just have to keep donating every year, because I couldn't handle it if my house were like that! All that clutter would drive me batty.

Meghan - posted on 12/23/2010

if it doesn't fit im my daughters room then we dont get it, with the exclusion of outdoor toys she gets a corner of the garage for those as well...ever year before Christmas and her birthday we make a "goodwill" box to fill up with the toys she never plays with and take it down to the local charity center or homeless shelter.

Caitlin - posted on 12/23/2010

We have SO MANY toys.. Since my girls are young, I rotate them every few months, when I feel the toys need updating. The rarely used ones go downstairs into a big rubbermaid container or in the corner if they are too big for there. Even though I request fewer toys, I still get a ton, so I make do. I either give them away or put them downstairs. Since we are planning a third, We are sticking with toys that are safe to have around babies for a while, because they are too young to undertand choking hazards and I'm paranoid of course. Once they are older, we will have to separate the toys for the most part as they will have different interests, then we will sort them more, but now we have an awesome toy storage I dump things in (like a drawer system with plastic bins) and that makes cleanup a breeze (considering getting a 25 month old to help is almost impossible..)

Krista - posted on 12/23/2010

That's absolutely nutso!



We're pretty lucky so far for toys -- he's still at the age where we can hide a bunch of them away and do a rotation every so often. Plus, my family has had the law laid down with them as far as gift-giving goes and know to not go nuts with buying him toys. For Christmas this year, Mom is getting him one smaller toy, and is making a contribution to his RESP. Perfect.



I imagine it'll get more difficult as he gets older and more opinionated, or once we introduce another child into the mix.



For now, we keep all of his toys on the two bottom shelves of our bookshelf in the living room, all in those square cloth cubby bins. The bins make it easier to corral the little toys like the Duplo or the balls. And they make it much easier to clean up -- grab a bin, go around the living room and start chucking stuff into it.



The only toy of his that isn't on those shelves is his toy grocery cart. And that fits fine under our TV (our TV is mounted up on the wall, so underneath it was dead space anyway.)



Once Sam gets older and we get his change table out of his bedroom, we'll put most of his toys up there, and will keep a few toys for him downstairs in the living room.



My plan is to for each kid to have one shelf on the bookcase for "living room" toys, and to then have a toybox in their bedroom. And if they start getting so many toys that they don't fit in the toybox, then they have to help Mommy go through the toys and decide what to give away to the kids' hospital (if in good shape), or the dump (if broken).



I agree that some people go nuts with the toys. My sister's rec room was just a shambles -- the entire room was overtaken with toys, to the point where the kids didn't even know what they HAD. One year for his birthday, Matt got a big Spider-Man figurine. He said, "Oh, I wanted one of these!" His brother said, "Matthew, you HAVE one of those!" We rummaged around the room, and found not one of them, but TWO of them.

LaCi - posted on 12/23/2010

I have to go through his toys and get rid of half every birthday and every christmas, because over the course of each six month period my house starts to look like that. Unfortunately I'm kind of at a loss right now, because I can't think of any toys he currently has that he doesn't enjoy. :/ It was easier with baby toys, because he outgrew them so quickly.