okay not even reading all these, We have this problem because I never had toys as a kid, well I did but nto this many! Inlaws constantly bought kids whatever they asked for when younger and the only grand kids, now that they have seven they have reverted to gift cards Lol. It got to where I stopped getting more than one toy at Christmas because of the toy pile! They have been told that I want them to seperate toys to sell... they get to keep most of the money too! I will put some in the Mickey Mouse fund. ( thats our disney trip) We are going to sell videos and dvds too, cheap as possible to get rid of them and still get some cash ! Toys work best though in individual containers for clean up times, becuase then they can only take one type of toy at a time out! if more than one is out, it gets taken away. For a while I did if it was on the floor at night when I came in to tuck them in, I took it to the garage in a box! That worked well when they were younger! NOw they just have to box up what they want to keep for thier own kids some day, or whatever, and sell the ones they are ready to get rid of. DD just asked for a big box to put all her barbies in to save forever in the garage. She said she is not playing with them anymore so it would be best to keep them nice that way. SIGH< SNiff Sniff! Id like to get her a shelf to display some she has 50! Collectable types and playables, so some I want inside especially the one that looks like my mom! she gave it to her. She has collected all teh Disney princesses and some fo the princes. Since her room is Princess style I think those would be good to display somehow as part of the decore... Okay I am rambling on now HHAHAHA!
My kids have WAY too many... daddy won't let me get rid of them... so I have to "sneak" and get rid of a few at a time.
I remember the good ol' days, stepping on Legos in the middle of the night, tripping over toys all the way to the kitchen. :lol: We put the toys in Rubbermaid containers to deal with the situation. Embrace the painful injuries from stepping on toys. My kids are teens now and instead of buying Rubbermaid containers for storage............................ We had to build on another 2 car garage to store their BIG BOY toys~CARS and TRUCKS the real kind, the kind that you drive. Enjoy them when they are younger, their toys just keep get more expensive as they get older. :lol:
Here's one mom's answer to toy clutter. DH and I require that before any birthday or Christmas, all toys are sorted into sell/keep piles. Also, my taking away any toys that aren't cleaned up by whatever alloted time helps curb the clutter a little, too (not that I take many, but even one a week helps).
Well, I didn't read all the responses. I throw toys away or get rid of old toys when my kids are not around. (well, when my older two were smaller that is what I did, at 8 and 10, they would know if something was missing. lol) Anyway, my kids are also required to take a garbage bag in their rooms once a week on garbage day and get rid of any junk, old broken toys, puzzles or games with missing pieces, or any "parts" of toys they no longer have. I just started doing that. It is way better than taking garbage bags of junk out of their room and basement once or twice a year. My kids are pretty good at getting rid of old things or finding a place for misplaced things they want to keep. They also know I will throw away anything I deem unworthy of being in the house. LOL. Yet, there are a few things I am more sentimental about. lol.
lol, I hear ya on that one, but let me tell you they do finally grow out of it! My dd was a paper scraper up to about 6 months ago , she is now seeing how much work goes into keeping track of the papers, My suggestion is to get a cute looking box, photo box like only bigger, they are e very where in office sections of stores. Have your dd's or sons if the case, seperate the special stuff from the gotta go cause its torn or not AS special and keep them in the "paper box" . I did this with my dd and my ds, it worked! They think twice while cleaning up rooms and put important stuff in there and trash the unimportant stuff. Its actually a lesson in organisation that will stay with them forever, even if I CANT spell it!
