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View Full Version : too many toys a bad thing?



neeleymartin
01-24-2009, 11:14 PM
i have such an issue with toys. ds has all the toys he could ever want. as i look around the living room it makes me want to puke. SO MUCH STUFF!! about 8mos ago we decided to seperate the toys into 4 large bins. 3 bins are in the basement and one of the bins of toys (less the bin) is in our living room. worked for a while, but the toys are getting bigger with age.

i am noticing that ds flits around from toy to toy, never staying at one for too long. too many choices perhaps. when we visit the library, where they have a train table and basically that's it, he plays there for a very long time.

should i narrow down his option for toys? maybe put more in the basement, and let him shop and trade once in a while (maybe once a week or so). have you gone both routes (more toys AND less toys) and what's your experience? tia

SnuggleBuggles
01-24-2009, 11:25 PM
We rotate toys here. I have a basement as well as a walk in closet that we use for toy and game storage. We let him go through them every so often or trade what he has out. It has worked really well. It's nice for him to get back in touch with toys that he had not played with in a while.

I don't really see it as a bad thing to have a lot of toys if they get played with, even if they flit around. I think that is a legitimate playing style. There is a line for every family though. As time has gone on I notice that there are a few keepers for ds1. Rather than misc. toys for him he likes to have sets of things (Geotrax, Little People, Matchbox...). Of course, nowadays I bet I could get rid of all but his Legos, board games and books and he would only protest a tiny bit. The baby though is having a blast playing with all of our old toys.

Beth

Melaine
01-24-2009, 11:32 PM
I think about this a lot. I am such a shopper, I tend to buy toys often for my kids and go overboard quantity wise (while still getting tons of "deals").
We definitely rotate toys here, and that does work well. We have several big containers of toys in the attic and they have been up there since before Christmas. Soon I will probably switch them out with some of the newer things they got as gifts.
I think it depends on the child, and their age as to whether they can have too many toys.
DH and I have talked about the girls possibly having mild sensory issues. They are incredibly sensitive and they seem to be much calmer when everything is neat and clean and their surroundings are simple. They are more likely to actually enjoy their blocks if all the books and dolls are put away on the shelf. But they are only 2. I think older children might be more likely to build a tower with the blocks and incorporate the cars and dolls into their imagined scene, ykwim?
If a toy isn't getting any love, though, I sell it on Craigslist. I don't clutter up our home with stuff they aren't using at all (unless I really really like it myself!;))

s7714
01-25-2009, 01:12 AM
I definitely notice that whenever we pare down my DDs toys in their playroom prior to a party or company visiting, they tend to suddenly play a lot more with things than when there's just mass quantities of toys. I think they're literally just so overwhelmed by all the stuff they had no idea what to play with at times.

I made it a point to not bring back in a large percentage of the toys I cleaned out at Christmas time (to make space for our tree), and I've been really happy with the results. It takes far less time to put toys away, because everything has a place. And my DDs are actually playing with a lot more of the toys because they can see each thing individually vs. just a mountainous heap.

egoldber
01-25-2009, 10:04 AM
I think it is definitely possible to have too many toys. I know we do. I am trying soooo hard to cut back. I do rotate (but not very efficiently) but even then, there is really only a handful of things that the girls really play with consistently: dress up, art supplies, dolls, a few favorite stuffed animals, small figures and (for Sarah) computer games. They like building blocks, etc. but not as much as the other things.

I have cut way back on what I have bought for the last several birthdays and holidays and it has made such a big difference in the clutter level in our home. I also pretty ruthlessly purged toys about 6 months ago and the kids have not missed a single thing that I got rid of.

I really think that less is more when it comes to toys. I still get the itch when I see people extolling the virtues of something new and cool, and while it is cool, I ask myself do my kids REALLY need it. KWIM?

firsttimemama
01-25-2009, 10:22 AM
I'm struggling with this right now. Maybe I should go for the rotating option - every time I try to figure out what to get rid of, I can't. He plays with everything a little and it's like I can't decide what to get rid of...

Melaine
01-25-2009, 10:27 AM
Rotation is definitely helpful. It's like having "new" toys whenever things get boring. If we had an easier to access storage space I would be in heaven!

brittone2
01-25-2009, 12:53 PM
Yep. We rotate. We still have too much out. I miss the days of one DC when we had far less stuff (intentionally). With two kids, more and more stuff has come into the house.

We try to do a big toy roundup at least 2x a year if not more where we donate a bunch of stuff. I always plan one for October/November to make room for new Christmas stuff.

I also don't buy that much for holidays, birthdays, etc. but we homeschool, so we have a bunch of fun stuff for that (manipulatives, etc.) and it adds up. I also rarely buy toys when it isn't a holiday/birthday, but we still have too much (mostly gifts from the ILs, etc.).

Globetrotter
01-25-2009, 02:29 PM
We have a lot of toys, too, but I've pared them down to stuff that can be played with in an open-ended way, like Playmobil, Lego, board games, puzzles, blocks, play kitchen, garage, groovy girls, Ello, art supplies, bead sets and craft kits (we have WAY too many given as gifts!!! I practically have beads coming out of my ears :wink2:), etc...

My kids actually DO play with almost (if not all) everything they own, though they have way too many craft kits. They are organized in such a way that they can be accessed easily, and for us that is critical. How would they play with them if they were jumbled into a heap, no?

To get to this point, we've had almost all no-gift parties for the past four years and I have mentioned to friends that our kids have too many toys so I'm trying to cut back (to discourage them from buying more!). Our relatives mostly give us money that I use to buy what I want for the kids (then we say it's from so and so). I'm also a shopper so this works out well as I get everything at a discount!

We also have a lot of books, but IMO you can never have too many IF they are read (and they are!). If someone ever asks me what to give the kids, I say books because that's one thing that will be used (almost) no matter what!

The Review Mommy
01-26-2009, 02:34 PM
See the picture attachment below...

We have 2 Ikea LACK bookcases we bought for $69.99 each a couple saturdays ago. I LOVE it. I was going to get the expedit but glad I went with a shelf over cubbies. They play well along the shelf, easy for them to see everthing and I have rotated the toys. My house has a lot less clean up as they can play at the bookcase. I still get the wandering toy here and there but not so much of it now. Very happy with it. If you like red in your house I think the red LACK would look SUPER awesome!!!!

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/IkeamsSearch?storeId=12&langId=-1&catalogId=11001&searchType=product&pageNumber=-1&orderBy=score&category=%23~Products&query=lack

The toybox/bins didnt work for us because they would just take everything out and sit inside. Messy and they couldnt see everything...

jren
01-26-2009, 04:22 PM
We have a large playroom that hides all the toys, so I don't tend to pare down or rotate like I would if they were down on the living area. With DD, she will take out a toy that hasn't been played with in 3 years and find a new use for it, so I hate to get rid of stuff. She also likes to grab toys from different sets and move them around - like she uses various things as props for the dollhouse in her room.

She doesn't seem overwhelmed at all and has a great attention span - will play for hours and hours by herself (she's 5). But I think it helps that the toys are all in drawers or behind closed doors in her playroom, so they are not all out in plain sight while she's playing.