Children nowadays have far too many toys as compared to my time as a child. There's just too many choices and cheaply priced toys out there that my kid always has a toy in hand every time we go home from the mall. The problem is, when he's done and over with his toys, they just pile up on his collection of toys which are not being played with anymore. So during Christmas time, I make it a point to gather all my son's have-been toys and give them out to other children in the community who might need them. This way, I get to free up space again for newer toys that my son will soon collect. This is the reason why I want to limit the toys we buy because they only end piling up after awhile. How about you guys? How do you manage your kid's toys? What do you do with toys which are not being used anymore?
Well, for me, firstly, we have this huge container of toys. What I do is rotate them, this day he will play with this set of toys. Tomorrow he will play with this set of toys. That way, he doesn't get tired of them easily and they don't go to waste. With regards to donating toys, we haven't really done that yet because our son is just a year old. Maybe when he's a bit older, like three or four, we can get rid of toys he doesn't play with. I don't really like keeping things that we don't use so for sure, we'll have to donate some of those unused toys.
When my grandson's were small I would rotate out the toys, we would decide together which ones they were done with and would give them to a daycare or donate them to goodwill. They understood that we would not get a new toy until a few of the old toys were gone from the home.
We are right in the middle of renovations so when we started to pack up the basement we had a huge garage sale and sold a lot of unused toys. Now I take all the unused toys to sell them at a nearby consignment store. I get back 40% of what they can sell it for. It does add up after time and usually can cash out when it hits about $50 which takes about 6 months. Anything that I can't consign I will donate to Goodwill or Salvation Army. I agree that kids have more toys than they can play with. With our new renovations we had many book cases and wall unit made which gives us more storage space for the kids toys. I try and think about the play value of toys now before I buy them. When people ask I tell them to get my kids more practical gifts like sports equipment, books or clothes for the kids for birthdays and Christmas rather than toys.
When I was young, managing toys was never a problem because my mom automatically disposes things that are not being used in general, so my toys did not get stocked up and they were given to street kids. So I technically have lost the majority of my toys, although I think there are 3 toys that she saved. All my stuffed toys were given away too.
You could put them in one large container and just pick a few of them that your child can play with every week. This way he won't get bored of always playing with the same toys day after day. You will also be able to prevent clutter when you don't have your child's own play pen or anything of that sort. However please do make sure that you separate the collectibles
Another good way to ensure you don't have too many toys around is by either donating old toys the kids no longer play with each time you get them new toys. You could alslo join one of them toy swapping websites. You can sell, buy or swap toys on the sites and since the toys will be cheaper on these sites you can save a little bit of money.
