How many toys do your tots have?

I'm really curious about this, b/c I've seen this advice about putting away ALL their toys, and um...mine must have too many, cause thats nearly impossible. I was photographing this newborn once, and she had an older sister that was 3...I was in love with that tots room b/c it was clutter free...she only had a small selection of toys..makes me think mine have WAAAAAY too many! We have a bookshelf with four shelves full of books and movies. Two toyboxes full..ones a medium size one and the other...oh my..its a trunk that was bought to hold props at the studio, but I adopted. Its HUGE! Literally my 15 year old sister can climb in and fit...of course she has to ball up a little, but still! Its full, too...to the brim! Aside from the toys that are in the box, we have a kitchen, baby grand piano that they've played with since they were a year old, two rocking catapillars, a doll house, cleaning kit aka vacuum, broom, rolling cart, double sided art easle, box of giant legos, box of linkin logs...do I really need to go on?! All the while their bed and toys are in a room thats about 9 feet wide and 15 feet long...so its not all that big. They are the first and only grandkids for my parents and for my inlaws, so they are BEYOND spoiled! I've actually got about 4 garbage bags full of toys sitting in the corner of my bedroom that I've already culled...its outta control, but most of the toys in their room now are new from Christmas...what do I do??? We aren't even having a 3rd bday party this year b/c of this nonsense. I just wonder if anyone else's kids has this much junk?

 

Sounds like my house, and my girls are only 15 months old! I have taken some of the toys to grandma and grandpa's house to lighten the load, and then it's like they have "new" toys to play with each time they go. I have also given a lot of the stuff they have outgrown to my friends that have kids that are younger than my girls. I try to keep it tamed down, but it seems like every time I go through and weed out the old toys, twice as many new toys come through my door!!

 

My girls have WAY too many toys, but I keep them in bins and they don't have access to everything at all times. It makes me totally stressed out to have all the toy clutter, so they have a bin of toys in the den, one in the living room, and two that I keep in the office. We also have toys in the shed that they've never even seen before. This makes it easy for them to clean up and when they start getting bored with thing, I have 'new' things for them to play with.

 

We have so many toys it is completely ridiculous. I have 3 large bins of toys for the girls that I rotate through about every 5 days. On top of that there is a bin of legos, a bin of waffle blocks, a bin of wooden blocks, a play kitchen, a play garage, a leap frog learn n groove table, another standing table, a standing ball roll type toy, 2 ride on cars, a basket of stuffed animals, a basket of books and a couple little people sets. There is probably even more than that, that is all I can remember. It is ridiculous, in fact, at some point this week I am going to weed out some of the more "baby" type toys, and keep the "toddler" type toys.

My sons room is even worse. He has a twin over full bunk bed. The top bunk is covered in stuffed animals. Under the full bed are 3 under the bed storage boxes. One has brio trains, one has matchbox cars (mind you it is completely full), and one has other miscellaneous toys. He has 4 bins of lincoln logs, a bench with storage, inside of that is "dress up, pretend play clothes". There is a large 5 drawer bin full of art supplies. A large 4 draw bin full of legos, and 2 other 3 draw bins full of puzzles, play food, animals, super heros, etc. On top of his dresser are about 8 large cars. He has a large bin full of geotrax trains. He has one of those 9 bin colorful organizer type things that are full of toys. A shelf of books a shelf of games, a shelf of electronic type games (leapster, etc.), a shelf of playdoh/coloring books. And he even has some toy storage that is outside his room for instance, his numerous remote control cars are kept in an area in our basement. I keep wanting to clean it out, but he protests, as well as my DH. I seriously would like to donate over half of his toys. And people keep bringing more.

 

At least I'm not the only one...the bins thing might be a good idea, but we just have a very limited amount of space to even rotate them...Idk where I'd put them in the meantime. I'm hoping my inlaws will make the girls a room...they have 3 spare rooms in their house, and my MIL keeps saying she is going to...when she does, I'll be sending her a bin or two full, ha.

 

I store the two bins that we aren't using under their cribs. (I also store 2 pack n plays under there). But it looks like maybe your girls are old enough they aren't in cribs any more.

 

We have one entire 15' square room devoted to toys. There are shelves and cabinets for all the things like books, action figures, matchbox cars, etc., a large area devoted to all the dolls and doll houses, plus those play-mats made for the matchbox cars on the floor. That room is full, but organized. There are several chests of toys in each of the childrens rooms, plus bookcases. The excess books have overflowed the living room case and into the parlor (someone needs to go through the books and put the outgrown and boring ones into storage). There are 4 large cabinets devoted to art supplies in the living and dining rooms, plus more art supplies in Jesse & Davin's room. Dallas just put up some of those netting things in Jesse and Davin's room to help contain the stuffed toys. Outdoor toys like bikes, rollerskates, and remote controlled cars are kept in the shed out back. That, of course, doesn't count the baby and early-toddler stuff taking up a large majority of our attic.

We donate toys and books the kids don't enjoy (usually well-meant but poorly-conceived gifts), but keep the outgrown things they once enjoyed either for future kids or grandkids. We have a pretty good organizational system (lots of shelving, old-fashioned chests, and cabinets), and are strict about the kids putting things away when they're finished with them, so things stay pretty neat. I don't think they have too much, but we have a big house.

 

We have an 1100 sq ft home and its tiny...wouldn't be so bad except we only have two bedrooms now...we remodeled, so that leaves only their room for their toys and bed. We do have plans to add on another room in the next year or so, as we are hoping to expand our family...the girls will then have a nice large room to share...but in the meantime...geesh...things are cramped.

 

Before Melanie was born we used to live in an apartment about the size of your house. Back then we kept a lot of the toys in cabinets and chests in the living room, since the bedrooms would've been too cramped with everything in there.

 

Waaaay too much. I've been collecting toys for over 13 yrs though.

 

I just moved into a new place, and I was soo excited b/c the kids actually have a play room now...but they have soooo much stuff, its ridiculous..

The play room is probably only 7'x7' and they have a play kitchen, a little vanity, a little tykes table and chairs, and 4 small-ish bins of toys..there are also some bigger truck/cars on the floor, since it would be pointless to put them in a bin.. Then their bedroom (all 4 of them share) is about 16'x9' (these measurements are approximations) and they have a bunkbed, 3 toddler beds, 2 dressers..a tv stand, AND 2 bins of toys w/ many more scattered everywhere.. I am totally a believer in the roatating system, but since we moved in, 3 wks ago, I just havent been able to get it together.. and like some other pp's, I dont know where to put the toys that are OUT of rotation that week, or whatever..

I try to get rid of things on a regular basis, and I felt like I did a pretty good job before the move, but then Christmas came!

 

My kids have an absolutely ridiculous amount and we bought almost none of it. We have a large sunroom that is just full of toys and I have enough to rotate three different big groups of toys in and out of the room to keep them fresh. Like you, it's because of the kids' status as only grandkids and then other relatives. We did have a 3rd birthday party but told everyone not to bring any presents. This was easy because we celebrated their birthday at the zoo so we said the price of admission would be in lieu of a present.

 

Way too many. When we got home after Christmas I nearly had a panic attack trying to figure out what I was going to do with all the toys - especially DS's Geotrax set that can take up an entire room! We ended up taking down the bed in the guest room and converting it into a playroom until we (find the money to) finish off the 400+ sq ft bonus room above the garage. To help in the meantime, we bought 2 cube storage shelving units at Lowes, the ones with nine cubbies that you can buy the canvas cube-drawer things to go in the cubbies, and that has really helped with the organization.

Oh, and consignment sales are WONDERFUL for helping to clear out the clutter. You get to make some money so you can go out and buy more toys!! :lol:

 

My girls have a Toy Room and it is over flowing to the front room and into the living room it is so bad! We have way, way too many toys.

 

Before the twins' coming up birthday I was giving hint off to their friends' Mom and our family that we have TONS of toys that they don't need anymore in this house. I was explaining that were running out of space. By their 2nd birthday they mostly got clothes because Christmas was only 3 months down the road. I given away toys that are in good shape to 'donation' or at a local church for their playroom.

Right now, I have in my main floor is kid table/chairs, play kitchen, shopping cart, train table, and 2 bins for all their balls. In the dining area on the corner are all of their big car, F/P airplanes, and baby stroller. In their bedroom I have 2 separate shelves bin that has tons of smaller toys and they still have the lego wagon, 2 doll houses, and ball popper sit on the floor underneath their crib. They'll pull it out and play with it.

I don't HOW much is enough for them,

 

Way to many here too and I can honestly say we have purchased very little of them! I have been trying to go through them all as they are getting more stuff for their birthday in five days! Fortunately we have a large toy closet under the stairs that houses some of the larger toys-- play kitchen, Hot Wheel tracks, etc... and in each of their closets they have built-in shelves that holds the toys well or we put them in baskets or bins. Still, they have too much!

 

QUOTE(MSB1203 @ Jan 21 2009, 12:09 AM) [snapback]1155124[/snapback]
We have an 1100 sq ft home and its tiny...wouldn't be so bad except we only have two bedrooms now...we remodeled, so that leaves only their room for their toys and bed. We do have plans to add on another room in the next year or so, as we are hoping to expand our family...the girls will then have a nice large room to share...but in the meantime...geesh...things are cramped.


I know exactly how you feel. We're in a 2 bedroom townhome but the middle level is our entire and only living space. Our toy situation was much like yours but after Christmas I packed all the old toys into the garage in a huge toy bin and only kept what fit in 4 bins/4 shelves, and a tiny corner of the living room (push toys, sit and spin, etc.). Not only does my home look more like a home and less like toys r us, but the boys are SO much happier playing. They usually take out one bin at a time. I know that's hard to believe but I swear it's true. And when they do have out more, I put them away so that there's no more than two bins out at a time. They spend so much more time focusing on their toys, using their imaginations to play, and even interacting with each other. They wake up asking for their "ammals" which is their bin with all the ocean and farm animals. They can play with that for a VERY long time. Seriously, you gotta try it. I got mine from Target for $40. It's navy blue and I bought red and cream colored canvas bins to go with it. Good luck! Oh, and I'm sending you a pm about something photography related.