Toys, Books, clothes and kiddie krap...how much do you have?

Okay, we have enough stuff here for at least a dozen kids. It has taken over my entire house. It's completely ridiculous and overwhelming. In my defense (you knew I needed to defend myself, right? ) most of it has been gifts and hand-me-downs. But still...it's kind of obscene to be annoyed by all the stuff that you have. I've spent two hours sorting this mess into toss, donate and store piles. Store because I'm splitting the toys and books I keep in two or maybe three piles to rotate. How much stuff do your kids have? Do you rotate it? How often? What do you do if they asked for a stored item? How do you quantify how much is too much, enough? How do you decide when to get rid of something? Help me! :drown:

Also - we still have DD1's car seat and two bases, Hannah also used the car seat and the one base and Natalie used the other (her car seat has already been given away). So this was bought in 2004 and has been used by two babies. Is it still safe to use? What should I do with it?

 

We have waaaay too much stuff. I'm slowly working on selling the gear on Craig's List -- I managed to sell the infant car seats, bumbo, mobiles, car mirrors, stroller, exersaucer, jumperoo, stuff like that. I still have a ton more to list, though, like the pack n' plays, four bouncies, you name it.

With toys, I dunno. I tend to just hide them all in the basement or in the kids' bedrooms, and try to keep our main level toy-free. I bought a ton of small, clear bins with lids at Walmart, and I find they're perfect for storing toys with small pieces, puzzles, that sort of thing -- that way we can pull out a couple of bins at a time, and then clean those up and put them away before pulling out a couple more. Clear bins help so you can see what's what easily.

In terms of getting rid of stuff -- we have trouble with this. We've purged a lot of the baby toys, but we've held on to everything else.

Oh, and carseats expire 6 years from the date of manufacture printed on the side.

 

Same here! We've been purging today too. I let A&B pick what they wanted to sell at the yard sale. We really needed to go through the stuffed animals, which is tough. Went through the toys, they were pretty good about picking some things to go. I had put some outgrown toys away before, but they found them and kept pulling them back out and insisting they still liked them.

 

Since I've been home all week with two sick girls, I've done some serious spring cleaning. I sorted all their clothes, put away cold weather clothes that might still fit next year, sorted toys, brought three boxes and one giant bag to the thrift store, and gave away our beloved play yard to a friend from my local twins group. I still have two high chairs in my entry way that I think I'm going to try to sell on CL.

So I totally feel your pain, and like you lots have been gifts or hand me downs. For the carseat, are you part of a play group? Does anyone need an extra seat? Might be good for a sitter or grandparents? If you aren't interested in selling it, you can bring it to a local thrift store.

For the toys, we have three big bins, one in their room, one in the den, and one in the living room. They mostly play in the den, so when they start to get bored with those toys, I rotate with the other two bins. I did just purge a bunch of baby toys and things that just annoyed me (who makes a book that moos/neighs/ba's loudly everytime you even look at it?! And who hated me enough to give it to the girls?!).

DH still thinks we have WAY too much stuff (I hear about all the "PLASTIC CR@P" a lot), but I think we are making some progress.

GL cleaning house!

 

We have way too much! Where does it all come from? I think ours is multiplying somehow! I try to keep our main living area as toy free as possible. I do have one large wooden chest in my family room & routinely during the day I will throw stuff in there. Plus, it keeps it out of sight if I have guests. The rest of the toys are in the playroom in the basement or in their room upstairs. When the older kids were little, I went through that time where my house was taken over by toys & I swore it wasn't going to be that way again, but slowly, slowly they are taking over again!

ETA - Oh, and to decide what to get rid of, I do the same thing with all my kids & my husband. I pack things up & hide them away and if no one misses them or asks for them within a couple of months, I donate them to a charity. Then, later if someone realizes something is missing - "Mom, have you seen my ____?" I say "No, I haven't seen that in ages!" (and it's true!). :lol: