When do you sell or donate toys?

Our girls will be getting some new toys for their upcoming birthday and, of course, for Christmas. Our playroom downstairs is going to be full of toys if we don't get rid of some. There is room for everything but it is really just too much stuff.

For example, we have the Laugh & Learn Piano, the Bouncing Zebra, the Laugh and Learn Chair and the Laugh and Learn Alphabet thing (not sure what it is called). They are all aged 12-36 months. Our girls will only be 2 at the end of the month but they don't show a lot of interest in these toys any more. Perhaps they are bored of them because they see them everyday or perhaps they have just outgrown them developmentally?

So, what do you do? Do you put toys in storage for a bit and then bring them out later for that "new toy" feeling again? Or do you sell/donate them before they outgrow them?

Thanks

 

QUOTE(TeeandGee @ Oct 7 2008, 11:58 AM) [snapback]1015997[/snapback]
Do you put toys in storage for a bit and then bring them out later for that "new toy" feeling again?

YES! This works wonders for us. Whenever they start seeming bored with their toys, we swap them out for ones that we'd been hiding in storage. Then they're all excited to play with them again. I'd definitely give that a try before selling/donating them. If even that doesn't work, then they're clearly just not interested, and I wouldn't hesitate to reduce the clutter of toys, whether the box says they should still like them or not.

 

When I feel they are developmentally past a toy, then I sell the toy and get something more age appropriate for them.

 

I clean out the toybox before birthdays and Christmas. All of my kids' birthdays are in December, so that is a huge weeding out month for us. I have to make room for the new toys. Some I pack away, but some I give away or take to goodwill if the girls are too old for it.

 

I've had quite a few toys that I boxed up to either save or sell & later the kids found the box & fell in love with the toys all over again! (much to my surprise) So usually I go through the toys before birthday/Christmas & decide what they really liked & might have fun with later......and which ones weren't that cool to begin with that I'll probably sell.

Bigger stuff, though, I just don't have the room to hang onto indefinitely.

 

I just sold a lot of toys that my children didn't show interest in and that I felt they were developmentally inappropriate. We have a playroom that is FULL of toys and I want to continue to weed out toys because I find the room to be very overwhelming . . . even though it is well organized.