Attachment Parenting
daisyterp
member
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Toy rotation and/or culling?
daisyterp
member
Is anyone else terrified of Christmas?
I feel like we (meaning DH & I and my parents) went overboard in the first 2 years of DDs life and outfitted her w/ tons of toys- a good portion of which are 2nd hand, which is great- but now I feel like the grandparents are itching to buy more for both of the kids for Christmas- when they really do not need (and we don't have room for) another blessed thing (books included- we have 100+!)
So how are you culling/rotating toys?
I have an issue w/ rotation because we don't have a basement or attic, or even a coat closet, so if I am pulling stuff out of rotation I am likely donating or consigning it...
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Re: Toy rotation and/or culling?
We have the same issue here. I just went through Madeleine's toys and cleaned out a bunch she does not play with and put them in boxes in the garage. If she does not ask for them in the next month I am donating them. She really only plays with her Barbies, babies, kitchen set and art supplies.
For Christmas we really do not get her much. She really wanted a changing table for her bitty baby so we go her that along with an outfit for the bitty baby that she wanted. Those two by themselves were $90. Then we got her some more art supplies for her easel and two smaller toys - a barbie and a doll sling. Other than that she is just getting some clothes for Christmas. We told the grandparents the same thing - one or two bigger items that she really wants and none of that smaller crap that she will only play with for a day or two.
We live in FL, so no basement. And very little attic space.
What I do is rotate stuff between upstairs in DD's room and downstairs in our living room. DD almost never plays up in her room, so the toys I put up there are basically ignored until I rotate them back downstairs.
I have not reached that point yet, but we do have a large "toy box" that we put a bunch of stuff in that is pretty inaccessible. So the stuff that is in it doesn't get played with. We rotate the toys, so there is something fresh for DD every month or so. We have done a good job of limiting toys to begin with. She has enough, but not too much right now. We will probably donate after Christmas if she gets a lot.
My sister had a "one toy in, one toy out" policy when her kids were 3+. I think I'm going to do that also. Granted, they still had a ton of toys, but at least they understood that if they wanted another toy they would need to choose one to donate.
I plan on doing this "toy cure" during my holiday break.
https://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/toy-cure/the-7day-toy-cure-a-busy-parents-plan-for-editing-down--154233
I almost never post, but thought I'd share an idea. One of my Mama's groups is doing a toy share. Rotating toys amongst each other. Perhaps you could set something similar up, and if you don't need/want toys rotated in, just rotate your own toys around and back to you if/when your LO is ready to play with them again.
Other than that, we do a lot of toy donation/consignment as well. DD1 doesn't even notice most of the time as she has so much stuff coming and going.