Overflowing Toys...How Do You Manage?

First of all YOU are the parent not your relatives and not your kids. Tell the relatives while I appreciate all the nice toys we are overwhelmed with more than enough right now. What they really would like or need instead is___________________? Could be new shoes, clothes, a trip with grandma and grandpa aunt and uncle, etc to circus, zoo, amusement park, fair etc. Or to the movies. Ask for books and DVD's musical things they can learn from, music and or dance lessons or money toward such etc. Next every month note what the toys your kids especially play with and those they seldom if ever play with. Bag up the ones they rarely use or play with and all the broken, torn etc ones and get rid of them or regift them or put them away and when they get bored or tired of what they have get those out and take away the ones they are bored with. If all the toys don't allow for some imagination get rid of them. Kids should explore, learn and have fun and be creative. As to picking them up don't be fooled your two year old is quite capable of picking up and putting away toys as well you have to teach and train him. If they stop playing with a toy make them put it away. If they don't put it away take it away from them and put it up away from them because they did not appreciate the toy nor respect you. Just some thoughts from a Nana who raised 4 kids plus 4 foster kids and has 12 grandkids. By the time your a Grandmother you will have tons of ideas to pass on.

My Nephew has the same problem. He has like 12 huge tubs in his room that are all toys. I've tried to help him go through them and get rid of some but his dad won't let him. Many of them are collectables but it is just too many toys for one child to have. If it was me I'd take all the special ones and put them in storage and keep one or two tubs out for him to play with. [b]~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS**[/b]

It is true that they can get easily bored with only one toy. Maybe you can make a rule that they can bring out only 2 or 3 toys each to play with, then when they are already bored and wants to play with another toy that is not included in their selected ones, then they will have to return one of the toys to replace it with the ones in the bin. It might also help if they do not have easy access to the bin. My MIL would hang some of the toys under the stairs or hide them inside cabinets so that only a limited number of toys are available for them to play with. Less toys = less mess. hehehe We also make it a point to give away toys once a year. We are always surprised with how many toys we can gather to give away.

I'd say the first step would be to ask these friends and relatives to purchase savings bonds or other things the children need such as clothing instead of the toys. Or maybe they could spend a special day with the children instead of the toys. Also a trick that I learned was to seperate your child's toys into different boxes. Keep one box of toys out to play with and put the others away in storage or a closet. Every now and then, say once a month, you will swap out the box of toys with one from storage. These toys will appear to be new to the children and keep them happy. You can keep switching the boxes around to keep them from getting bored and avoiding a big mess after playtime. Hope that helps.

U only thing u can do is dat u shld either scold them loudly or else they will not listin 2 u!!!! if u think dat its rude den they will get pampered more and they will not listin 2 u....

only have a few out at a time. after a while switch them out with others. this keeps the child from being bored with the same old toys. i know my kids have so many toys that they didn't even know what all they had. when i put them in seperate boxes and only brought one box out every week or two, they played more with their toys and never even asked where the other toys were. when the next box come out they would be surprised to see what was inside this time. and if i was you i wouldn't waste my time trying to arrrange their toys. i used to do that and i come to the realization that it was useless. let them tell you where they want them

It get over whelming for little kids when they have so many toys. they don't know what to play with or where to start when it comes to putting them back. May I suggest that yo put all but 10 or so away out of sight ans see which ones they actually play with. Then put the ones that they don't play with in a give away box. Add some as time goes by but not having more than 10 to 15 out for them to play with at a time. A smaller number of toys would be easier for them to manage care for and putting away. Sometime little kids just have so much they really don;'t know what to do with all of them.

My son got lots of toys too. His toys were his daddy's toys when he was a baby. Plus new toys from grandparents, plus 10 toy cars, and two sets of Megablocks, a small piano, small radio, the stuff toys from friends, the three teddys, small and big,a baby's phone, three balls, two shapes sorter, the three thomas tank engine train set,and alot more. Half of them were in the living roon and half were in his bedroom. It's stressfull to tidying it up every seconds, so i just let it scattered around the house when he is playing. I stopped stressing myself of picking it all the time, when he's gone to bed then it's the time for me to arrange and pick all his toys and put in place. So i can save my energy. But our house is so messy, toys everywhere!

I actually have the same dilemma when it comes to toys. I also keep some of the toys in boxes so I can change the toys that are out ever so often. It is so ridiculous to have your child have only one toy especially when they are younger because they get bored right away. When I do move to my own place I will make a room for my child where he can play all of his toys but the general rule always would be whatever you bring out you need to put it back at the end of the day and that usually works.

Sorry I wish I knew but by baby is 1 and 2 months and he vearly started walking two weeks ago. He playes with his toys but he would leave them all over the floor in his play room so I pick everything up and it would be ok until he notices that they are not in the floor any more. But that is not my problem at this moment my problem is that he rather play with everything eals that he would find around the house. So I have to be behind him all the time because I do want him to walk more but at the same time there are somany things that he should not get. One thing that he loved to do is put my dogs food into the water side so now I have to put the food in a room were he wont get into and I also have to let my dog into the room many times a day so she can eat.

I go through the toys every other month and get rid of anything they do not play with, have out grown, or is broken. With three kids we seem to step on toys every which way as well as clothes I do this with clothes as well.

I let each child pick out a few of there favorite toys. As many as you think that you can manage. Then put the rest of them in storage for 2 or 3 months and then got them back out and let them exchange them for new ones if they were tired of the one that they had. They also had the rule that the had to keep the ones that the had put away when they were done playing or they were put up. The first time for one day then if they did not put them away agian the time was extended. It kept the house neet and safe, gave the children responsibility, and like new toys on a regular basis. I also put the summer toys away for winter and the winter toys for summer.