When did you get rid of your child's toys?

the optimist

I cant wait to get stuck into decorating my 8 year old daughter's bedroom. She plays with her toys sometimes but spends most of her time reading or colouring. I am tempted to purge the room of her toys. I want to decorate her room and put in built in wardrobes, new flooring, curtains etc. At the moment her room is a disgrace and she has some scribbles on walls etc. I want to rid it of toys and start concentrating on clothes. Hubby wants to wait a couple of more years. When did you make the changeover, should I wait till she is a bit older..

The Lovely Muffin

I was got rid of various toys at various ages, according to my mum, I was around 10 when I got rid of the bulk of them.

Usually what my mother did was, when I hadn't played/used a toy for a length of the and hard forgotten about it, she would take it and give it to my cousins/charity shop.

Daisy M

8 is way to young to get rid of toys, do as a previous poster suggested and get rid of things she no longer plays with. If you start getting rid of things she has outgrown you will find there is no need for a big sweep they will disappear gradually. Make place in the new cupboards for some extra drawers in which toys can be stored away out of sight.

the optimist

Thanks you are both right. i will wait, its just that she doesnt play with them so much anymore and for her upcoming birthday she is looking to get her ears pierced. She is growing up so quick but I shouldn't be wishing the years away. It just drives me mad looking into her bedroom with so much stuff in it. I have purged it every so often, but it keeps building up again.

silja

Agree with the others, do it gradually. How about asking her? You could arrange to give the good toys to VdeP or another charity, let her know her toys that she is willing to get rid of got o a good home.

Daisy M

the optimist wrote: »

Thanks you are both right. i will wait, its just that she doesnt play with them so much anymore and for her upcoming birthday she is looking to get her ears pierced. She is growing up so quick but I shouldn't be wishing the years away. It just drives me mad looking into her bedroom with so much stuff in it. I have purged it every so often, but it keeps building up again.

I know what you mean it seems no matter how much you get rid of even more seems to appear. I spent years moaning over my sons various farms spread out all over his floor, then when the day came and he decided to put them all away my heart broke a little, I knew they would never be coming out again!

Fittle

My son is almost 9 and over the years has been into so many toys that I had boxes and boxes of stuff all over the place.

Last year, just around when he turned 8, we both did a big clearout and he donated a huge amount of stuff he hadn't played with in years to the local charity shop. He had learned in school, and I'd also taught him, how donated toys can help other kids who don't have toys and he actually got a great kick out of giving trucks to the charity shop, knowing another little boy would get as much fun out of it, as he had.

He still kept alot of stuff though. But last year, he discovered football and has barely picked up a car/lego or other bits and bobs. It's all match attax, footballs and jerseys now (although he still likes lego, but only if he can make a football pitch:rolleyes:).

So we will be doing another clearout before easter, and I imagine everything will go then...except the lego...

I think, as another poster said, if you ask your daughter what she wants to keep herself, but explain to her the value in donating stuff and that apart from the value other kids will get from her toys, it will also leave space for her to get new stuff;)

Greystoner

I guess it depends on how sentimental you are too! My Mum actually kept alot of my own toys and has now passed them back to me for my own children and they love them. Loads of 'vintage' Fisher Price in our house; the classic garage and all the little people, bus etc. There are 'Playpeople' (pre Playmobil) and lego waiting in the attic for when they are older.They don't make them like that anymore!

I plan to keep the classic toys (wooden Thomas the tank etc) to give to my kids for their kids when older, and pass on/throw out all the plastic junk as and when I can get away with it!

Probably best to ask if she doesn't mind passing them on to somewhere/one else or to put in the attic.

Oh, they all grow up too quick!

up for anything

the optimist wrote: »

I want to rid it of toys and start concentrating on clothes.

That sentiment is coming from you. She is only 8 and still needs her imaginative play time. There will be years ahead for clothes. If you want to do up her room, maybe concentrate on making a creative corner for painting and crafts and a pleasant reading corner. With built-in wardrobes there will be space enough to put away toys/dolls etc which will enable her to keep the room tidy. As the years go by, she will eventually start to replace toys with clothes of her own volition. Don't help her rush into pre-teenage hood. You will regret it and she will be robbed of some of her childhood.