Toy Story
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From the featured blog, Mama Notes
Society has mades us believe that our children need (even want!) a lot of toys. Shelves are filled with hundreds of toys, all with bright lights and sounds to attract children. It has gone way overboard, sucking kids in and putting guilt on parents who don’t buy their kids 10 toys for Christmas. The truth is, kids are pretty simple. Give them a bowl of water, some stickers or finger paint, stacking toys or a race car track, blocks to build a castle or sand to make a tunnel and they’ll be entertained.
My son just turned one, and even still, he very rarely plays with toys. We don’t have a lot to begin with, but he finds that tupperware, utensils, and random day to day objects are much more interesting. He has 3 baskets of toys that aren’t even all full, and one ride on truck toy. I plan to keep his toys to a minimum and I’m going to try very hard not to get roped into buying him every gadget out there. I simply don’t think having a lot of toys is necessary.
Sure, our children do need toys. Toys aren’t bad at all. Toys provide learning opportunities, a creative outlet and plain ol’ fun! But an entire playroom devoted to toys plus the corner in the family room plus the bedroom? Too much in my opinion.
My tip is to rotate your children’s toys. Every month or so bring out a new toy or two, and put another one away. Your child will forget he ever had the toy and it will seem brand new! If you think you do have too many toys, because your house is becoming cluttered with them or your child seems to never play with them, give them away or try to sell them.
Remember that toys don’t have to be the singing, talking, dancing, walking machine that sings the ABC’s, talks in Spanish, and has a mouth designed for colored blocks. Toys are what you make them. A bucket with a hole in your backyard is a toy. The empty pop bottles that you fill with rice and small treasures is a toy. The blankets laying over the couches is a toy.
Save your money. Buy quality toys that will last. Stick to the classics that have provided fun for generations. Inspire creativity in your children by giving them the chance to play with “basic” toys, and dig into that arts and crafts corner. Toys are fun, and toys are part of childhood. But remember, chances are your parent or grandparent grew up with a lot less toys than your child today.
Just gotta try this Creamy Avocado Dip recipe via Momables.com - love how you can spread it on a sandwich in lieu of Mayo! 
Comment by Paula on Feb 26 2010 09:57:02:
My kids have way too many toys that just get pulled out and thrown all over the toy room. I want a chance to clean out but want to do it when the kids aren’t around. Does that ever happen?
Comment by Dustin | Engaged Marriage on Feb 26 2010 10:06:49:
As a Dad of two with another on the way, I can only say “Amen!” We have committed to cutting down on all of the toys moving forward. The struggle we have is that WE don’t buy most of them, but they are instead received as gifts…
Comment by Amanda on Feb 26 2010 11:02:26:
Yes. But remember, your child is only 1. The toy, er, “needs” of a 1-year-old vary considerably from that of older children with more interests.
Comment by Leigh Ann Self on Feb 26 2010 11:58:33:
Right on sister preach on! I love this article. We now have two boys and the toys just seem to multilply. But we have kept the toys our oldest liked the best and used those as presents to pass on to the second so that seems to have helped us. We also encourage grandparents and family to get our kids gift cards to places like Wonder place(children’s palce to play),zoo memberships or fast food restaurants for an extra treat instead of giving them toys. Last year our oldest who is eight started Kung Fu so we asked all the family to donate to his lessons. It was great and less toys!! Yeah!! This summer I let James eight go through his toys and he sold them and kept the profits from our garage sell. He also set up a lemonade stand.It was a blast!
Comment by monica on Feb 27 2010 12:30:16:
Yeah we had a small basket full of toys when our son was only 1 and he played with them, he is about to turn 2 in a couple of months and he has a room full of toys, and I can honestly say that he does NOT neglect a single toy. He literally plays with them all day and fights sleep to play with them. I would love to get rid of some of them because they are constantly everywhere but everytime i think oh he doesnt play with that toy he brings it out and plays with it.
Comment by Krystal on Feb 27 2010 01:20:46:
I’ve been realizing lately that most of our toys rarely are played with. A lot of what the boys got for Christmas just sits there and collects dust. There is waaaaay too much emphasis on “stuff” in this world, and it’s not what matters.
Comment by Laura on Feb 27 2010 01:29:58:
We have two – a 2 1/2-year-old girl and 11-month-old boy, and we don’t have a lot of room for a bunch of toys. I brought home 6 paper boxes from work and divided the toys into 7 sets. My goal was to switch out the set every week, but I have to confess that it gets done maybe once a month or so. Certain big toys get left out most of the time, but even those get put away ever so often when I realize that they haven’t been played with in a while. Seems to work well. Just switched the toys today, and my girl went crazy playing with things she hasn’t seen in months. The problem is that since Christmas, I need more paper boxes, but I don’t work anymore. Also, I’ve run out of places to put them. Oh well, I’ll figure it out.
Comment by Whozat on Feb 27 2010 04:25:49:
We’ve only bought a handful of toys for Peeper (16 months) but we were gifted a TON of used ones before she was born and have received lots since.
But what does she like the most?
Her books (hooray!) and trash.
Butter bowls, water bottles, paper towel rolls, a shoebox lid, the cardboard heart from atop a box of Valentine candy. . . .
At first glance, the house looks like we just throw our trash in the floor, but I swear, those are “toys!”
Comment by Leslee on Feb 27 2010 04:55:18:
We too have a lot of toys and little space especially with a 3-1/2 year old and an 8 month old (the baby toys came out again). We try to work with our 3-1/2 year old daughter to choose which toys she wants to put away for a little while or to save for her sister. Although we don’t put away as many toys as we would like, the discussion helps her to think about what toys she likes and prevents issues later when she realizes they are missing. Some toys we also donate to her preschool so she can still play with them, but not at home where we don’t have space.
We also don’t buy her electronic toys (although she gets some as gifts) in favor of her playing with real musical instruments and prefer her to have human interaction instead of watching tv and playing electronic games.
Comment by Michelle on Feb 28 2010 05:19:18:
I absolutely agree that this article and that’s why we don’t buy our boys very many toys. Our problem is that they receive too many toys as gifts. I think they want to watch them open the “fun” presents, but it just gets out of control when 10 different people buy gifts for them. I don’t know how to tell people without hurting feelings that we’d rather them not buy toys. Anyone have any suggestions?
Comment by Tabitha on Mar 01 2010 02:06:50:
Our oldest was the first grandchild on my husbands side, so she got a lot of toys right off, and my side of the family felt they had to keep up and so bought her a lot. Our rule has became to have Her fill a garbage bag with toys to give away before Christmas. As family members have found this out, they have cut back on buying her toys and give her money and savings bonds instead. Now that we have a newborn son, we’ve noticed he doesn’t get so many toys right from the start. It works out well, now they don’t have so many toys, and their savings accounts are growing.
Comment by Melissa on Mar 09 2010 07:18:46:
I absolutely agree… I also think that what seems like a lot in one space may seem like even more in another… My BIL & SIL have a huge house, we have an apartment. I have a child who gets overstimulated if not easily, then maybe more easily than some. As a result, we tend to not have similar toys – like we have ONE ride on toy, ONE musical drum – the exception being musical instruments or art supplies. We also try to keep things out of sight until we’re prepared to USE them with her, or she’s using them with us, whichever. I actually told people we didn’t want toys for her birthday, we’d prefer art supplies. And as for outside – she likes sticks, dirt, leaves & puddles… who am I to argue?
Comment by One of The Guys on Mar 10 2010 08:05:44:
Good article and good tips!
But the best way to eliminate an overabundance of toys is to eliminate grandparents……problem solved.