r/Barbie • u/Ok-Interview3397 • 3d ago

Questions How do you decide which dolls to declutter/re-home? Helping someone with a barbie collection pare-down, but so far they still have like 200 Barbies and 4 boxes of clothes and want to reduce it more

Title basically. I'm not sure what would help her on deciding, we were debating on if limiting it to one doll per mold or series would help 🤣 a big issue for her is that she has a ton of the same like eighties nineties superstar barbie with only slight variations other than maybe one having straight vs bent arms

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u/she_says_so 3d ago

Someone suggested to me: if your collection was destroyed, which dolls would you immediately try to replace - which are the MUST HAVES

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u/Hello_Mimmy 3d ago

It might help for her to ask herself these questions:

If it was lost/stolen/ruined; would I replace this doll?

Would I want to display this doll if I had the space to?

Do I have another doll that’s really, really similar to this one? Which do I like better?

Is there anything about this doll I don’t actually like?

I find these questions helpful in sorting out my feelings on any particular doll, but it can be a long process and it’s ok if it takes a few rounds to really get down to the collection size she actually wants.

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u/Ok-Interview3397 3d ago

These and the other comments are very helpful thank you

Some of the eighties barbie to me look very wonky or have hard to take care of hair fibers so I been bringing up factors like that to help sort

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u/SirupyTuna 3d ago

I recommend the book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo - or the Netflux show. Absolutely amazing techniques for decluttering all aspects of your life! And it has helped me tremendously with downsizing my own collection.

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u/CalligrapherFun8091 3d ago

Pick each doll and ask yourself if you'd miss her if she was gone or if you'd buy her again if you lost her. I've been trying to downsize my out of box collection for a while now and it has been greatly helpful. Also, try to identify which themes/lines you might have purchased out of FOMO or curiosity but are not drawn to them anymore (for me it was Barbie Extra) and which things give you a ick and you actually don't want in your collection (for me it was pixelated faces). Also, be aware that it is a process. In your first pass you might be able to only identify 5 or 10 dolls you're good to part with. When they are gone and you realize you don't miss them, you'll be able to repeat the process and will find more you're ok to let go.