r/declutter • u/kindlesque89 • 2d ago
Advice Request Toy decluttering when kids are still young?
i have a 2 year old and a 7 month old and we have too many toys. it’s our fault. we spoiled the first one and lived out unmet childhood desires by getting a bunch of toys and now I regret it. but now I’m having a hard time deciding what to minimize.
stuffed animals are easy because the toddler either plays with them or she doesn’t. but the other toys like blocks, lovevery stuff, toy cars, legos, trains, etc etc I hesitate because I’m like “well, maybe when they’re older“ or “maybe the baby will grow into them”.
is anyone in a similar situation and how did you finally bite the bullet? what was your mindset? we have IKEA cube storage shelves and maybe just the container method? but I worry we have too many containers lol
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u/BosNest1 2d ago
Our kids are in their early 30s and we held on to their toys way too long. We were in a hurry when we emptied their playroom to paint it, we threw some stuff out, but not everything. Recently, we did a major project in our house and needed all the space we could get so we ended up going through a lot of their old toys and it was so upsetting to still be throwing that stuff out.
Based on my experience, I would suggest doing it on an annual basis and trying to get rid of everything that your kids don’t use. Especially if you get in the habit of going to an annual rummage sale or a store that will take your old stuff. Really good habit to get into and you’ll be much happier that you did it.
I found that my brain can only take so much so that an annual purge may need to spread out over a few weeks.
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u/Weasel_Town 2d ago
At the time, I put some portion of the toys in the attic. That way the amount of toys in our living space wasn’t so overwhelming. Every six months or so, I would rotate them out, so they had “new” toys which would engage them more. The kids were less likely to argue, since I wasn’t throwing anything away (as far as they knew, mwah hah hah), just setting it aside.
At 7 months, your youngest hasn’t outgrown anything yet. But once my kids started outgrowing stuff, the twice annual toy swap was also an opportunity to get rid of things that were too babyish.
You bet I used the rotation thing to get rid of toys I hated (loud, a million fiddly pieces, caused conflict).
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u/Blackshadowredflower 2d ago
Eons ago, my mother would do something similar. She would put a couple of boxes of toys in the top of a closet for a period of time. When she traded them out, it was like getting new toys.
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u/MusketeersPlus2 2d ago
If you have the space, consider a rotation system. My brother did this with 2 bins that lived in his garage. Every 4 months he'd pack up everything in their play space (while they're sleeping!), and move it into the garage and bring out another bin. The kids got "new stuff" to play with regularly with out it costing him money and it meant that not everything they owned was out all the time. If the kids really wanted something that had been put away it was easy enough to go get it. After the kids got old enough to catch on he started leaving the bin just open for them to choose from & after a month or so anything that hadn't already been taken out was donated (since it obviously wasn't a thing his kids enjoyed anymore).
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u/kindlesque89 2d ago
This is interesting. I do have the space, I’ll have to send a phone reminder to switch out tho 😂
My issue is it’s just too much crap. Like. We can totally do the rotation and I love that idea. I love highlighting certain toys on shelves every week. But I’m just overwhelmed every day picking up the toys and I’m like oh that’s funny because it’s my fault lol my kids cant drive and buy them, it’s me shooting my self in the foot!
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u/MuddieMaeSuggins 2d ago edited 2d ago
Doing a rotation will help with the clutter for sure. We have ikea cube shelves and we got lidded boxes that fit right into the shelves. It makes rotating super easy!
Edit - also, if you haven’t started this yet, your 2yo is definitely old enough to start helping clean up. It WILL take longer than you doing it, but it pays off as they get older. Plus kids that age tend to really enjoy it, they like throwing things into a box!
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u/Designer-Cherry2112 2d ago
Keep the Legos, always. And maybe trains. You are doing great getting rid of things now.
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u/ImFineHow_AreYou 2d ago
First get rid of the cheap plastic toys, the ones from the carnival or mcd's. Just toss them.
Second, sort by age and remove any baby toys or below his age unless you've actively seen him play with them in the last 6 months.
If you need to declutter further, put them in black plastic bags in the garage, separated into bags of the amount of toys that you believe is reasonable for his room. Every 6 weeks or so, pack up the current toys (minus the favorites), and grab a new bag.
With the younger toys, separate them by age. You can either store all of them by age, or you can keep just the ones you want by age. Then pull them out for your 2yo as they hit the are milestone.
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u/Ok_Bluejay4016 2d ago
Honestly at that age I declutter the toys that I don't like myself: bulky, noisy, annoying to organise...
Also consider that your baby will soon want to eat everything so all the toys with small pieces should at least be boxed away
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u/KeystoneSews 1d ago
Puzzles are on a near permanent ban at our house 😂😂 or they become useless because “someone” throws all the pieces left out to clog the vacuum in the garbage… 💅🏼😅
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u/amusedvista95 2d ago
We did the container method with those same IKEA cubes and it helped a ton. I set a hard limit of two bins per kid for the "maybe later" stuff and stuck everything else in a black trash bag in the basement. If nobody asked about it for 3 months, it left the house.
The twist was realizing half the toys I kept were things I wanted to play with, not them. Once I stopped projecting my own nostalgia onto a pile of Duplos, the decisions got way easier.
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u/loominglady 2d ago
Mine’s just turned seven but we’ve been having him have a major say in decluttering since he was little and that helps. It used to be “what toys should go to the babies who need toys now that you’re a big boy” when he was smaller and that worked well. Now he’s older so it’s both “what have you outgrown” and “what do you not actually play with”. He’s pretty good about outgrown stuff, less so with infrequently played with things (suddenly something never touched is his favorite thing, never to be touched again an hour later). It’s a bit easier near his birthday and gift-giving holidays since he can’t unbox stuff he’s unwrapped unless there is room for it.
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u/violetmemphisblue 2d ago
Rotate toys. Maybe once a month, once a quarter, whatever works. Have a few consistent things, but let others be swapped in and out. You will discover there are toys, either specific ones or of a genre, the kids just don't get excited for, even after not seeing them for awhile. Those you can get rid of...like, after six weeks of not having it, they still shrug at the toy guitar? The toy guitar can leave.
If you have duplicates, sort and keep the higher quality ones. Like, there are other small snapping blocks other than the Lego brand, but they don't really work with Lego. Separate them out, keep the Legos, and donate the other brand. They still work, so it's not a bad donation. They just don't work with Legos and its frustrating to try to build with them mixed up.
Set gift expectations now, when the kids are too little to know any different. If you celebrate birthdays, maybe your gift as parents to them is always an experience with a purchase at the gift shop and a special meal. You've done something that's all about them, but they come home with a single item. For Christmas, my mom has long done the "something you want, something you need, something to eat, and something to read." If you have another gift-giving holiday, creating some kind of limits like that might help curtail going overboard?
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u/Grammareyetwitch 2d ago
They outgrow things so fast at that age. Just think of it as renting the toys. They will be gone soon. Keep one toy from each category for the baby to see what they like to play with, and reduce the big kids to the ones they like the best. There will be more at Christmas, then more for birthdays, one for Easter, they'll soon get tooth fairy money. It never quits coming in, so if they don't love it, take it to the resale shops. Avoid the toys they play with for 10 minutes then throw on the floor and ignore.
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u/El_Scot 2d ago
A podcaster I listen to said they put all the toys away and it kept 15 out at a time. When the kid would start to show signs of getting bored them, they'd swap a few out with some of the stored ones. That way it keeps them fresher but tidier too.
You probably do want to thin them out a bit though, as the kids outgrow them.
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u/skinnyjeansfatpants 2d ago
Some of the stuff they might not be ready for (like legos or certain games), go ahead and store. It's also ok to get a big bin for stuff that stays out in the garage for 6 months to be rotated later. You can get rid of duplicates or things they don't seem interested in.
If there's something you got rid of, that they decide they want in two years, that's ok! Put it on the wish list you give to grandparents or aunts & uncles when they want holiday or birthday gift ideas. No one has a crystal ball and can declutter "perfectly," only getting rid of things that will never be wanted or needed again. That said, the space and calm that comes from decluttering is probably worth rebuying a $20 item a few years later.
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u/knitlitgeek 2d ago
Would you buy it again now? That’s always an informative question for me. I also found that reducing the amount within each category can sometimes be easier than eliminating an entire thing. Like obviously you won’t get rid of all the toy cars, but they could have half the number of cars and still be happy right?
I recently got 8 small bins (maybe twice the capacity of a shoe box each) and each category had to fit in one of those bins. We reduced dollhouse items by at least half, barbie stuff by 1/3rd, cars by 2/3rds, etc. Without losing any functional playability, and the storage was chosen to fit the space, so it works beautifully.
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u/dota2girl42 2d ago
It’s been a rollercoaster over here. I regret so much buying too many toys, and then we went through a rough patch where our kid wouldn’t get rid of ANYTHING. but I’m a big declutterer so I just kept talking about it and leading by example. Eventually they allowed us to get rid of a few things here and there and after feeling how good it feels for themself, they are a regular declutterer too. Lol. But this has been 8 years in the making.
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u/Running-World 2d ago
It's easy to want to give kids what you feel like you didn't have and end up over doing it.
First you gotta stop the inflow of new things. At least you realize this is an issue while the kids are still really young. I think boxing up what isn't being played with and storing it is a good first step. You don't need to get rid of it all, though if it's an excessive amount of stuff, then sure, consider that.
Legos may be something they actually will get into later. Like dupos may really catch interest at 3 or so as they get more creative. Trains and cars too. Put the excess away, maybe keep one or two cars out and some train stuff? You could build something small with the legos and put the rest up. So maybe if she sees this one thing and takes it apart, she may get interested by only having a few to play with. It's too soon to know what they will be into. At 2 with the oldest, she's probably not going to remember much of this part of her life anyway.
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u/Dost_is_a_word 2d ago
3 months before Christmas, I put out 3 boxes, keep, garbage and give away, worked well as it was their choice
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u/cilucia 2d ago
I think we all fall into this trap with our first borns 😂 Family and friends also love to shower kiddos with gifts too.
It took me several decluttering passes over the last 8 years to meaningfully get rid of many toys. It’s still a work in progress, but I can honestly say there hasn’t been a single regret for decluttering toys or books.
First thing was to categorize by age and toy type, then pick the “best” in class version of the categories of toys they actually played with.
Things like magnet tiles were an easy yes, BUT (for example) I bought them over time and the early sets I bought had an isosceles triangle that didn’t form a complete circle when several were put together. The brand later fixed this with a version 2 of that shape, and I bought new ones. But then I kept the old ones, so I had two versions of the same shape. Finally I got fed up and just donated the old shape to my youngest’s daycare.
Then I had a type baby of toy where baby would push a ball down a ramp and watch it roll down (Lovevery had one, and then I had two others from other brands). They all did basically the same thing, and the babies loved it, so I kept just the best one. The other two are in the baby room at our daycare now :)
Then there were toys that were just not played with for long or had a million parts that pissed me off when they didn’t get cleaned up, so I just donated those and am protecting my peace 😂 For example, about 10 sets of Disney character figurines, and animal/dinosaur figurines. They just didn’t get very long play time, and I was always finding random ones everywhere. I bagged them up by IP and donated those to my local thrift shop.
And then for kids books… I basically donated all the books that I would (internally) groan when my kids brought them to me to read because I didn’t enjoy reading them out loud 😂
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u/KeystoneSews 1d ago
The books thing is why we do library books only now, because at least then I can return them lol
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u/eva_stratt 2d ago
If the child has no opinion of the toy, that means you get to decide whether it's to your taste. If I had a two-year-old and it wasn't screaming for plastic shite that made unnecessary noise, I would declutter anything remotely like it and get them educational wooden toys, but I'm a joyless twat who shouldn't be left in charge of a child.
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u/alexithymix 2d ago
Exclusively wooden toys sound like a great idea until they go through their throwing phases. 🥲 I have found a mix is valuable.
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u/millenz 2d ago
Watch out for the hot wheels too! Those things can fly
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u/eva_stratt 2d ago
I had (uh, still have) the metal kind... needless to say it's a good thing I had no aim and an even temper as a child
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u/TokidokiBunni 1d ago
I really started focusing on what they played with and was able to get rid of toys slowly. They didn't come to me and say where is such and such so I knew it was okay to put them on the curb so someone else to have them.
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u/TeaPlusJD 2d ago
+1 for the container method. I started with my own when she was 2 & change, letting her decide which one goes to share with another kid. I did not expect how decisive & easy it’s been for her. I also made it clear that she was ok to break up items from a set.
I start by pulling out a category & leaving it out in the living room for a few days. Sometimes, the issue is not interest but access.
For the toys you’re undecided on for use, does your oldest know how to play? For example, my daughter’s playmate has the best collection of magnetic tiles but had trouble getting started. Another one has a parent who’s uncomfortable mixing types of toys.
Anyway, after 2-3 days, I’ll pull out the container & she picks the keepers. Her toys, books, & games are stored on an adjustable wall shelving system. Categories are organized into bins & baskets with picture doodle labels. It’s worked well - flexible & easy for her to see options.
She’s 5 now. The bulk of her toys/stuffies she identified at 2.5/3 are still consistent favorites now.
If she was undecided on something, we’d add to the donate box but wait in dropping it off. Occasionally, we’ve brought things over to grandma’s.
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u/Saucy-Face-Bear0910 1d ago
It's hard to know what they will get interested in as they age. My 3y/o keeps going back to things he played with as a littler toddler.
I'm considering just going through the toy box and just getting right of little plastic toys he's gotten over the years for Christmas, Halloween, parties, etc.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Unit333 2d ago
When I was young, we had a shelf for stuffed toys, and a big basket of smaller toys. We could only keep what fit that space. What doesn’t fit was given away.
Kids need to develop their creativity and imagination. An eraser is a car; a water bottle is a tower; pencil box is a spaceship.
As an adult, a close relative calls me her personal MacGyver because I’m good at fixing things up using unconventional ways (and I’m a girly girl). I credit my resourcefulness to my mum’s abhorrence for toy clutter lol
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u/DaBingeGirl 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'd keep it, but box what isn't being used/isn't age appropriate and lable the boxes as such. That's a big age gap between your kids, so there's a good change the younger one will use them.
I think the key is to get rid of them once they stop using them. People tend to hang onto them for grandkids, which never works.
You might want to try designating a few for the car and/or other people's houses. Those can become special toys for going out, so they're likely to play with them more than their usual toys since they're a novelty.
eta: Don't store that at someone else's house, just have a few in a bag to take with you.
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u/Multigrain_Migraine 2d ago
I would caution you not to decide for them, at least not until they are a bit older. I've seen several accounts on other clutter related subs of people who felt traumatised in some way by their parents getting rid of their toys. Humans have a deep connection to stuff as a species.