What to do with all the toys?

Question

So, my daughter's room is driving me insane! She's 3 and has no less than 10 baby dolls, an infinite number of teddy bears, 12 barbies!!! I want to "organize" her room and clean out some of the clutter...

I've tried begging her to help me bag them up to donate to a child in need, but she told me sadly "I'm just not ready to give them away yet mommy." I tried the "but they don't have any toys to play with" and she said, "Oh, well, mommy, we can go buy them some!"

I asked everyone at Christmas to get her clothes, books, or storage items.. lol.. however, as you can guess, we came home with baby strollers, wagons, 3 baby dolls, 3 new barbies, etc.!!! Help!!!

And, to make matters more dire, her birthday is in 2 weeks!

How do you deal with all the clutter?

Oh, and I can't get rid of them while she's gone.. I'm a single mom and she's always with me except when I'm working.. plus she has an excellent memory and would realize what was missing!

Answer 1

Maybe you can cycle them... divide her toys into three piles, let her help you choose what goes in each pile. Then, bag up two of the piles, and put them in a safe place. Every 4 months, bag up her current toys, put them in the safe place, and bring out a different bag. It's like Christmas and birthdays every time! Allow her to keep one toy that she can keep out of the toys you are bagging up for the cycle.... we do this at the preschool I work at, and my friend had a lot of success doing this with her kids! Hope this helps! :)

Answer 2

Sorry to hear your dilemma. I have the same problem. My son is 8 nearly 9 and only 2 years ago he allowed me to get rid of some of his toys. We have a whole spare bedroom filled with boxes and boxes of toys, some from when he was born. I tried like you did to get him to help me send toys to the needy but he wouldn't let me. He kept saying that he couldn't give away this or that toy because so and so had given it to him as a present. I couldn't even remember who got him what and he could. So I know the feeling of not being able to get rid of things without him knowing about it.

The thing that changed his mind was when my sister had her son 2 years ago. Now thankfully we are handing down his toys to his cousin. At the beginning he would say that his cousin could borrow the toys but now he gladly goes through his toys and picks out age appropriate toys to pass down. My sister loves it all. They are all in great condition. My son was and is a child that cherishes all he has and unless they fall apart due to poor manufacturing they are all as good as new.

Now he even allows me to give to the needy. So until your daughter gets to that stage you will just have to buy a lot of storage boxes and book shelves.


Good luck.

Answer 3

You can try telling her she needs to donate some of them to make room for the new stuff she is going to be getting because it won't all fit in her room. I have my kids do that before their birthdays and before Christmas (I have to with 4 kids) Explain to her she is doing a good thing for other children because now they to can get something for their birthda. as for organizing. I put up shelves in their closets and use plastic tubs that they are able to handle. Good Luck

Answer 4

use big baskets to dump the toys and try and inculcate the habit in her to give to the needy..

You could visit my website, http://www.learning-graph.com , which has excellent resources for children activities, children's diet, confidence building, skill building.

Answer 5

WHO is the adult there.........who's the Mother.........who is the child...........
There are the answers, now, be an example and show her you are the authoritarian....til she's 18 anyway

Answer 6

Are you truly serious............................ WHO IS THE PARENT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You need to step up to the plate and act like a parent!!!!!
She's only three - she doesn't know what she wants!
Get rid of the stuff and get on with life!

Answer 7

Tell her that if she goes through her room and gets rid of so many toys you will go out and buy her one big thing she has been wanting. And remind family and friends more firmly that she doesn't need any more toys.

Answer 8

I have two boys and am dealing with this myself right now! Mine are 8 and 4, so they are a little older than yours, but here's what I did. After several attempts such as you described (begging grandparents not to buy toys, refusing to buy them myself, trying to get them to decide what to get rid of) I decided to try something else. I had them each choose 3 things they absolutely wanted to keep (the hot wheels racetrack, the Diego play set, etc). I promised not to get rid of things that I knew they still played with, then I just dug in. I sent them to my mom's house for a day of fun with Nana & Papa, while I sorted, and sorted, and sorted some more! I found that if they are looking at the toys, of course they want to keep them, but if they just disappear (particularly the ones I know they haven't played with in forever) they never miss them.

The ones left, I organized in baskets on shelves. I used my trusty digital camera to label the baskets with pics of what belongs inside (legos, cars, whatever!) That way, they can clean it up themselves! And they can always find what they need. I also agree with the person who said to get it off the floor. The more clutter (even organized clutter) there is sitting on the floor, the harder it is to keep it clean! If it is all on shelves, vaccuuming is a breeze!

Hope I helped some! Good luck to you!

Answer 9

Well it looks as though you have a decision to make. I too was a single parent when my elephant oh, I mean daughter with an outrageously great memory was three. I too have the problem of what to do with all of the baby dolls and stuffed animals not to mention enough clothes to clothe a small army of very stylish children. I have hardly had to shop for her over the years and she is eight now.

OK, back to your decisions. The way I see it, you can continue to drown in your daughters toys or do what I did. I simply cleaned up the house from head to toe starting with my belongings. I made the place ridiculously organized (this was when my daughter was almost 3) and got rid of anything and everything that I did not need.

I showed all of the bags and boxes of things that I was giving away to my daughter and showed her what kind of space I had available. I explained that if Mommy didn't have room in that closet (the size of a shoe box) than it would need another home. I showed her my off season storage ( a mini cedar chest) and did the same. Than I moved on to her room. I didn't tell her what she had to throw out but I said "here you go, you have 2 really large baskets. What ever stuffed animals and dolls you want you may put in here...Just remember that if it does not fit you will need to decide what goes. She to this day has those same big baskets in her room as well as a shelving unit with exactly 8 canvas tote boxes. If what she wants to keep does not fit than she must decide what goes.

It is funny that you asked this question today of all days. I just this afternoon did this with her. We came up with 3 large boxes of things to go now that she has celebrated her birthday and Christmas back to back. This year I allowed her to do something new too. I am posting a few of the items on craigslist and she can try to make a profit on some of the items that were in new condition. She can spend or save that money any way she wants.

I am sorry to be so long winded with this answer but I just wanted to share our system with you. I realize that your daughter is a bit young for some of what I have mentioned and I doubt seriously that you will get through doing what I have suggested with out tears. My daughter still appears a bit sad at times when we do this. I try not to let it pile up to bad though. The more she does it the better she gets about it. Good luck to you and Happy New Year!

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Nice people, a thumbs down for what? Was I rude? I just said what I do at home. It is not like it would be something harmful like feeding cereal to my 3 month old in a bottle...lol..what moron gives a thumbs down for this kind of answer?

Answer 10

I have 4 kids and 4 times the clutter. I used storage totes. We alternated them. It was like Christmas every time one got out of storage.