I found that people would overload my kids with soft toys. I would never give kids a gift of soft toys now as they end up with so many.

So wish we could convince my 6yr old to give up anything, we have tried and tried so many different tactics, he remembers every single toy he’s ever owned, he’s still heartbroken I won’t replace a ball with a bell in it he had as a baby

I like the idea of one in one out. I really need to do that in our home.

A great article Jessica. A while back, we lost a lot of toys through a natural disaster, so my kids don’t have a great deal of excess. I’ve boxed up the baby toys in a back cupboard and these are brought out, cleaned and checked before we have visitors with babies. Other toys I have in containers that I swap around every few weeks, so it feels like new toys rather than the ones they have every day. Books too are rotated between an upper shelf and a lower bookcase. Broken toys are disposed of, as too ones with missing parts.

Some great tips, thanks.

I need to do a toy cull big time, some have been with us for over 10 years, since my first was born. They don’t even play with most of them, yet I haven’t had the heart to donate them or throw out the battered ones. I really need to though as it’s gotten ridiculous. Thanks for this article, just what I needed to read!

Some of those freebie toys just seem to multiply. No idea how

Don’t they accumulate so easy? After xmas we clear out a lot of the kids toy’s.

It is funny this showed up as something I might be interested in as we had just finished having this discussion in our house and is on the agenda to start tomorrow.

Keeping the toys in the shed for a week first is a clever idea incase they ask for it! We have too many soft toys in our house that I’m sentimental over because of who gave them… I might need to rethink those:)
I didn’t buy new baby toys myself and we still ended up with enough.

These are all great tips, thanks.

We absolutely need a cull. My son is now 14, so the majority of his toys are no longer of use to him. I just know it’s going to be such a chore, such a big job so I need to allocate time to it. It’s definitely on the to do list, but I keep pushing it down!! In the past, we sort into – rubbish/throw out if it’s broken, damaged, missing something; donate to preschool if they can use it; pass onto friends with kids'; donate to charities; sell on eBay or Gumtree if really good and valuable but no longer needed; put away in the back shed for my son’s children. Now to get onto it!

Thank you for sharing these tips!
I have just gone through and had a huge clean out of toys, a large garbage bag of soft toys and two boxes of other toys that are now out grown and no longer played with have gone.
I also tossed out those annoying maccas toys too.
Wow, I was so surprised at how much room is now free, and I feel better for it too!

yep, this is a familiar sight!!

I’m sure these tips would help with all culling of household goods – the one tip you haven’t given me is ‘How do I start’.

My son has presents from years ago that he has never touched, never opened. I want to write “no presents” on future birthday party invitations but everyone tells me that’s rude.

I know a lot of children that have gone back to their older toys for a few months. The problem is some kids are given too many toys. I still have some toys that I am setimental about and my kids play with them indoors. One is a teddy given to me by my Grandma, one the colour original ones were made before other colours were introduced. My Mum put some outgown baby clothes which I suspect were hand-me-downs on it we had grown out of to keep it clean. If you have a lot of relatives or friends with children and they all play together a lot you do tend to need a few extra things like little cars to share around. Not 100 though. Childrens books are another thing that some parents pass along. Mum kept a few “special” books that our kids are now reading. At least none of the spelling in them is American. They spell some words differently to what we do. I noticed the same issue with a big floor puzzle I bought too. It is a big poster you lay on the floor and put the puzzle pieces on the top of it to match

Great tips! I really need to do a toy cull but get way to sentimental when trying and end up just giving up. Really must do it though!

My children aged 7 and 11 and myself do a toy cull before their birthdays and just before Christmas each year, once we have sorted the good/usuable toys from the broken toys we donate the good/usuable toys to a local refuge. My children have been doing this from the age of 2. They now pretty much do it themselves.

I’ve got too many toys in the house. My daughter (now 13) is so attached to each toy. We gave some away but there are still a lot. We’ve got a room where to store them, but I should really cull some. Actually it’ s a job I should do with my daughter, but she never wants to do it.