How to reduce the amount of toys

"Stephanie" wrote in message
. ..

"autonut843" wrote in message
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Thanks! This is great input.
We're actually pretty good at keeping the numbers down and giving
excess to others in need. The thing I'm challenged by is, at the end
of the day (even *after* Christmas/Birthday), *only* having one toy
box worth of toys. (again, obviously excluding larger items.)
I appreciate all the good input!


I sort them by type into bins. They have 2 bins out of the storage room at
a time. If they want a new bin out of the storage room, they put on of the
out ones back.

I don't have limiting to one toy box as a goal since we have some big
toys. We have those cardboard blocks that are quite large, for instance.
And a big toy kitchen... For me it is about being neat and organized. And
the toys are like new again after they have been away for a bit.
I used to periodically do a sweep and put about half the toys away and get
another set out.

I never really had a toy box either. Even in those days, I thought they
were too disorganized and possibly dangerous (lids closing on little kids).
We had shelves in their room (sometimes a pretty small room with two girls
sharing in bunk beds).

We had a lot of puzzles with larger pieces, and one trick I used was to put
them together, turn them over and draw patterns on them with magic marker.
That way I could tell which piece went to which puzzle without actually
putting them together to see if a piece was missing. And I put the pattern
also on the box, so the kids could tell where the pieces went.