Our kids have a lot of toys, some bought new by us or other relatives, some hand me downs from family and a lot from garage sales. I love all the kids’ toys that are actually played with regularly and don’t just sit and collect dust. I have a hard time getting rid of the ignored toys but I make myself either give them away or put them away until one of the kids is interested in them. John has gotten really good at putting up shelves and buying clear storage containers so we can keep things organized (somewhat). It took us a long time to get the hang of it but toy rotation is the way to go. If the tinker toys have been away a few weeks and then get taken out its like Christmas morning for a few hours. After a few days, I’m tired of stepping over them and its time to pack them back away and get out the legos or a collection of trucks.

Here is a list of toys that I currently think are well worth the amount of space they take up in the house/garage:

• hot wheels monster trucks
• Cars movie cars
• mini trampoline
• big wheels
• bikes
• sports equipment (hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball)
• tinker toys
• puzzles
• legos
• Dora & Diego mega blocks
• tons of plastic animals, bugs & dinosaurs

Here are some things I’m on the fence about:

• Rescue Heroes (there are a lot of them and their accessories and I’m not sure they are played with enough to make storing them worth it)
• Thomas Trains and train table (again very big and its always out in the open)
• Little People

Little People Land (as I call it). Once you buy one little people house it becomes addictive. We have a castle, garage, school bus, mini-van, zoo, 2 different houses, 2 different farms, a boat and an ark. These toys are all big and there are lots of spaces for dust and dog hair to collect in them. If I had known how seldom my boys played with them I would not have acquired them all. I just recently dusted them all off and set them up in our 11 month old daughters room and I am holding out hope that she will take to them as she becomes a toddler. Right now they are perfect in her room because I can leave her with all the people and animals without fear that she will choke on them. They fill up her room though and there isn’t room for any other toys so if she follows in her brothers footsteps and only occasionally plays with them I will have to part with.

Things that were a mistake:

• Inflatable turtle ball pit (It was fine for our first baby but once the kids get a little bigger there is no keeping the balls in place. We never bothered to set it up for Ben and Jamie.)
• Fisher Price baby jumperoo (way TOO BIG and my daughter will only stay in it a few minutes, if that)
• infant toys (nothing specific but we just have way too many and they use them such a short time)
• baby gear (same problem as with infant toys only much larger stuff!)
• wagons (our kids just don’t use them much, I think they are too big for them to want to pull)

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