We have a playroom downstairs filled with toys that rarely get played with. It drives me batty that we’ve collected so much stuff that our kids don’t really appreciate and every few months I do a big purge, filling recycling bags with decaying hunks of plastic, wondering how it made its way into our home to begin with.
I dream of turfing all of it and starting with a clean slate, a bare room to add a few carefully chosen toys to: a classic dollhouse with miniature furniture, a vintage kitchen set with shiny little pots and pans, a dress-up chest, and a wooden easel with finger paints.
For now I just try to keep on top of things and refrain from buying random junk and working to remind the kids that they already have more than they will ever need and they need to enjoy what they have instead of pining for a new hunk of junk from the big box store.
Are you really selective about the toys you let into your home or do you have a plastic graveyard in your basement too?
We have lots of plastic stuff too… but I’ve been very selective about a lot of the stuff, only because it’s not a downstairs play space – it’s in the TV room, which is the first room a person looks into when you enter my house. We’d had giant plastic kitchenettes and things offered to be handed down to us in the past – gently used – but I’m way big on aesthetics, and knew I couldn’t stand to look at them in my house without driving me completely crazy. We have lots of bits and pieces, of course, but those smaller items can all go into closets or bins in armoires so I don’t have to see them.
And girls’ stuff? Holy PINK!! Yikes.
Right now my daughter is only 2 and our playhouse is exactly like the one you describe. dollhouse, play kitchen, tickle trunk and easel. i try to buy wooden and fabric toys and keep it minimalistic…. that being said, she is young, and hasn’t started watching tv, or visiting the toy store, so I’m sure our tidy little playroom will start to become overrun with toys one day…