My problem is that my 3 year old seems to have an encyclopedic memory. I’ll try to put stuff into rotating bins but he’ll wake up one day asking about a book he hasn’t read in months or a toy he got at McDonalds on vacation last year. He would definitely notice if I packed up a bunch of toys to donate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pack up half in rubbermaid totes and put them out of sight for a few months. Then rotate.

This. Also - they are only kids for so long. Let them have their toys. Your house doesnt have to be perfect.

This is fair. My daughter will be in preschool for 2 more years.

I’m going to try to put the majority of the toys in the basement and only allow a few toys upstairs. The toys won’t bother me as much if I don’t have to constantly see them.

And I will start giving away items. We don’t need 100 dinosaurs. I will keep 10-20. And those dinotrux and switch and go dinosaurs my friends’ kids like so much. They can just have them.

This is a great idea, OP. If it were me, I'd just make the family room a no toy zone (storage-wise at least). If you have so many toys that they can't be out of sight and/or there's not a clear and easy place to put them away when the kids are done playing with them, I bet there are plenty that can be passed along. I live in a small apartment and was frustrated when it never seemed to be neat, and culling things was life changing. DD still has plenty of toys, she and her friends have fun when they play here, AND everything looks nice every day. When she's done playing, everything goes back to its designated spot in her room.

I haven’t read the whole thread, but this is what I would do:
Gather up all the toys in One room such as the living room and have a bunch of bins. Figure out how much physical space in your home you are willing to a lot to toys. Have been that take up that much physical space. Explain to the kids that they each have X number of bins to fill with toys that are important to them and then anything that does not fit into the bins is going to be donated. That way they aren’t choosing do we keep or toss a specific item, instead they are prioritizing which things matter most to them that they really do not wish to part with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pack up half in rubbermaid totes and put them out of sight for a few months. Then rotate.

This is what we do. But some also dissappear during the process.

We do this as well, but I do it with all the least-used toys. After a few months, when the kids have not noticed or cared where these particular toys are, they get donated or thrown away.

Every few months I take a big trash bag and get rid of a ton of broken or seldom used toys. Hardly makes a dent because Xmas and birthdays are never that far off. But, I guess it keeps it at bay.