What do you do with toys your kids are tired of?

[mommy22boys]

I was wondering what most of you do with toys as your children outgrow them. Especially if you have younger children of the same sex.

We have a ton of Thomas the Train stuff and other nice items that my older boys don't enjoy playing with anymore. I have a 9 month old son who will probably enjoy them someday. But I have noticed that we tend to have all the same toys again now that we had when my oldest was younger (we got rid of everything he had outgrown because we were moving far away.) Most everything has been accumulated from yard sales, hand me downs and gifts from grandparents. I have limited storage space so I was considering just passing the items along to someone else as I'm sure we will end up with similar items as my youngest gets older. I hate selling stuff online and I hate having yard sales. Just trying to figure out if I should try to find somewhere to store a couple more storage totes. Or just pass it along to someone else.

What do you do?

[fungirl2727]

I donate it to goodwill and get a tax right off!

[CW&M Mom]

Either put them away for later...or sell them.

[everprincess]

My aunt told me about a lady she knew that had 7 boxes. Each labeled with Sun, Mon etc. The kids could only play with those toys in that box on that day. She said it worked great because the kids didn't lose interest in toys so much since they were restricted to those toys. Just a idea..I need to do this myself one day-lol.

[coupondad101]

I was wondering what most of you do with toys as your children outgrow them. Especially if you have younger children of the same sex.

We have a ton of Thomas the Train stuff and other nice items that my older boys don't enjoy playing with anymore. I have a 9 month old son who will probably enjoy them someday. But I have noticed that we tend to have all the same toys again now that we had when my oldest was younger (we got rid of everything he had outgrown because we were moving far away.) Most everything has been accumulated from yard sales, hand me downs and gifts from grandparents. I have limited storage space so I was considering just passing the items along to someone else as I'm sure we will end up with similar items as my youngest gets older. I hate selling stuff online and I hate having yard sales. Just trying to figure out if I should try to find somewhere to store a couple more storage totes. Or just pass it along to someone else.

What do you do?

We clean ours and Donate them to the local day care centers they are always in need of toys

[Macaela25]

I was going to suggest the preschool/daycare center donation too. Also a tax writeoff if they are nonprofit.

[Spanelli8706]

We sell what we can to Once Upon a Child. We give the left over stuff to the Police Dept. unit that deals with special victims (a lot of times the toys go to families who lost their homes due to fire, etc.)

[cpaige]

I have the luxury of being able to pass them down to my niece although once she gets a bit older, my son's toys aren't going to be that interesting to her. Look on yahoo for a group called FREECYCLE. You can post what you want to get rid of on there!

[JulieDB]

I don't have any other kids. I donate them to a local place that gives the proceeds to helping the blind. But if I had other kids I would keep some things. Especially Thomas. Those things can get expensive.

[tryn2save]

I agree with keeping the Thomas items and the more expensive ones if you think they younger will enjoy them someday (simply to save money because those add up, I know because I also had a huge Thomas fan). I try to donate some that might he helpful to my son's physical and occupational therapists. The smaller things, like hotwheels, mcdonalds toys etc, go to therapy for their "treasure" box or to school where the teachers keep something similar for treats at the end of the week.