I find this an emotive subject, and one where our thoughts have changed somewhat over the years.
The children have lots of family, that they see regularly, and consequently have been spoiled at times, such as birthdays and Christmas. Even polite requests for something small, handmade or preloved, still amounts to a big pile of stuff new or old.
I am slowly getting round it, the older children love to have a few pounds to save or spend on treats, and it's easy enough for family to give if they wish.. With the little one it's harder, people feel sorry for her i think, as the house is not brimming with plastic. She does have everything she needs though. Really. And she is a busy and happy little girl. I think that we still have too many toys. Reading waldorf essential toy lists, we have more than most.
We have never had any tv type toys, ie teletubbies, peppa pig etc, or clothing for that matter. I was not allowed any itv or disney as a child, and it seems to have stuck in me. Even as a new mum at 21 i charity shopped the pooh bear outfits and teddies that we were given. L and A ,however, did have plastic in the beginning, and lots of it too.
L had dolls and ponies galore, noisy ones even. A had power rangers and playmobil. Then we found waldorf and a big clearout was needed indeed.
For A, we have kept his ikea bin type storage drawers for now. they are quite empty though. He has his dinosaurs, schleich knights and animals and bucket of cars. The cheap plastic bits, useless cars and trucks, and action figures have all gone. It was easily done, we let them have a boot sale, with us paying the pitch fee and they kept their takings. He even offered up his castle of doom, the army men, a playmobil plane and pirate ship, much to my delight. He made over fifty pounds!
L was less keen to sell off the sylvanian village that she has been collecting since she was three. I agreed to this as I loved my sylvanian as a child, but on the day of the sale she decided to sell a few buildings and just keep the grand hotel and bakery, plus about a hundred figures and lots of accessories. I tell myself that one day they might be worth something as a vintage collection!
The ponies, barbies and plastic dolls all went though, and she made about £80.
They each put some in the bank and then they bought a lovely farm kit to add to our small collection of Lego. So now the bedrooms are a lot clearer and feel much nicer.
A list of the toys we have now, most of which are kept in the downstairs play area, with the bigger bits rotating the bedrooms as they are being played with.
The girls each have an old wooden dolls cot, with plenty of blankets.
Two bought handmade waldorf dolls.
Three small mama made waldorf dolls. I hope to greatly improve this craft!
Small wicker pram for little C
A basket of schleich animals, plastic I know, but the quality is ok and wooden are so expensive.
Wooden rainbow.
Daddy made wooden treehouse
Large bucket of wooden building blocks
Two skipping ropes, long myriad ones for French skipping.
A small pull along for little C.
Three hobby horses, two bought one mama made
Wooden ice creams and crochet cakes
A wooden pirate ship and nice old wooden car with driver.
Playsilks, and soon to be a dad made playframe.
I think that is it. Everything has a place and is neatly packed away each day. It's much easier when toys are reduced. I do have a few fisher price plastic toys from the 80's that I can't part with, including the telephone x2, and two boot schools, I'll have to post a picture they are so cute. But like my large collection of original ladybird books, I can't part with them!
