Are you saving any of your children's outgrown toys?

[KBecks]

Grandchildren seem so far away, but I wonder about saving some of my boys' toddler age toys as mementos /future playthings for their children.  We were not Mustachian, we are still becoming frugal spenders, so I have a few nice things that could be saved.  Mostly wooden stuff:

Thomas wooden railway they played with a lot
Wooden unit blocks
Matchbox cars
A small wooden play kitchen that was $$$ and the boys have "vandalized" with markers/penciil.  I should see if I can repair it / sand it.
Holtziger animals that were very spendy but got little play
Legos and Duplo blocks.

We have some of my husband's very old legos and they are so dirty looking compared to our new ones. 

I'm curious if you have saved much or anything.  I don't want to go overboard.  Some of these toys could  sell well, I haven't decided what to do, some of the less used ones could get packed away  now.

Thanks, KBecks

[ace1224]

I've kept my sons Thomas trains and tracks and some awesome wooden blocks I have since passed them to my nephew.
Right now my kid loves these metal tonka dump trucks that were my brothers from the 80s, I will also pass those on. We also have my dads godzilla toys from the 60s. So cool.
I would keep quality ones that can get multiple generations of use and toss the cheapy ones

[AccidentalMiser]

I wish I had just one or two of the nicer toys I had as a child (my Lionel train comes to mind).  We didn't save any of our kids' toys, but they used and abused the heck out of them and we've moved several times since then.

In your position, I'd save a couple of the best ones and give away the rest to a children's hospital/other family members/close friends/etc.

[bogart]

Interesting about the OP's DH's legos, my mom saved mine and my brother's and I'm so glad she did; I can't stand the new Lego kit-based approach.  I do see, however, that it's possible to buy old-style free-range Legos on Ebay, so even if she hadn't, all would not be lost.

We've gotten a lot of hand-me-downs, many from much older cousins.  But my DH has older adult kids, so the idea of saving for prospective grands is more an in-a-few-years hope than an in-a-few-decades hope, leaving us more inclined to save good/durable stuff than we might otherwise be. 

[PindyStache]

Santa's present to our 2-year old this year was a box of old Brio trains that I has used myself when growing up. We had to clean/repair/repaint some part, but the stash my mom had was more than our DS could conceivable use at once, so we already have future gifts lined up and stored in our basement. Very glad my mom kept them all.

In short, I agree that saving the higher-quality items is likely to pay off.

There is also quite the secondhand market for these items on Craigslist, so you could always just take the MMM approach and let Craigslist "hold" them for you if you aren't using them, then just scoop up some other used ones if you want someday.

[brand new stash]

No, I'm not keeping any of their toys that they have outgrown...although I will keep their loveys.  My mother-in-law kept almost every toy my husband played with and I've found that very very few of them were good toys for my kids.  Also, my grandmother kept a box of blocks around her house from when her kids were little for the great grandkids, but the blocks were all painted in lead paint, so none of us grandkids wanted to let our kids play with them.  My advice is to sell them on craigslist unless they have enormous emotional attachment and use the money for the next round of toys.

[N]

Im saving one large plastic tub of their toys. the sentimental ones and they really good quality ones.
but we give away a lot of stuff too.

[Gray Matter]

I am saving only a very few--a beautiful wooden castle, a wooden treehouse with figurines, that's about it.  I saved my favorite toys from my childhood (Fisher Price toys, two dolls, a dollhouse) and none of my kids give two hoots about any of them.  Which is disappointing, because I would have loved something of my mom's when I was a kid.  But I was a "look-back" kind of kid--loved history and stories of the days of yore.  And my kids are "look-ahead" kids--like anything futuristic or fantasy.  And my only daughter hates dolls, dollhouses, and everything else remotely/traditionally girly.  When she was five, she told me, "Mom, you KNOW I'm not a fan of girlness." 

So now I'm trying to figure out if I should keep my beloved childhood toys on the off-chance that a grandchild might like them or just give them away.  Dang kids, they just refuse to do my bidding!

[rocklebock]

I'm kind of on the flip side of this right now. My mom saved a closet full of toys and books that belonged to me and my brother. Now my parents are getting ready to downsize into a condo. Last Christmas, my mom tried to give all the toys and books to me and my brother. Neither of us has kids. My brother lives in a tiny apartment in LA and doesn't have room for "stuff." I'm trying to get rid of stuff, not accumulate more. I definitely can't set aside a closet just for stuff that might come in handy if I have a kid someday. The other awkward thing was that the items that were sentimental to me (a Dr. Seuss book, a stuffed animal) were not the same ones that were sentimental to my mom (a set of Beatrix Potter books, some decorative knickknacks I never played with). I explained all this to her and she was disappointed, but understood.

[MayDay]

We were just talking about this today.

My parents saved duplos and some doll things, and some little people stuff, and I am so glad!  When we visit the kids have tons of "new" fun toys and I don't have to pack stuff for the trip. 

We will likely save duplos, some Legos (not kits), wooden trains for sure.

Depending on space (right now we have a huge basement so storage is not an issue) we will save some of the larger wooden things like play kitchen, doll house, doll cradle. 

[MrsPete]

I saved some favorites that would be difficult (or impossible) to replace; for example, the lovely homemade dollhouse.  It isn't valuable in financial terms, but they loved it, and I hope to update it with new furniture for granddaughters one day.  I saved more books than toys. 

I also saved one box full of clothes from each girl -- homecoming outfit, first Christmas dress, a few bowls and spoons, receiving blankets.  Everything's wrapped individually in tissue paper, and once a year I take it out and run it through the washing machine without soap (read that in an archival website).  I thought it'd be fun to give them these either when they find out they're expecting their first baby, or at their baby shower. 

I did not save anything that was broken, missing pieces, stained, or easily replaced.

[Itchin4Scratch]

I saved my own toys with hopes of passing them onto my children.  Now that I have kids, I realize that many of the toys are outdated.  Much better versions exist.  And some didn't do as well in storage (stuffed animals smell icky, books crumbled).  Some toys are so cheap to buy second-hand that using storage space was not worth it.  And a lot of the toys I thought were awesome, my kids could care less about.  Now that I think of it, my parents gave me some of their old toys as a kid, and I wasn't interested in them at all.

Long story short, for most toys this was not worth it.  For a select few, it worked out well.

[ritchie70]

My mom has several bags of stuffed animals and assorted other toys; I don't want them for our daughter at all. I'm sure they all smell terrible and haven't aged well.

When I was a kid, I had a lot of books from my father's childhood, and I wouldn't mind getting those from her in another year or two - with some editing. There are some books that were acceptable in the 40's and questionable in the 70's that are just unacceptable now.

(For example, I'm pretty sure http://www.amazon.com/George-Pal-presents-Jasper-watermelons/dp/B0007F5SIC was on my 70's childhood reading list.)

There are one or two of my daughter's toys that I will probably keep forever for sentimental reasons, and there may be a few more over the years, but I don't think toys in general last well for future generations.

[soccerluvof4]

Sounds like you have a couple neat things. I would save the best of the litter and put in maybe one large tub. I often think of toys i played with like lincoln logs as a kid be cool to see again at Grandmas house . Also someday the kids can share with there kids what they played with. Would be interesting if things circle back a bit.

[Mrs WW]

We have some of my husband's very old legos and they are so dirty looking compared to our new ones.   

If you have dirty legos or duplos, practise the standard Swedish preschool procedure: detach them from eachother and put them in a lingerie bag. Throw them in the washing machine with the tiniest bit of soap and give them a short gentle spin. They come out clean and mostly attached so detach them again to get the water out and dry on a flat towel. Much better!

[Simple Abundant Living]

I work with older women who are always scouring the classifieds for good, used toys for their grand kids.  When I asked them, they said "keep them!"

I have given a lot of preschool toys away, but kept the nicer ones. Occasionally, we have a younger children come over and it's great to be able to entertain them with a few toys.   I just keep one bucket full and I have the room to store it. When my kids get older, we will do the same for their toys and dress-ups. I agree about no stuffed animals. And the American girl dolls will probably be sold on eBay. Oh, and we keep our good board books. 

[KayEhm]

Depending on durability (will it last and still be usable in years to come?) and/or sentimental value (was this particularly special to the child? does the child associate certain times/events with that toy? etc.) is how you should determine whether or not to hold onto a toy or not. I try to only buy my kids toys that they can use at virtually any age, so that if they do grow out of it, at least it had a good run and I don't feel money was wasted. The best one we have right now that I know will stand the test of time and ages is a unique toy, it's called a Vertical Vortex: it's made of metal, it comes with its own carrier case, and can be used by people of all ages. Things I wouldn't hold onto are kits and whatnot: they'll get outdated and lose their value and you never know what the next generation will consider "fun".

[zolotiyeruki]

Legos are made of very high quality material--throw 'em in the washer as others have said.

As for what to keep, my advice is to keep the classics.  Wooden trains, legos, *maybe* the wooden blocks.  Throw away broken stuff.  My parents (in their 70's) still have many of the toys from my childhood, and lots of them are broken or incomplete to the point that they're useless.

[alice76]

Our son played with my husband's Sesame Street clubhouse, Richard Scarry book, and matchbox cars. Stuffed animals don't age well. Even my old Dr. Suess books kind of fell apart. Get rid of most of it!

[tooqk4u22]

I'm kind of on the flip side of this right now. My mom saved a closet full of toys and books that belonged to me and my brother. Now my parents are getting ready to downsize into a condo. Last Christmas, my mom tried to give all the toys and books to me and my brother. Neither of us has kids. My brother lives in a tiny apartment in LA and doesn't have room for "stuff." I'm trying to get rid of stuff, not accumulate more. I definitely can't set aside a closet just for stuff that might come in handy if I have a kid someday. The other awkward thing was that the items that were sentimental to me (a Dr. Seuss book, a stuffed animal) were not the same ones that were sentimental to my mom (a set of Beatrix Potter books, some decorative knickknacks I never played with). I explained all this to her and she was disappointed, but understood.

While I am not very sentimental, this is key to what you keep.....if the idea is to pass it on then it MUST be something that they will have a sentimental/nostalgic attachment to....and that almost always tends to be the stuff they play with for a very long time and can't live without.  I also think it is different with more recent generations of kids (maybe millenials and younger) because they have so much crap and toys/books/whatever is for the most part viewed as disposable...move on to the next.  Older generations tended not to have as much and what you had was what you played with day in and day out. 

You just can't be attached to something that you don't look at or play with.

[Helvegen]

No. We move around too much to keep too much stuff like that.

[LiveLean]

I follow the "curating" philosophy. I plan to save 1-2 Thomas trains and 1-2 of the children's books we read hundreds of times.

I actually still have my Matchbox cars from the 1970s and while my sons (now 12 and 9) played with them briefly, they didn't have much interest. So I plan to keep 1-2 of my own and sell or give away the rest.

I've always been struck by how Forrest Gump pretty much kept a representative sampling of his entire life in a briefcase -- i.e. Ping-Pong paddle, Bubba Gump shrimp hat, Fortune magazine with him and Lt. Dan on the cover, etc. I'm trying to whittle down all of my sentimental items and fit into one briefcase -- a college graduation gift from 24 years ago I was about to give away until I started my "Gump box."

[tooqk4u22]

I like the forrest gump reference but all those things represented major moments/milestones in his life...not simply sentimental artifcats. Along the same lines in the movie With Honors Joe Pesci had a sack with pebbles in it, each one represented a key moment/experience/memory for him.

[johnny847]

No. We move around too much to keep too much stuff like that.

Although I do not have kids, I was going to post this - OP if your intention is to hold onto your kids toys for your hypothetical grandchildren, you need to consider the cost of having to lug that stuff around if you ever move before you have said hypothetical grandchildren. And also the cost of actually bringing them these toys.

[MicroRN]

I've been pretty aggressively getting rid of toys as soon as they're outgrown, along with clothes.  Some of the Thomas train (wooden) set might get saved, but probably not.  See, my mom saved everything of ours.  She had trunks of clothes in our attic for 30 years waiting for grandkids.  As it turns out, she had no granddaughters and all the clothes are dresses.  They are also musty and spotted from being stored for 30 years and need to be thrown away.  Some other kid could have gotten use out of them many years ago, rather than them going in the trash.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I don't know if I'll save anything. My MIL saved waaaay too many of my husband's and his sister's things--no use for thirty-year-old baby jammies, sorry--but a few of the toys were quite cool, like a Little Tykes school bus. But I think the best ones all belonged to his much-younger sister. I'll probably pass along almost everything and hit the thrift store if and when grandkids come along.

A tough moment for me was when I got rid of my last American Girl doll. My kids are boys. Those dolls are made of plastic. They're in great shape now--but in ten years? Thirty? I sold them for people I know who were looking for a good deal. One posts a lot of pictures on Facebook of her daughter playing with the doll, and I know it's silly, but I really like that the doll is out there in the world being part of adventures, not sitting in my trunk.