Even though my kids don’t play with toys too much anymore, we still have a collection in the playroom for the cousins and the kiddies of friends. We wave the little kids down the stairs and then hand the friends a large glass of wine.
Over the years, I’ve culled the herd of toys quite a bit to the essential toys — the toys that were in heavy rotation for my kids and the cousins. Sent off to the Good Will were all the good intension toys and the secret agenda toys. So, all the science kits and the magic trick kits went. Sorry, grandparents, but your grandkids don’t want to learn about the constellations or make a flower come out of your nose. And nobody here has much patience for board games, because they are toooooo sllllooooooowwww.
The absolute most important thing for dealing with kiddie toys is having a sensible organization system. It needs to be big and tall, so you don’t end up with multiple systems. It needs to be able to handle grubby fingers. We are using IKEA’s storage system. Macy’s has the Neatfreak system. This ClosetMaid Cube Stackable Laminate Organizer
So, what’s in those storage bins and the toy closet? Nerf guns
We have three mega bins of Lego
We have a box of matchbox cars
Everybody buys girls princess outfits, but boys like to dress up, too, though not really in princess outfits. We keep all the old Halloween costumes
Ian still plays with ZOOB
There’s a bright green soccer ball
Apt. 11d 
Zoob is great, but Zoob will pinch your kids’ fingers. Careful, out there.
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I want to find where Melissa and Doug lives so I could thrown all this wooden crap nobody ever plays with over the fence.
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All my girls did with the M&D wood toys was hit each other over the head with them. We gave all of them away for free…
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We loved the folding castle. Some kids to play with it. But, I think it’s a limited age bracket (3-4 or so in our house). We gave our castle away to a mom with a 6 month old, who I think was going to play with it herself until she could share it with her daughter :-).
I think the play value of different toys is very child-specific.
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Our 8-year-old just had his room done in a castle motif (big photo mural of castle on wall, handmade shield and decorative swords with family coat of arms, etc.). He builds a lot of block castles for his toy knights and Saracens to play Crusades and we had a spectacular cardboard castle with working drawbridge made from moving boxes for a couple of months.
After I was rereading this post, the 8-year-old and I were eyeing these castles very seriously, including a spectacular 24″ square one for $140. (Grandma?) Then my husband and D started discussing making a wooden castle out of pine. Of course, daddy would need a new miter saw…
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My son who’s a big fan of knights played with it through 4th-5th grade. It still gets hauled out at times.
The Nerf sword and other armaments are still used.
One great way to build a dress-up chest is to buy lengths of fabric on sale.
Board games we play. Scrabble. Monopoly (until someone loses their temper.) Word Thief. Munchkin (and extension packs.) Gloom. Cards Against Humanity (for the older set. NOT appropriate for middle school.)
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I am disappointed to see the lack of love for Melissa and Doug. My daughters played with a variety of M&D toys, and preferred them to the V-Tech garbage that infested our house for a few years. At the time, they were typically also sold through Mom and Pop distribution channels (at the prices such channels charge), so they provided some sense that we were helping to support a larger segment of the economy. For all I know now, I could have been hoodwinked on that point.
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Well I’ll chime in on the M&D hate. I wanted to have beautiful wood toys for my son.
What ended up happening: They dented our wood floor when thrown, which they frequently were, as well as hurt other kids. They were not as detailed as the admittedly awful plastic Little People he loved, and the stuff-that-rolled didn’t roll well enough compared to other toys. This last was the kicker. Their workbench also splintered when hit with the hammer.
There were some wins, like the velcro and wood food sets (still hazardous when thrown though) and some of the imagination stuff like the mailbox were hard to find in alternative forms. We kept those for my youngest. But mostly I have to say the M&D was better marketing to parents like me that didn’t want to be too mainstream, than provided some kind of great play value.
We still look for open-ended toys with a lot of play value, and I try to source ethically where possible or go used, but one of the big conceits I gave up was the wood toy thing.
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Melissa and Doug has a lot of nice preschool stuff, but it’s easy to get way too much of it.
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“But mostly I have to say the M&D was better marketing to parents like me that didn’t want to be too mainstream.”
That was us. No Disney Channel, no Wiggles, no anything that could have been described as corporate. But it’s not like we researched anything. For all I know, M&D could have been owned by Mattel, just like American Girl now is.
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Toys made by kids for kids!
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There’s a great Etsy shop selling M&D style castles that are also buildable. So cute that I wanted to find someone to buy them for.
I do love the playmobil sets. My kids played with them some, but I am the one who loves them. I particularly like the unusual sets (of which there seem to be fewer these days). There’s a no longer available Egypt set that is fabulous, with Egyptian figures and Egyptian accessories (including oasis, and wells, and mummies and treasures, , . . . .). But my favorite was the hosptial/rescue set, which included IVs & surgical lamps.
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My 8-year-old son WANTS this, but it grosses me out, so we’re not getting them.
http://www.sciencebobstore.com/products/Chocolate-Covered-Insects.html
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We got those once (I think someone gave them out as a b-day party favor). I suspect he would get over the desire quickly if he got them.
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