What Do You Do with All the Stuff from Birthday Parties?

I cannot stand those bags so we always so no thank you, we came to celebrate your birthday.

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I bag it up and either donate it or sell it in ziplocs at Garage Sales.

This is why I think we need to quit the "Goody bags".. They are really a waste of money..

Let your daughter know you are giving iit all to children that never get to go to parties.. We have a children's museum and Children's hospital that will accept things like this.

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I toss those stuff, I can't stand random little junk all over my house. That's why for my kids party I send them home with an individually wrapped treat like a cookie pop.

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Stop organizing it! Take the bucket and toss that stuff in with her other toys. (minus any crayons or markers) Eventually she will forget about it and then you can throw it away.

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They can make fun little prizes to give out to kids at parties. Save them to give out at a future birthday party or donate to someone who could use them for that purpose.

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I would put together little kits for long car rides with note pads, crayons and a couple of fun toys.

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throw them in a box that you keep in a closet for when you need a quick little treat, let her use them in art projects, my kids love making collages. Also, she is 3...I still clean out my kids rooms and throw away stuff ( junk/trash) all the time...she is 3...you do not need her permission.

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Toss it out that evening. Always!

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I toss it...maybe a piece at a time. It's just stuff. She won't be that attached for too long. I used to feel like you do and would let my dd keep it all (4 1/2), but it just accumulates and gets to looking junky everywhere I look so...I toss it. Every once in a while she'll ask where's such and such that I got from so and so's party and I just say I don't know (may not be the best response), but she almost always just shrugs her shoulders and moves on. It's never caused a fit or anything.

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He plays with it in the car and then I take it in the house and it mysteriously disappears. If the stuff is still in good condition, I'll put it up and take it to the children's home we support in India. Otherwise, it goes in the trash.

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If it's junk, toss a "little" at a time. If you have the actual bags, give them to other kids who don't have much.

Blessings....

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I move trhe little junky toys.. (happy meal toys, birthday toys.. trinkets...) to the area near the kitchen trash.. when kids arent looking it goes into the trash.. trash goes immeidately outside so they never see it.. they never ask about it..

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i've struggled with this too, now anything little like that that they just leave laying around, I toss.

I love the poster that said to just toss it in with other toys and see how fast it loses it's appeal. and can then be thrown away.

One reason to save might be if you go on long car trips you could wrap this junk up to be given every hour or so of the trip.

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I had a good bit of it----crayons with little pads, light up yo-yos (but my oldest just turned 5 and he's not going to be able to do that yet), erasers, pencils, etc. We adopted a family, and we bagged it all up for the children's stocking stuffers (a little bit older than mine, so they'd be more likely to use it). I like the idea of donating it to a kids museum, children's hospital where they'd be more likely to need quiet simple small toys that they can do in bed that Laurie mentioned.
Another option is to save just a few things for the "rainy day box". (We have a treasure chest that's our rainy day box for bad weather----boys can get stir crazy so we'll open up the treasure chest and pull out "new" toys, activities, books, movies, etc that they never see except on these days). Little art projects and ''stuff''.
You can't be "attached" to stuff you're not even using, so feel free to do whatever you think is right with it all. My sister pulls that mess with dad (she's 8 or 9 now)----she CANNOT be "attached" to ALL 200 stupid stuffed animals that she refuses to donate to needy children. GROSS! (Which is why she gets NO toys from me---just books).

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well at our house when my 6 year old is gone for the day somewhere (out with dad or grandma) I go on a wild cleaning spree and donate stuff that he no longer plays with or toys that just drive me insane.

To accomplish this, several days prior....I start to move these toys from being out in plain site to the back of the closet or just out of site/reach. Then when he is gone...into a giant hefty sack they go and off to the donation location.

Only thing he has asked is the drum set from 3 years ago....mom where is the drum set...me what drum set...the one downstairs...me...hmmm not sure...why don't you get out that puzzle, etc.

My experience is that nothing that disappears is ever missed for long. 99% of stuff is not even noticed. BUT key is to do the cleaning out while they are gone...otherwise it is melt down city. May be sneaky...but gets the job done with out any hassle!!!!!

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I throw out stuff all the time while my kids are at school or asleep.....or donate it. They never miss it, im sure some of that junk gets in there.

I keep a big craft box with my son's art supplies and usually throw the pens, pencils, stickers, notepads, and tattoos in there. Then I incorporate those into some kind of art project eventually. As far as the little plastic toys, super balls, glasses, little animals, etc., I just keep them in the car for the kids to play with and eventually they break or get lost. They serve their purpose. I never try to incorporate all of that stuff into the kids' regular toys, that would drive me insane!

bag it up and send to the teacher. most teachers have little buckets of that kind of thing that they use as prizes. my sons teachers all the way thru middle school gave out what they called bonus bucks. they got them each day for things like finishing homework on time, whole class does good at something whatever. at the end of the month they could "buy" things out of her bucket. she had little hard candies, pencils, fancy erasers, pens, little pads of papers, sometimes fancier stuff if a parent donated things like matchbox cars etc but those cost the big bucks lol kid would hav eto work hard for a while to earn those.

Put some in the car so she has a bag of mystery toys for trips. My DD had finger puppets leftover from her own party and she will entertain herself for quite a while with them. I wait til she seems bored and then toss the bag to her. A pad and some crayons can also be great to stuff in the bag and take to restaurants or anywhere else she needs a quiet activity.

My stepson was quite upset when DH bagged up some old toys and gave them away so I don't take things without DD knowing. I tell her they will go to another kid to make room for new things for herself and she's doing OK with it. If she's ever iffy on giving it away, I might put it aside for a while and see if she asks about it later. Just recently a friend wanted to give my DD a pair of sunglasses she was playing with, but I could see over Mom's shoulder that the daughter was not liking that idea. I told her thank you for the offer, but we'd leave them so DD could use them next time we visited. You have to weigh how your child is and react accordingly. My SD? Toss it out. NO sentimental attachment to almost anything...which means I buy her very little I put a lot of love into because she might not love it 6 months later and out it goes.

Bag it up and give it right back...at your next birthday party =]

Funny tidbit- someone I know called them CPS- Cheap Plastic Sh--. I Iove it!
We're running into the same problem. I like what one person said- just give a good cookie pop or something similar. I started removing some too, but do feel that sometimes you have to know what they like and do not like. In my niece's kindergarten the kids do junk art and make things with plastic junk, so we sometimes give them our extra "junk" for crafts. It makes it fun for the kids too.