The following is a guest post from My Canuck Buck - a lady paying closer attention to her bucks now. Please check her out!
I’ll admit it. I’m a cheap (but proud!) Aunt.
I have a total of four nieces. They range in age from 4 to 11. I have helped the eldest one clean out the family basement a few times, and as such, been able to help her get rid of a lot of toys she has outgrown. The majority of these have gone to charity, but I have pulled some aside for my youngest niece. Since the children are from different sides of the family, this wouldn’t be a “natural” progression of toys, just something I’ve managed to arrange.
My youngest niece adores the toys I got her. There’s a bunny in a tutu, an awesome castle that lights up, a dragon, and some other toys that go with the castle. She hasn’t even seemed to notice the large chunk of plastic that has come out of the castle – it doesn’t interfere with her playing with it in any way. I supplemented with some yard sale toys, and now she’s got lots to play when she comes to visit (although her favourite thing to play with is still the cat!)
I’ve recently introduced a “new” toy into the mix – one I had when I was a child! It’s sort of a fashion designer toy (I still have the ugly 70’s fabrics to go with it!). My niece and I had lot of fun playing with it today – I even took some pictures to record her creations.
There are lots of benefits to hand me down toys:
- I’m keeping things out of the land fill.
- My eldest niece is learning the joy of giving.
- I’m saving money, which I can put towards better things for my niece – like shoes that light up and her college education.
I do give her new things for her birthday and Christmas (generally books), but for simply stocking the toy chest, second hand toys were definitely the way to go!
Have you ever given your children or someone else’s children second hand toys? How did it go?
Crystal’s Comments: I keep some coloring books and crayons around for child visitors…and a bunch of my favorite family friendly movies like Ice Age. 
I remember being little and getting hand me down toys and it didn’t phase me away from loving the toy!
The most important thing for me is saving money. Keeping them out of the landfill is an additional bonus. Unfortunately our child is the oldest out of his friends so he seldom gets anything hand-me-down.
In this modern day and age ‘retro’ toys have got to be seen as amazing!
of course, we often hand stuff down from big brother -> little brother.. and now that we have a new baby in the house, she is playing with all of her brothers’ old baby toys, and doesn’t even know the difference..
we are looking at getting my 7 year old a new bike for his 8th birthday in a few weeks.. he hits his knees on the handlebars of his old bike when he rides, so it is certainly time. i admit, i started my search on craigslist to see if i could get a really nice like-new bike for a good price. i don’t know if i will end up going that route in the end, but there is nothing wrong with it.
I had them as a kid, and LOVED them. Mom phrased it in a way that said, “we can go to the garage sale and you can get as much as you want, OR we can go to the store and you can get one.”
Another thing you can do with old stuff animals – turn them into chew toys for dogs. Just make sure you take off anything you don’t want them to swallow.
I never knew all of my childhood toys were garage sale finds until I was an adult. Then my mom let me in on her secret. But it didn’t phase me in the least as a child — toys were toys!
I grew up on hand me down toys and loved them. I admit I may have been a little bit jealous of the kid who had all the latest toys, but it didn’t prevent me from enjoying what I did have. I think it helped that a lot of my friends were in similar circumstances. So my second hand toys was still a decent sized collection to some of them. In return I passed some of these down to my cousins to extend their lives even further.
Nothing wrong with hand me down toys, and we love hand me down clothing even more. One of the big benefits of a large extended family is a low clothing expense for growing children. Hooray for hand me downs!
I’ve got a stuffed animal and a whole wack of “babysitters club” books to pass down to my children. I loved playing with things my parents had as a child – and I’m sure my kids will feel the same. There’s something special about toys with a history…
All – thank you so much for your comments, and for visiting my site! I really appreciate it. I’m so glad to know that lots of people are in favour of hand me down toys, and that those of us who grew up with them are not traumatized!
If it weren’t for some of my friends that are a bit high on the baby totem pole I would be much more poor. Hand me downs have saved us.
This is a cool idea… but be careful about the “dark side” of giving retro toys to small kids. About 10 years ago my oldest brother was at our parents’ house and saw a box of old toys and, without asking, grabbed it and gave it to his youngest kid. Inside that box were a bunch of old Star Wars toys… including the original Millennium Falcon toy from the late 1970s — in box! If you know anything about toy collectibles, then you know that even a battered box significantly increases the value of the item. Now, this toy originally belonged to my younger brother who took reasonably good care of it and was FURIOUS to find out that his older brother had swiped it. He was even more furious when I informed him that, based on the info I had at the time, his “toy” was valued at about $250 (and this was a decade ago). After my nephew (older bro’s son) got through ripping it up and losing pieces, we’re luck if it’s worth $30 (someone would mainly buy it for parts to replace on other toys).
So, the Jedi moral of the story is: “Value you should check before old toys to children you give.”
It is both ways for us. My kids will always love to receive hand-me-down toys, clothes, and shoes from their older cousins and kids of our friends. At the same time, they also enjoy giving their old stuff to other children, especially those who are in orphanage.
There’s nothing wrong with hand-me-downs – some of my most cherished childhood toys were hand-me-downs from my older cousins. More kids should be exposed to the joys of recycling and reusing at an early age. Our entire society is focused on turning our kids into good little consumers from as early as possible, and it’s time more parents pushed back.
Reusing toys is a great idea. The novelty of toys easily wear out on most kids so there’s no sense buying new ones all the time.
Hand-me down toys are super savers compared to brand new ones. And whether toys are new or pre-owned,when given to kids, they serve the same purpose for which they are given for, HAPPINESS. Whether new or not, you get the same response from kids – SMILES.
So, next time, don’t hesitate to give hand-me-down toys. Not only it de-clutter your kid’s toy cabinet, you also make one little soul joyful.
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