Flippantly, but part seriously, I'd say they only need one toy - their imagination.

It's well worth having periodic clearouts of toys - particularly the huge lumps of plastic from the early years.

Could you fake a note from Santa requesting that the kids make some space in their toy cupboards for the Xmas arrivals? Hope that wouldn't imbue them with unreasonable expectations of the size of Xmas gifts, though, but you could hint that the better the toy sacrifice, the more "good" Santa might perceive them :-)

I suppose the only way, is to ask the children to select one toy, to give away for every new one they get. It's important, to allow them to choose which toy to give away.

This will hopefully, prevent them from becoming selfish, also allowing the 'mountain' to be controlled.

Well, as you can imagine, little 'rasslinfan has been spoiled bloody rotten and has tons of toys, half of which, she doesn't even play with anymore. I am observant of the ones which she plays with frequently, and monthly, we go and purge some of the unused ones and donate them to the thrift shop for abused women down the street. She never even notices when they are gone. I agree with siasl, imagination is the best toy there is on the market today. Physical toys are flavor of the month kind of deals. They play with it for a few weeks, get bored, then start begging for a new toy. I don't think it is actually the toy they are looking forward to, it is the fact that you are actually buying them something to make them happy that they crave. Donate the unused ones to a charity organization. You will help a great cause and eliminate some of the clutter in your home.

well you can't blame the amount of toys they have on the children that is adults fault as they buy most of the toys
all i can say is what i use and what was used for us as children
we had a large ottoman each that was full of toys of our choice but if we wanted a new toy we had to get rid of an old toy before we had the new toy
if we let the toys on the floor and did not tidy them up they went in the bin (well actually charity bin as we used to call it) and we lost the toy did not take long for us to learn to tidy up after ourselves

To many, as soon as the xmas adverts come on, mainly aimed at children, its the syndrome of "I must have and want." when a new toy comes out.
Why dont you ask your children what favourite toys they can keep and maybe show them a childrens website that the children in places like africa, war torn areas that dont have any toys at all and ask them if they like to give these children their toys as these children need something to play with and cuddle at night. Obvisouly not gory sites you show them, but you know what i mean. (cant spell today. heads spinning.) I am sure your children would have great delight in sharing their toys to little children who have none. sure Red cross could help if you having a good clear out. :0)

Just get rid of them without asking! (The toys not the children). They wont notice if you go at it quietly and furtively. Watch out for the faves though, dont unload those unless you have a particularly quick imagination to explain their absence.

The biggest mistake parents make is to announce a great 'clearout'.

I am in exactly the same position as you Sheps,I have 3 kids in 1 room not alot of loft space and a little house that is fit to burst with all 5 of us.
My stratogie for this is having a child with ADHD that destroyes everything in his path with in usually 6mths and alittle sister that follows big bro because if he does i can to.
Seriously every now and again i have a bloomin good clear out, Anything that is not use anymore,Has bits missing or i think they have grown out of all gets chucked out or given to charity.
Be strong and have a good clear out only make sure the kids are out of the way so they don't want to hold on to things(Which is usually everthing they see)
I think kids only need 6 toys each as they have to much and usually stick to 3 or 4 toys they really like anyway.
Give them a box each for christmas or the rapping paper and they will be like a pig in poo and you will not be skint.Ha ha.
I have never brought my kids christmas or birthday presents(How wicked am i?)I always put the money in the bank for them,They get plenty off of the rest of the family.

I have pretty much the same trouble but i now have a clear out about a month before an occasion (birthday,xmas). I send the children up to my mums for an hour and get it all done and i have now got big plastic boxes with lids that i stack on top of each other where the toys are kept inside and tidy and also as the children can not lift the boxes i ensure that the toy they have out go away before they get anymore out, good luck xx

Younger children have really short attention spans, so need to switch between lots of different activities (or toys) to keep them amused. if you take half of their toys away, however, they will notice. And cry.