[ftio]

We're in the exact same boat. Our families will just not stop buying gifts for our three-year-old. We have two 'solutions,' which are sorta kinda working but are not totally satisfying:

- We end up making a lot of donations to local thrift stores, women's shelters, and other charities immediately following holidays and birthdays without telling our kids about it. The toys they don't play with simply disappear.

- If the gift is something we want him to eventually play with but that he doesn't have the attention span to remember in the near term, we just hide it in a closet and give it as a 'gift' for completing his 'good behavior' chart later on. He's always surprised and excited. Nice win-win for us.

[blackoil]

For us all toys from birthday go in a cupboard and we take out only one toy each month and they have to take out one toy for thrift store/NGO/younger relatives.