Legos, playmobiles, and books. I think we may have some American Girl dolls too.
You know…you can pay someone else to make the T shirt quilts!
We had one made for our DD…it’s absolutely terrific because it was made by a relative. Every square is beaded and quilted. It probably will get put on a quilt stand someday. Right now…it’s on a closet…where the cat can’t get it!
@momo2x2018 There must have been something :)) It does sound pretty bad when I list it off. DD’19 is pretty sentimental about her toys!
I better have some granddaughters.
Tons of Legos
Brio/Thomas trains and track (I say that I could have paid for a year’s tuition for what we paid for this stuff)
A set of solid wood building blocks
Books - but have weeded out only the “special” ones
Three metal Tonka trucks (they don’t make 'em as good as that anymore!)
Hoping for at least one grandchild to play with them someday! 
We still have oldest boy’s complete collection of Thomas the Tank Engine paraphernalia, including a suitcase with his name on it. Part of the reason is that none of the 4 younger kids had any interest in Thomas. I didn’t realize at the time that oldest son’s fascination with Thomas and transport vehicles in general was a sign of his mild Asperger’s.
I have D’s one and only American Girl doll. D tried to donate it to a library several years ago and I said NO! I told her she could buy a generic one to donate, but I was not parting with the one I bought that was made to her features.
I have tons of Legos. I had given D a ton to take her classroom the year she taught. When she quit teaching, she left them at the school, which was in a poor area. I still have tons left and I didn’t mind her leaving those.
I have some books that were special to the kids.
The other big thing I have is a giant stuffed camel. Every time I try to get rid of it, the kids say no! We used to put it by the Hanukah bush.
@thumper1, the problem is that I’m a quilter! Would be heresy to send the shirts out for someone else to make a quilt! I should at least cut down the shirts so that I have much less bulk. They’d then fit in a bag in my quilting area (S1’s old bedroom).
Tried to get rid of a bunch of S2’s chess medals last year before he moved overseas (not big-deal awards – I happily save the significant ones), but he wasn’t ready to let go. This is the same kid who I told in 9th grade that if he cleaned out his room, we could repaint and get rid of the old wallpaper border and jungle theme (and fossils, digeridoo, military posters, models, beanie babies…). He’ll be 27 this week. Still not done. Am tempted to just do it while he’s still overseas and repaint.
I made mini quilts for my nieces’ American Girl dolls. Told them that they are not to give away/sell the quilts – if they don’t want them, I will happily take them back!
Should probably cull some more of the books. I just remember that every time we moved to a new Army post as a kid, we had to get rid of most of our toys and books. I am shamelessly sentimental about hanging on to things that (I think) my sons may want later but don’t realize it yet. I was really upset when they were born and I had nothing from my own childhood to pass along.
The actual toys have been passed along to other families with young kids, and to the daycare center at my workplace. I gave the several AG dolls to colleagues last Christmas because their daughters were begging for one from Santa. They were all shipped off to the AG Doll Hospital and came back good as new. I was thrilled to see them being enjoyed and no longer in my basement. I am the sentimental saver of many things, and my kid is Marie Kondo at heart. She does a major sweep each time she comes home on break, and gets rid of boxes of things. I had to nearly tackle her one day when she was carting away a big box of stuffed animals. Some of those were very special – to me at least! LOL I’ve kept the (many) stuffed pandas we received after I brought her home from China as a baby, including the life-sized one that one of my friends from college sent her. And the books – many have been donated away, but I also kept a couple of boxes of the favorites. I’ve kept a handful of her special baby outfits, including the handsewn outfit she was wearing when I met her at the orphanage.
And…If anyone has ideas on what to do with about 100 horse show ribbons, let me know! I can’t part with those either!
Wooden pattern blocks, a wooden marble run, and those expensive Thomas train pieces. Plus enough matchbox cars to build a border wall.
Legos and Duplos. Have some with just the blocks and dismantled his specific set ones (kept photos) to fit containers when we moved OOS. They o longer seem to sell those great sets of a 100 plus blocks- too many predesigned kits. We hauled many small cars and trucks (Hot Wheels, Matchbox et al) but then sent them to a nephew in son’s city so they would get used. Son’s uncle, an architect, decades ago stated one can never have too many Legos.
There were some obvious give away toys that son never really used. Then there were numerous other toys that went ignored in his closet for many years. You can’t keep your entire childhood. Even many books were given away. He took volume 7 of the Harry Potter series and we have the other 6 original editions. Plus Dr Seuss books. And those Disney fairy tale ones which could go if I get around to it.
It makes a difference when you downsize extensively and no longer have the attic/basement storage. Over the years I had given away many younger age toys- better they get used by someone than sit in a closet.
For D and S I kept:
-Some books such as the set of Beatrix Potter Books, Madeline, Thomas the tank Engine, some Berenstein Bears books, American Girl books, etc. Oh and I definitely kept my old Winnie the Pooh and Wizard of OZ books that belonged to my mother and then me and then D.
-A couple of stuffed animals
-Booties that my grandma knitted for the kids
-Blankets my mom made
I let D and S pick out some things to keep with them. S took his old set of tinker toys and some of his comic books and action figures. D took her Polly Pocket and Little Petshop. Haha!
The rest we passed onto younger cousins or friends or donated. We don’t have a ton of space. H’s younger brother’s daughter was the baby of the family and she got D’s old doll house. She loved it!
Oh and we donated all the old beanie babies…don’t get me started!
Just saying: I saved the Chutes and Ladders game because I like it. It’s so egalitarian, anyone can lose.
I tried to jettison some of the games…but my kids said no to that. So we have Connect Four, Game of Life, Clue, Battleship, and at least five or six others. We have Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land but only because I used those at my work.
We have two largish plastic tubs of K’nex. And a box with Brio train stuff.
DD gave her American Doll to her youngest cousin several years ago.
DS still has a big leaf size garbage bag of “stuffies” (stored at our house); there are only 2 I’d think to keep.
I just recently sent the little wooden wagon (with one cracked wooden wheel) of wooden blocks that was my dad, then ours, then my sister’s kids, then my kids’ … to my niece. My dad lives near to her now and maybe her kids can talk about getting to use Gramps’ toys.
Oh and I still have a little tool box that I bought my sister’s boy and she regifted to my boy. Now my niece’s son is 5, maybe he is old enough to send that on. I think his younger brother is the more mechanically inclined though.
Brio, Lego, Connects, some trucks, an old Fisher Price Circus (from my childhood), board games, Lincoln Logs, American Girl Doll and accessories, That is all I remember we still have but I haven’t looked in the attic. I know we got rid of a lot.
I gave the Brio and Playschool stuff to my brother’s kids. I kept the Lego and K’nex. We have a fair number of the board games. My younger son refuses to get rid of his stuffed animals - they are mostly in a garbage bag in the eaves of the attic. He’s got the giant stuff rabbit his grandmother gave him (just about the last thing he got from her before dementia got her) on his bed here. All his Warhammer miniatures are here as are the landscapes he made for them, but they are in pretty bad shape in the garage.
Among other things, an enormous, regal stuffed lion.
Normally-frugal DH brought it home one day when our daughter was about a year old. Saw it in the book store window and he couldn’t resist. It’s around six feet long (plus tail). I said, be careful… what’s it gonna be when she’s sixteen, a Porshe?
She’s sixteen now, and no Porshe in sight. We do have a tawny-colored cat who just loves that lion. It’s his go-to bed, and I’ve taken dozens of photos of him perched and curled on his lion (not posted to Facebook, BTW 
). The daughter will forge onward in a couple of years, but seems that the lion is a permanent fixture of our home.
Little did DH know at the time, but I had had a lion collection as a child, but never one as magnificent as this.
Each one has a 18gal Rubbermaid box with things that they loved — Bionicles, Action figures, noisy trucks that light up…I separately kept lots of Legos, most of the playmobile, all of the trading cards. Everything else we encouraged them to gift, so hot wheels and blocks and lincoln logs went to various people — grad students from overseas with little boys who left their own toys behind, disaster relief, charity garage sales. They kept most of their books, and in some cases I bought second copies of the very well loved ones! Marie Kondo would not approve!
Fun to stumble across this thread today. Just bought 2 yo granddaughter a playskool sit ‘n spin. I still have the one my s’s used and almost sent it, but chose instead to send her a new one. When my other DIL saw it she squealed “I had a red one! (the new one is green and yellow)We loved it!” And yes, the one I have in the basement is red.
Also kept on of their favorite toddler fisher price toys, wooden puzzles and stools made with their names, and a ew other handmade wooden toys. Recently gave away k’nex to go with a neighbors set, a classic fisher price dinosaur building kit, and virtually all of their books Couldn’t bear to get rid of books. Every time aI go out to visit I bring a few books from daddy’s collection. Kinda fun to watch her enjoy her dad’s books.
We still have a box of Thomas the Tank Engine friends and another of Beanie Babies; Chocolate Moose is in my office watching over the printer [I could not let him sit in the basement]; and a Gund bear is on top of a bookcase filled with law reports [ditto].
@abasket : You are super! I am joining Team abasket!