A garage full of stuff

It all started with a mini vacation to St. Joseph, Michigan, in 2000.

My husband and I were getting away for a long weekend with my son, age 4 at the time, just a short drive around the lake from our Chicago suburb. We were young parents, wanting to give our son all the things and experiences he needed for a happy childhood.

Walking the downtown streets of quaint St. Joe, we stopped to look in the window of a toy shop filled with many wonderful things including a giant Playmobil toy castle. In case you’re unfamiliar, Playmobil is a German toy company that makes cute little people figurines representing all sorts of careers and identities, complete with all of the tools and backdrops for their worlds. There’s a dentist with a dental chair and office. There’s a garbage man with his garbage truck and garbage cans. There’s a gas station with a gas station attendant. All with cute painted-on smiles and uniforms.

The castle, with all its levels and variety of happy little kings, queens, princesses, and knights and more - was unbelievable. And unbelievably priced! It pulled us into this amazing toy store where we fell in love with Playmobil.

Honestly, I don’t know who fell in love more, my 4-year-old son or me.These were cute, well-made, perfect little toys I imagined our son playing with for years to come. We were sold, and walked out the door with a $40 toy police officer with his police car, complete with flashing lights. (Police station with jail sold separately.)

Our son loved this toy and played with it often. But little did we know that this was the beginning of a shockingly huge investment in Playmobil toys over the next several years. Playmobil sets for birthdays, Christmas, special treats for any occasion.

The collection grew so rapidly that it was hard to contain all these little people and all their stuff...cars, hats, swords, motorcycles and more. They seemed to take on a life of their own, marching around all corners of the living room and beyond. We tried to contain them in a huge Rubbermaid tote at night, but by morning they were on the move again.

After stepping on the sword-yielding knight from the fortress set, I was determined to organize our Playmobil world. I invested in a dozen shoebox sized containers to keep each set in when not in play. I made labels for the boxes so my son could keep his people organized - firefighters and police officers and garbage haulers and doctors.

Or rather so I could spend hours trying to keep them organized by set. Because, let’s be honest, what kid cares about whether the Playmobil pirates are hanging out with the Wild West characters! My son’s interest was in playing with them, not keeping them neat and tidy. Not that I’m a neat-freak myself, but it was getting out of control. It was a huge investment, in time and money.

As time went by, the boxes were opened less and less, as my sons moved to GameCube and other more technologically-advanced toys. Then the boxes moved to a hallway closet and then finally to the garage. Upon our move, they ended up in boxes in the garage at the new house. Now my sons are 24 and 18, and there is the thought in my head that I should hold on to this rather expensive toy collection, for possible grandchildren in the future?

These four Rubbermaid totes, home to hundreds of dollars worth of Playmobils, are just one of the things in my garage. We hold onto stuff for a lot of reasons - it’s memorable, it’s valuable, it’s useful. But what good is it doing sitting in a box in the garage. You might think, “Well, what harm is it doing, sitting there in boxes.” But, really, what harm is it doing? What’s it costing you? You pay for the space to store it, and it may prevent you from moving to a smaller space that has less storage. And will my grandchildren want to play with 30 year old toys? 

After all this, do I regret buying all of those Playmobils? Not really. But maybe we didn’t need so many, maybe too much money was spent. It was done in the spirit of giving our children everything for a happy childhood. And while I still think they are great toys, I know now - looking back - that what our kids needed most for a happy childhood was not more toys but more of our time.

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Paint cans, and VHS tapes, and Styrofoam…oh my!