Weeding out toys

I'm getting ready to start weeding out the boys toys again. I try to do it twice a year, usually right around each of their birthdays (which puts it every 6 months so it works out). I was really thinking about it all this last week. There are a few things that I can not get rid of and the rest well I'm not sure they'd be upset if it was gone.

The three big things that I can't get rid of are the Monster Trucks, trains and Matchbox cars. These are the three things that get played with by one if not both boys daily. They love to set up Monster Truck races and freestyle events in every room of the house and in the sandbox. We have 3 different types of train tracks and at least 1 is being used almost daily. Colby is often seen driving the trains around the living room without the tracks too. He is big into trains right now. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he gets to watch a movie so I can shower and it is almost Thomas. He's already talking about having a Thomas birthday party. The Matchbox cars are a staple for both of them. For Colby it's the Cars cars more then the generic ones, but they love to set up the race track and play with the cars. They also drive them around and just love creating stories to go with the cars.

There are other things that I won't get rid of right now because they are used every few weeks and are just great toys, but there is a lot of things that I just think... why would I keep it? If they aren't going to use it, why have it here taking up space? So it's time to go through the toys and decide what to donate to the Y. What to donate to Goodwill and what to toss.

How often do you go through your kids toys? How do you decide what to keep? What do you do with the stuff you don't need anymore?