Hey S.,
I just thinned out my toddlers toys in November with her help. She is almost 3 yrs old but I felt she needed to have a say in her stuff. I did help persuay her some in the decision making process. At first we simply thinned out baby toys for her little sister and placed them in the baby room. I made most of te decisions here, but she brought them to her sister's room. It is important to inlcude them and I would just remind her that was a baby toy. I did let her pick out two little things she wanted to hold onto from the baby stuff and she has been playing with them, but my intent is to put them in her memory box soon.
After the baby stuff was cleared through and again, due to my taking the lead some baby stuff was in the box for donation. I had my daughter go through her other toys with me. We had a keep container and a donate container. It was easily explained as giving to the children who had no toys as not everybody was as lucky as her. At first she wanted to keep everything and again i had to help lead her along. Before it was over she wanted to give everything away. Again I did alot of guiding and talking it thorough. Things like "you really don't play with this, would you want to give it to the little kids who have no toys."
She saw everything go into each container and the donate one was overflowing, so i had to get another one. I also want to mention that I did sort through my closet of clothes a few months prior and she helped by carrying things to my clear keep container, green donate and blue give to my little sister.
I think it very important that your little one help, especially with her stuff. You may need to guide her some and even select a few things for memories later. But I can not impress enough the importance of letting her help. I know that my little one rarely asks for something we donated as she remembers most things. If she does ask for something we gave away, I simply say "You gave that to the little kids without any toys and now they are happy." She just replies "oh yeah" and goes about her way.
She too recieved a large influx of Christmas toys. I have already put some away to pull out later as new again. Of course I look forward to cleaning things out again next fall. I have the time between to really examine what toys will be the memory makers and so I am observing to see what I might suggest she keep for her memory box next time.
Best Wishes on this & Happy New Year!
-MB