Toy cupboard

I had a small toy cupboard downstairs ( shared with shoe cleaning stuff I think!) also soft toys and dolls on my bed (about6) and a bookshelf in my room. As I had older brothers tgere were other book cases and more grownup toys and games around too but nothing like the amount my grandchildren have! (Rooms full!) my own children had more than me but fewer and less expensive than the GC - where will it all end?
I loved books, crayoning, dressing those paper dolls, playing with proper dolls too - I had a dolls pram and a golliwog , (now political incorrect and horrifies my DC) He was the only male so frequently married the dolls

I had an old cupboard that came from my Grandpa's house. My Dad painted it pink and stuck sticky backed plastic covered with pink and white roses on the top and in the inset sections on the doors. It also had pink plastic handles. He also made me a doll's cot and wooden boxes with drawers split into sections for my Lego. He was a great (and very clever) Dad. I felt very sad when I found out years later what an awful childhood he had at the hands of his Dad and wicked stepmother. He had practically no toys and he told me he never had any sort of Christmas present, not even an orange in a stocking. His stepmother used to beat him with a walking stick, which was why he always had a bad back. He vowed he would never treat his children badly. He kept his word.

I grew up in the 1950s and a lot (not all) of my toys were hand made. However I never felt deprived at all. I think today's children have far too much and don't play with half the things they have.

Had a toy box but it was in the 50s I remember I had a doll called Christine, I had a gw, in those days they were very popular and a Teddy. Few books and paper and crayons, colouring book. Also a book which had two dolls made of paper and clothes think it was called dress your dolls.

I had a toy cupboard. Mine was in my room as part of loft. My room was added to bungalow to turn into a chalet. So it was a small cupboard. My brother had one under the stairs .

I had a tall boy cupboard, which I shared with my brother. It had two drawers on top that my parents kept things in. I sometimes see them in antique centres and it brings back memories, they didn’t hold very much!
I also had a dolls house that my cabinet maker Grandfather made for me. I was very proud of it because it had electric lights and opening windows.

I was a pre war/wartime child so had very few toys. The only cupboard was a kitchen cast-off for my books which mostly came from jumble sales. I had a china doll (second hand) which was too good to play with ; I longed for a doll's pram but never had one. A girl up the road had 3 prams and I used to sneak off to her house to play with her and her prams but always got a slap round the legs if Mum found out--apparently their family was not desirable because they were Christian Scientists and vegans!! My only other toys were a little plastic square with tiles that you moved around into one space to line up numbers, a tiny Bakelite spinning top and a dolls house that my Father built for me. It was furnished with beautiful pieces passed on to me by a friend of Mum who had been Nanny before her marriage to a Countess's children . The Countess passed on clothes and toys to Mum's friend's daughters and hence to me. Consequently I was dressed in silk, velour and velvet when I longed for gingham like all the other kids around. When I came home after my first term at University, I found that my Mum had sold my doll's house and all my books to the local second hand dealer for 7/6d---and I didn't even get the money!

We didnt have a toy box but they were stored under stairs and on your bed ...well my dolls were anyway .I shared a bedroom with two older brothers so you can imagine the storage problems.Luckily we didn’t have too many toys as the outdoors was our playroom .Woods, parks....scrumping for Sunday’s apple pies.I had a blackboard and chalks but the chalks never hot re-breed so I’d pinch a bit from school. Teachers knew about it but turned a blind eye! I had 4/5 dolls , Usually a bit broken , a spinning top, and a cricket set between us and a bag of marbles .... we were NEVER in the house to play with this stuff anyway.The brothers had footballs, toy guns , archery sets, and a box of toy cars.We always had a dog and cat...and I kept a hamster that ate my mum’s curtain overnight .Great days, healthy days. Now my grandkids ha e a room full of toys and electronic stuff but no freedom to run and play away from adults. I really do pity them.. they have no idea what they’ve missed!

I don't remember a toy cupboard. Games and jigsaws were kept either in or on top of the wardrobe. We had shelves for book. On the landing was a table with a book shelf containing Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedias. Later on this was changed to a bookcase with Encyclopaedia Britannica. All were well thumbed. I know we had paints and colouring pencils etc, but where they were kept I have no idea.
In my house my GDs have a wicker hamper of dressing up stuff and games, jigsaws etc in their wardrobe.

I was born mid 1950's so not a lot of toys, a couple of dolls, gw (didn't we all), my teddy bear (still with me he's 62 like me), paint set & lots of books on shelves in my bedroom. Games were in a linen box in the hallway, these were only played with downstairs as were jigsaws.

We weren't deprived, lived in the country so I played outside a lot of the time. Got my "grown up" bike at 11 which gave me some freedom.

Don't our childhoods sound idyllic? I'm sure they weren't all sunny days full of fun (curlilox your dad's story is very sad) but in my memory that's how they seemed. As an only child I possibly had more than some but my parents were in business all their working lives so my mum always said I brought myself up and I wasn't a spoilt child. Christmas wasn't all about how many presents we got which were often handmade - my husband remembers his dad making him a garage one year and a wooden Popeye lamp another. My greatest memories are of my wonderful aunt arriving to stay and sharing a bedroom with her, of getting into bed with my parents on Christmas morning and my dad going down to light the fire then shouting upstairs 'he's been' I never had a stocking or presents on the bed - they were always downstairs by the fire. I remember playing with bits of material my mum got from somewhere - lovely flowing chiffon and making tents with the clothes horse. Happy days

I think we were happy because everyone had less. We also looked after our toys because we knew they wouldn't be replaced. My step children are very careless with things because their mam simply replaces anything that gets broken .....even expensive things like phones and tablets. We're much stricter. If you don't look after something and it gets broken then tough. You'll be more careful with the rest of your stuff.

I always had a new set of paints at Christmas - I seemed to go through them like goodness knows what. One year - for my eleventh birthday - my father bought me a special set of Reeves paints in a metal box with little square pots you could refill. I was so proud of it and didn’t use it for ages because it was so lovely just to open the lid and look at it! A couple of years ago, at an antiques fair, I found a box exactly the same, still in its cardboard sleeve, with the majority of the paints unused, so of course I had to buy it. I did intend to use it, but still just open the lid and look at it. Takes me back!

My toys were kept in a built in cupboard beside the fireplace. Games and paints / crayons were kept in a sideboard cupboard. Cuddly toys and dolls were arranged on a bookcase in my bedroom [I did have a lot of books - and still do!]. For outside play I had a triang red car and tricycle but best of all a large rocking horse which took up residence in the kitchen. It was the first thing our puppy weed on when she arrived!!! I had a dolls house too in my bedroom which had electric lights but wasn't as posh as my friends dolls bungalow!

I had a loobyloo doll and a golliwog and a three wheeler bike with a boot at the back that I kept them in. These were my favourite toys has a young child, my uncle also made me a dolls house with all the furniture hand made that was really special.

My dolls house was hand made too - from the casing of an old radio divided into four! There were bits of carpet in each 'room and some bitsof furniture. No front. I loved it!

Greyduster I was given a set of paints like that when I was about 5 or 6 - my mother said they were far too old for me and promptly put them away until I was older! I loved them when I finally did get them but they had dried out and broke up

No I didn't have a toy cupboard. In fact I can't really remember where I kept my toys. I think it must have somewhere like the bottom of the wardrobe. Or maybe under my bed. I didn't really have many big toys - had 2 or 3 dolls, which I used to make clothes for, skipping rope, balls, a recorder. Oh a scooter that was kept in the garage, and later a bike. I remember a little farmyard, with tiny grey bricks that I fixed together to look like drystone walls, and lots of tiny farm animals. I loved that set! There must have been lots of other bits and pieces, which came and went over the years, but escape my memory now.