Store them if you have to! I regret not having my own appliances from childhood for my daughter. Buying new instead of having your own vintage is not as rewarding.

Why don't you donate them to a daycare? The children there would enjoy them just as much as your daugher did.

I'm surprised you want to keep these items. Why not pass them on to a child who can enjoy them now?

My mum kept various things from when I was a child. By the time I had a baby myself a lot of them were worn, mouldy, dated, didn't fit in our house, or only suitable for a girl (we had a boy). They were really nostalgic for her, not me. Think what the storage will cost you over 20 years. Usually, you could replace that toy many times over for that.

Its lovely that your daughter enjoyed playing with them, but shes gone past that stage and doesn't seem attached. Storing a large toy for 20 years for the possibility that a) she has children and b) they're interested in this is not something I'd do. Give them to someone who will enjoy them and free up the space for the life you have now. Are there other toys of hers that are easier to store but would still be good to hand on? - I was glad to find my old stash of Lego was still up in the attic, and my boy plays with it now.

Personally, I would store them. I wish I had saved toys from when my children were small for my grandchildren. They were much higher quality than the toys are now. Unfortunately, I can't think of any way to repurpose the kitchen, but when you disassemble it, make sure you take pictures of the process to make reassembly easier.

If they are precious enough to keep then you don't want to alter them so I'd opt for storage. If you use the pieces in your house, then as the years progress they are likely to become less special and the room may feel like a play room (which might not reflect that your home contains a girl who has outgrown them).
You may have already done this, but I'd involve your daughter in the decision making. I remember my mum getting me to go through my toys with her as I grew older and picking out the ones that I had really loved and I know that there's a box of loved toys waiting for the day when I have children.

I would probably opt to get rid of them now and keep smaller items for your future granchildren. What if you use up all that space and your daughter never wants children?

I'd re-purpose it by hanging it on a wall and using it for light storage for the games and music stuff, assuming the all the doors open, and the piece is still sound structurally. The colors are pretty awful but if you didn't mind painting it, it could look pretty cool as "wall art". You could paint it again for the grand kids.

It might be hard to find a daycare that would appreciate it as much as you do, and you won't find something like this again most likely. I gave my kids' stuff away and I am amazed to see like items in antique stores now! They look pretty good, too. LOL!

Tackle the 'crowded' family room issues. Store the kitchen, but it doesn't have to be 20 years. Later, donate or throw it w/o any guilt. If it's 'well loved' it isn't likely to bring big $s as a collectible. Donate or ditch the puppet theatre. Main thing, get going on your home office & enjoy. BTW, yes, if your daughter is really attatched to it, store it, if you've got the room. At some point, she may be fine with letting it go.

Don't bother storing it. Donate it to someone who can use it now.

Daycares don't usually use that kind of play kitchen. I've worked in some day cares and they usually purchase solid wood high quality toy kitchens that can take lots of abuse. Unless it is solid wood I would pass it onto another family. Generally that brand is particle board and poor quality. It will likely not be in good shape when you have grand kids.

if you have room, put them in your attic - my nieces LOVE playing with the kitchen my sister and I had when we were growing up 30+ years ago. It has held up amazingly well even through a couple of major moves.

well, if you have the storage why don't store it? we have a lot of kids stuff in our parents attic and now that my sister is a new mom we will re-use a lot of it and its nice seeing those things again. many things were made by my late grandmother who i know would have loved nothing more than getting to know my sisters child, so giving those things she made to my niece feels like my late grandmother being a part of it which is so nice. If we had given those things away we would have more space in the attic which would sometimes be convenient to have easier access to the other things on the attic, but really wouldn't have changed a lot. If you have to pay for storage though I would think a little bit more. Ask your daughter too if its something she is nostalgic about or not. Maybe ask her again in a few years. And the thing about girls/boys stuff? @romneymarsh: I would like for you to explain to me why a boy shouldn't play with a play kitchen!

KidKraft is nice but it's not heirloom quality. Sell.

Both of my boys LOVED our play kitchen (my 5 year old still does). Definitely not a gender-specific toy.

We have almost the same exact kitchen, same brand, slightly different end piece, but the shape is the same.
I know what you mean when you say it's a high quality piece! We have a different problem.. our kids will still be young enough to use it for years to come, but it is too big for our space. So we are cutting the fridge off! Since it is high quality parts, it's not going to fall apart when we do that. Im excited. I also repainted it white with some accent colors and used scrapbook paper to 'wall paper' the backsplash and inside of the cabinets. That 'each piece a different bright color' hurts my eyes!

If you MUST save it, I would repaint it all one color that goes well with your decor, take the stove knobs off and store them, and make it look more like a cabinet than a kitchen and you can store video game stuff, office supplies etc in it if you think that is worth keeping it like that.

If it helps, painting over the cheesy decor has not seemed to stop any of our kids or their playmates from knowing that it was a play kitchen.

Ive also stored this thing flat for months at a time...it's a breeze to put together and take apart if you get an allen wrench attachment for a socket driver.

Ha ha...my mom reminds me all the time that she is storing all my toys, books, dolls, dollhouse etc for my future children. It is a not too subtle hint. If I do have children, which I hope to, it will be just my luck to have only boys or a girl who would rather play soccer than with a Victorian dollhouse. Sure, if it means a lot to you, store it in the attic. But only store it if you have the room and it won't impede your other storage needs. Maybe your daughter will want it someday...or maybe she will insist on only a certain kind of organic wood harvested from Germany...or maybe she will be living in China and it will be too costly to ship...or maybe she will decide not to have kids.
It is nice to keep a few important mementos, but keep in mind that life has a way of deviating from our best laid plans.

Watch Toy Story 3, maybe with your daughter. I'm not joking. It does a beautiful job dealing with the ideas of discarding vs. giving, loving vs. keeping. Maybe she could be part of the process of making the decision to keep or give. My mother saved a couple of thoughtful things from my childhood -- a plain wooden baby doll cradle that my daughter adores now, an old child-sized rocking chair -- and I'm grateful she did, don't get me wrong. But there's something freeing about letting stuff go, especially if it will bring immediate happiness to someone else, rather than storing it to maybe bring happiness down the road.

I would call a few daycares and see if they are interested. Don't burden your daughter with stuff. What if she doesn't have kids? What if she wants to buy new? What if she doesn't have room for a kitchen or doesn't want one? What if she moves across the country and doesn't want to bother with it? That's too many what if's. Pick out just a few smaller heirloom toys to save and let the rest go.

Give it to someone who can use it and love it now. Toys should be played with, not stored away.

Nah...just donate it! Seriously! Memories live on in the heart and soul of a person....not in its physical presence. I'm slowly getting over my need to physically keep reminders of memories. Let go.

I agree with a lot of the commenters: donate it to someone who can use it now. There are only a few toys I played with as a child that I want to be able to pass on to my own children/grandchildren and they all fit in a container the size of a shoe box. In 20+ years, how much will you have spent (both in terms of money and headache/wasted space) storing these items? Not to mention whether or not they'd even be useable at that point, whether because they have deteriorated or because your daughter doesn't have kids or has kids who aren't interested in kitchen playsets. Last, and this comes from a personal place: do NOT saddle your kids with your own nostalgia. You may remember the times when she was 4 and played joyfully with that toy. She may not. But she will still be the one stuck with this thing that you kept and now will feel guilty because she has no room for it, doesn't want it, or has no use for it. Don't let your intention to create an heirloom turn into an emotional obligation.

Can you remove the doors (and store them) and use it as a bookcase?

Can you remove the doors (and store them) and use it as a bookcase?

Turn it into a project that you and your daughter can do together, give her a few colors to pick from, and help her paint them that color. After your done you can use the kitchen as a tv stand in her room. And the theatre can be used as a storage area for toys. Then your daughter will have bedroom furniture that can easily be updated or returned to what they were before so your grankids can play with them.

Store them if you have the space and they are of good quality.

However, if they are just particle board, or other less durable material, then they won't last and should be donated to a preschool or daycare center. And, if you do donate them, don't forget to get a lovely photograph to frame and put where the kitchen a theater once were!

There is such a thing as good karma of passing things along... The weekend before X-mas we got rid of a lot of toys from my teen, most barely touched, in a yard sale, for very cheap prices. Some games were still wrapped. I could imagine all those toys under the xmas tree, wrapped like new. and the happy faces of the kids opening them.
Now if you are dead set to keep it, and you have free space...keep it like it is, I think there is too many details to change it to a bookcase.

My daughter has a KidKraft kitchen very similar to this, and honestly, I hate it. My MIL picked it up at a yard sale for $15 and the colors are cheesy and it's cheap particle board and plastic, when I had my heart set on an actual heirloom-quality wooden set. Alas, I'm stuck with this one. I think your attachment to it is making it hard to get rid of, not the actual piece itself (which in my opinion, is merely a notch above plastic Little Tikes in looks, and less durable). If it was wooden, I wouldn't hesitate to say "save it!" I wouldn't keep it in your room that's cluttered already (it's a HUGE space-hogger, and will always look like a kid's kitchen instead of just a shelf, even with paint). Take it apart and store it flat if you have the space, but... don't make your daughter feel like she HAS to use it when she has kids years down the road. My mom never gets rid of anything and 99% of the time, it's out of date junk instead of cool/quality vintage. But I'm always guilted into taking it just because she saved it for me for 20 years ;)

As posted earlier, I think this would be a great project for you and your daughter to work on together. These pieces may yet have a few more years of love to them. Can they be relocated to another part of the house to tackle your clutter problem? Or perhaps store one.

We recently acquired a similar play kitchen for our 2 year old son and made it into a cool mini kitchen makeover project. Our 10 year old got right into the project and in fact now plays with it more than our toddler! Play food has gotten so cool. Your daughter can make her own felt food - our daughter cut up a piece of beige felt into long strips and made instant spaghetti! IKEA has some cool food that is dirt cheap too. Now when my daughter has friends over, I catch them playing like the good old days... in a super cool kitchen :)

For some inspiration, here is a peak at what we did with our play kitchen with less than $75 (which included the price of the kitchen from Goodwill).

http://loopylocks.ca/2012/11/22/play-kitchen-facelift-the-after/

If you ask your daughter to donate it - herself - to a family in need (maybe a woman and child transitioning through a women's shelter), she will remember that a lot more than she will remember playing with it herself. Just a thought. :) Also agree with others that the cost of storing the play kitchen could buy a new one for your grandbabies many times over.

I totally agree with other commenter about not keeping around in the *hopes* that your daughter wants it again some day. At one point in my life I would have held on to such things, but now that I have kids I don't think saving more than a couple things is worth it.

It feels like my MIL saved EVERYTHING my husband ever considered playing with, or read, and now we are burdened with it all (not even really classic toys) and I realize I don't want to do that to my kids. We are stuck with the guilt of tossing that stuff now that she's kept it 30 years. I also don't want the heartbreak when my sons wives aren't interested in the table&chairs, toy boxes, easel, etc, (in addition to boxes of old toys), I so lovingly tucked away. I love the thought of having a few of my husbands small things to share with our kids, but the amount of things she's saved has made it a bit less meaningful.

I'm not saying get rid of it if your heart is set on keeping it, but if it's taking up too much room, just think on it, and consider keeping other treasures that aren't so bulky for the memories. And PS - this isn't to imply you'll keep as much stuff as my MIL did, uff! :)

When my son was that age, I told him he could put whatever he wanted to into my yard sale. If it sold, he kept the money. If it didn't sell, it got donated. It was a good lesson in determining the value of things.

My dear aunt saved tons of my toys, books, and clothes and is slowly unloading them onto my husband and me now that we have two children. I can't stand it. I don't remember the vast majority of them, they smell old, they have painted coatings that I fear are hazardous, they have choking hazards, and they aren't my style (or my husband's). I can't tell her no because it would break her heart, so I find myself accepting it all and bringing it all to Goodwill. Keep a few treasured books and small toys (and make sure that they don't get mildewy). She'll be grateful.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! I should clarify that this project is part of a larger overhaul of a LOT of toys, clothes and furniture that we have indeed donated. Trust me, my daughter knows the value of donating things (I actually used to work for a non-profit serving kids myself) and has been doing it quite a bit lately. And I've considered donating this piece and have asked around a few places who haven't been interested. And I think you're right, those of you who have said that it will still look like a kid kitchen even if re-purposed as shelves or cabinets. So I think what I'm going to do is take the kitchen apart and store it - we have a decent crawl space for this, so no additional cost involved - and see how it holds up over the years. If my daughter wants it again someday, great, if not I may re-paint it eventually (love your facelift, 4theloveofkids!) and keep it at my house when/if I'm a grandma. If it falls apart before that happens... well, at least we still have our memories.

However this discussion has given me an idea for the puppet theater (which to clarify is solid, finished wood and not painted like the kitchen): take the sides and top off and hang the shelf part on the wall for small craft supply storage as part of the home office. It seems so simple, I can't believe it didn't occur to me before. So thank you everyone! And thanks also wseattlemom for the idea to take a "before" photo - will do! :)