At what point do kids have too many toys

As people walk into my home they see a living room full of toys. Everyone comments on how many toys my kids have. Then I have to let them know I have boxes more in the basement and we switch them every month or so. A look of shock is the usual response. My kids have a lot of toys. And every time we go out with them we tend to buy anther two, because we have two kids. So at what point do kids have too many toys?

Here are some clues your kids have too many toys:
You cannot store them, or put them away because you have run out of room.
Your kids only play with the ones on the top of the pile because it is too hard to get to the other toys.
You start storing in large tote boxes and don’t know what is in them or worse you have so many cars or dolls they actually fill up a tote box on there own.
Cleaning involves moving toys from one area to another and then back again.
You pack up 2/3 of the toys and the kids don’t notice.
You rotate boxes of toys every few months and the kids think you bought new toys because they don’t remember having them.
You buy batteries in the largest packages and still don’t have enough for all the toys that need them.
The pile of toys is bigger then your kids, or you.
There are so many toys that there is no space to play.
At Christmas you ask family and friends for toy storage instead of toys.

How do I know this, this is my home, what I live with every day and it is all my own fault. I did not have a lot as a child, I don’t remember ever having more then one or two toys at any point growing up. I tend to overcompensate by making sure my kids have lots of toys. For years I would buy up toys at garage sales, even toys that are for kids way older then mine. I would store them so that I had them when the kids got older. It was great; I could afford lots of toys I could not normally buy. It was fun to go out every weekend and see what we could find. The kids loved it and I don’t think there were many weekends in the summer we would not come home with new toys. Then I had to stop, we just did not need any more toys. The kids still ask if we are going because they live finding treasures as much as I do.

Then there are the Birthday, Christmas and oh I just felt like picking this up toys. Then there is the pitfall of; “Hey we are out and the kids have been good let’s go to the store and let them pick something out.” It is so easy to fall into the trap of picking up something new. I makes me feel good as a parent that I can give things to my kids I did not have as a child. However, there is a point when enough is enough, something has to give. A child can only play with so many toys at one time.

My solution, reduce the number of toys we buy. Let the kids keep their favorite toys in their rooms and the ones in the living room are boxed up toys and then rotated every few months. When the kids outgrow a toy put it out on Freecycle so some other kid can enjoy it. Is it working, not so well, you see Christmas is coming and we have a large box in the basement that has been slowly filling up all year with toys for Christmas. We just went from buying toys and giving them to the kids right away to “buying them for Christmas”. It is hard to say “No” to your kids or walk past a great toy sale when you are battling your own demons from childhood. It is a work in progress and it is going to take sometime, like 20 years, for me to fight the impulse to give my kids what I did not have.

Improve the local economy by giving to food banks

Giving to the food bank makes good economic sense. To you it may only be a can of potatoes or tuna but to someone going to the food bank it is food they did not have. A small contribution makes a difference. If everyone who could afford to buy an extra can for the food bank did it would make a huge difference.

It gives people food, letting them spend their money on other things, like more food or a hair cut. The point is that by using the food bank it increases their disposable income to spend, they can buy more. That increases sales and helps retailers.

The food you buy for the food bank is a sale the store would not have made. This increases the stores sales. It does not make a large difference when you buy one can but it does if you buy a can each trip and so does your neighbors. Suddenly it is not a sale of $1.00 but and extra $1.00 for every shopper. It adds up very quickly. If you have 300 people shopping everyday, that’s an extra $300 a day in sales and food given to the food bank.

A difference of $300 a day can keep a retailer open, or let them keep a staff member, or even hire one. So buying food to give to the food bank may even create a job, or keep someone working, and not using the food bank. There are a lot of benefits to donating to your local food bank. The more people who do it the better it is.

So help the local economy, give to your local food bank.

The Christmas Tree Project

Christmas in July, what? Actually yes, now is the perfect time to be thinking about Christmas trees. Now is when we go through our basements and attics and get rid of our junk, clutter, and things we just don’t use anymore. So we find the Christmas tree we have not used in years, it takes up to much room, or we have a new one, or now that the kids have moved out we don’t need such a big one, or we go away every Christmas so we just don’t use it. There are 1000’s of reasons why people have unused Christmas trees in storage.

Most of them get put out into garage sales, donated to charity or get put into the garbage. Most Christmas trees don’t sell at garage sales. I have seen what happens to the trees donated to charity, they are found all over the second hand shop, usually one piece here and other over there. They usually get wrecked and end up in the garbage anyway.

One lady in Hamilton Ontario, Jackie, has made it her mission to stop the waste and keep the Christmas trees out of landfills and into homes that would not have a tree. For the last few years she has been going on Freecycle and taking any trees that don’t find homes and storing them until they do. Check it out here: http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/HamiltonONFreecycle/message/6519

She has also been rescuing trees from garage sales. Her friends and family keep an eye out for trees for her project. In the first year she helped 7 trees find new families and 10 trees the second year, however there were more families looking to adopt trees then there were trees. Every year the number of trees that find new homes increases but so does the list of people looking for them.

I find that she has inspired my family; we are now keeping an eye out for trees and decorations that can be given to families in need. It would be great if we could all pull together and take the Christmas Tree Project to a new level; world wide. I know there are Christmas trees sitting around in storage that still have life and can be used. If you have one, or know of someone with one get yourself and every one else involved in the Christmas Tree Project.

If you have a tree then post it onto Freecycle or any free ad site. If you don’t feel comfortable with people coming to pick it up, drop it off. Often families who need the trees don’t have a way to pick it up, so dropping it off helps a lot. Rescue trees from garage sales and second hand shops if you can afford it. Spread the word. Christmas does not only have to be in December, we can have it all year round by getting unused Christmas Trees to people who will use them. This is also a good thing to do with those unused Christmas decorations. Jackie is currently adding Christmas Decoration to the Christmas Tree Project. It makes sense, people who cannot afford trees probably cannot afford the decorations.

You may ask how I found out about Jackie and the Christmas Tree Project; She gave me a tree a week ago, one that I could not have afforded. I appreciate what she is doing and hope this can grow to be a huge Christmas Tree Project this year if we all pull together. As she said, there are always more people looking for a tree then trees. Lets try to change that this year.