I will admit, for someone who feels we don't need much stuff and for someone who finds toys to be pretty much useless except for during play dates ... we have a ton of toys. Of course, there was a time in my life as a twin mom when I thought rough days could be answered by new toys or more toys. Of course, I was seriously off my rocker when I thought that.
The bulk of our toys were gifts or were picked up at second-hand stores and yard sales. In fact, we have probably spent less than $150 total in two years on actual toys ourselves.
But, we are overwhelmed.
I plan to donate just about all of them that aren't being used regularly before we move. I'll give them to another mom or send them to the homeless shelter's economy store.
But, something we did recently with a friend has been a great help. We did a toy swap. We each boxed up some toys and swapped them for a while. We haven't set a time to swap back, but it worked great because the girls like playing with these new toys, at least for a while.
Another idea that has been mentioned to me by Bella, actually, was to use online gear swapping sites, which I assume are a lot like exchanging paperback books.
Do you use these sites? How much luck have you had? Is it easy to do? What about shipping costs? Do you find what you are looking for or just make due with what's on the site? Leave links in the comments.
You might also check out Zwaggle. This post is a part of a blog blast hosted by The Parent Bloggers Network. Everyone (including you!) who signs up for Zwaggle with this invitation link will get extra Zwaggle points - or zoints - to use toward their first Zwaggle transaction.
2 comments:
I recently saw an episode of TLC's Clean Sweep with a truly toy-overwhelmed family. The organizer guy let each child rescue their 5 favorite toys, let mom and dad save 5 for the family, and the rest went away. I think I want to do that this weekend with my kids ... I'll try to, anyway. I think we parents get as attached to toys, if not more so, than our kids. We think "wow, I spent money on that stupid thing, they played with it for a week, I can't just give it away ... it's so cool."
Anyway, we'll see how it goes, if it works,I will blog on it and include before and after playroom pictures.
Zwaggle looks like a good idea in principle. It seems to be set up like paperbackswap.com for books. However, some of the items are not very practical for exchanging long distances. Maybe the site will be more useful once there are more members, but for now, I didn't see any baby gear in the state we are moving to (WI), so I'll be looking elsewhere for my used goods.
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