Recycling Kid's Toys

This time of year is perfect for cleaning out the old and bringing in the new... or just cleaning out the old. I started 'recycling' my kids' toys when they were each about 2 years old, and I found it so helpful; something every mom should try!

Today's post is found over at my column at Parent Society (click the logo to the right to see my other articles, as well). As always, I'll start it here and send you over there to finish it.

7 Steps to Getting Rid of (Oops... Recycling) Your Kids' Toys


After the holidays are said and done, most families are left with an abundance of toys — new and old. New Year’s resolutions are made to not only clean out and organize the home, but to also save money and not spend as much in the new year. Recycling your children’s toys helps you meet both of those goals.

I started recycling my kids’ toys when they were around 2 years old. It started after a birthday when one of my kids got entirely too spoiled by family members. While my daughter was occupied with her new noise makers and brain-building birthday gifts, I sneaked into her room with a huge plastic bin and rummaged through the toys I hadn’t seen her play with in a while. I quickly closed the container, shoved it into the top of a closet, and put a sticky note on it marked “March.” It honestly scared me to do this, as I thought she would immediately know some of her toys were missing and we’d have a terrible twos temper tantrum on our hands, but it was exactly the opposite.

She had no idea.

If there was a toy or two she noticed missing, I secretly removed it from the bin and promptly handed it to her, claiming I had found it stuffed under the couch. For the most part, that bin remained untouched in the top of the closet for about three months. That’s when I noticed she had quit playing with the toys she had received for her birthday, so just as I had done previously, I sneaked into her room with the bin, swapped out the toys in the bin for the ones she no longer played with, and put the bin in the top of the closet marked “June.”

Recycling my kid’s toys was officially born.

I kept an eye on which toys she played with out of this batch that had been hidden away for three months, and for the...

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