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{Tuesday Task Challenge} tackling the toy mess

November 13, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Is this your child? Taken from the Scholastic Book “My Messy Room.” Click to see more.

Ok, I’m going in. I’m going to tackle the toy mess. I have to! Can’t you see that countdown clock over there–>
Christmas is just 6 weeks away and my boys are going to get so many more toys! From grandparents, aunts, uncles … We tried to cut back. I should say, *we* have cut back on how much we purchase for Santa to give them, because we now know how much they are going to get from others. But there is still so much.

So here is what I’m doing, in steps.

First, I empty all the toy bins. We have a multi-colored bin unit, one sort of like this. Except mine was only $2 at a church yard sale!

And we have two big tubs. So I basically empty everything on to the floor. And start sorting.

I make sure that all puzzles have their pieces. That books can still be read. I put new batteries in most things, and test them, make sure they still work with batteries. This is no small task, even though I do it at least twice a year, er, three times. I try to do it at Christmas time and their birthdays, about a month before. I look at what is age appropriate, and what they don’t play with anymore–is it because they don’t like it, or forgot about it? I ignore pleas of “but that’s my best one!” if I know they are not going to play with it.

And these are my piles:

  • trash
  • resell or consign
  • donate
  • keep
  • keep, but in a bin in the basement, to rotate out

I like having a ‘rotate’ bin, because we have stretches from Christmas to a mid-March birthday, and then March to August-another birthday with no holidays in between. And, I’m not the type to buy new toys “just for so” when they already have so much. So I rotate to keep it fresh.

Then, I put everything back. There’s one “special” bin that holds most of our Melissa & Doug stuff, plus all of our good puzzles, all of the learning stuff, play-doh, markers, etc. The green bin can only come out with a grown-up. This helps keep our nicer things intact and all the pieces, plus it’s good for my son’s TSS or if they have a babysitter, they have an ace card to play if they need something to do. The boys love that bin because they don’t get to use it every day. And I don’t have Play-Doh and markers all over my house, or markers left without lids and so on.

If I don’t reappear on Wednesday with some blog posts, send a search party!

What are some of your tips for keeping toys organized?

 

Filed Under: Home Sweet Home, Kids & Families Tagged With: , ,

Talking piggy bank~$3.98 shipped! ends Nov 13

November 12, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Today and tomorrow only, Drugstore.com is offering 20% off everything! When I clicked my offer, it said I’d get free shipping too (not express, though). So of course I headed right to the clearance department and found this:

talking piggy bank

Click to get yours.

What an awesome holiday gift or stocking stuffer! A great way to raise some smart spenders and teach your kids to be money smart. So, I added it to my cart to see if the 20% would come off, and it did! Woot!

Here’s all you have to do:

Go to Drugstore.com
Click “sales and coupons” button, over on the top right
When that page loads, scroll all the way down to clearance.
For me, it was the first item that popped up.
The extra 20% off is only today and tomorrow, so it will go back up to $4.98 then, if there are any left!

Have fun, I’m going to go finish my transaction now, they take Paypal! Maybe I’ll buy some extras and use them for a giveaway on this blog, goes great with the theme, huh?

I love combining codes and clearance!

Filed Under: Catalinas, Coupon Apps, E-Coupons, Coupons & Printable Coupons, Kids & Families, Raising Smart Spenders Tagged With:

Do you knit or crochet? Read to help with Hurricane Sandy.

November 10, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The following is a guest post from my friend Sarah. I am just amazed at what she is doing and how far she is reaching! Go Sarah!

I was born and raised in Staten Island, New York.  Since Hurricane Sandy hit last week I have seen my hometown destroyed via photos on the internet.  I see facebook posts of old friends talking about the destruction, the suffering and the loss.  My heart is in pain from the devastation that Hurricane Sandy left behind.  While I have made my obligatory Red Cross donation, collected donation items  and drove them to the right places I feel like I need to do more.  It’s getting so cold out and people have lost everything.

As the granddaughter, daughter and niece of knitters and crocheters I thought by collecting handmade hats and giving them out directly to in the communities that lost I could bring a little bit of warmth and love from knitters and crocheters.  So I have created Spreading the Warmth: One Hat at a Time.

I decided I could unite some people, maybe gather up 50 or so hats and bring them home to Staten Island.  To the families that have lost EVERYTHING!!!  A friend of a friend from Staten Island made me a flyer that I started sharing it a little on facebook late Monday night and Tuesday Morning.  Tuesday alone I had 671 hits to my blog post about it, about 100 emails and facebook messages and EVERYONE wanted to help.  I mean EVERYONE….From Canada, to Israel, to The Netherlands, Orlando, Wisconsin, Iowa, California, Nevada AND SO MANY more places I can’t list them all.

I’m looking for more!!  Are you a knitter?  Do you Crochet?  Together we can Spread the Warmth, One Hat at a Time…..

You can follow the collect progress and cheer on everyone on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/FinneganAndTheHughes
Email me- hatsforhurricane@gmail.com

Tonight….I too, am picking up my needles

—————————————————————————————–

About Me…I grew up in Staten Island, New York and my family moved to New Jersey when I was 18 years old. I say things like Pay-pa and waddaa sometimes and try to cover my thick accent! When I escaped working in New York City for a new life in Philadelphia I started dating my now husband Rob. We have two children, Derek is 4 and Hayley is  2. Finnegan is our 5 year old Australian Shepherd and really more like a third child than a dog. All of our children love to sleep in our bed!!  I blog over at www.finneganandthehughes.com

 

Filed Under: Social Good Tagged With: , ,

Support your local small businesses-support Neighborhood #ToyStoreDay

November 10, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

You all know I’m a huge supporter of local, small businesses. Sure, I love to use coupons and get freebies, but it’s important that we all support our local community businesses.

SHOPPING LOCALLY GIVES BACK TO YOUR COMMUNITY
Shopping at neighborhood and independent retailers not only increases consumer choice, it also preserves jobs and local character. According to the 3/50 Project, for every $100 spent in local, independently-owned stores, $68 returns to the community in the form of taxes, salaries, charitable contributions, children’s educational programs and more–in contrast with only $43 dollars when consumers spend their money at a national chain.

Today! Saturday, November 10! It’s Neighborhood Toy Store Day. Toy stores across the country will be celebrating the joy of play during Neighborhood Toy Store Day. To launch the holiday shopping season with community-minded fun, ASTRA members throughout the nation will host special events at their stores. The festivities will highlight local talent and bring neighbors together in the spirit of giving. Events will include crafts, entertainers, scavenger hunts, and charitable donations. Through Neighborhood Toy Store Day, customers see that specialty toy retailers are more than just stores, they are a central part of a vital community.

TO FIND A PARTICIPATING TOY STORE NEAR YOU:
You can also join us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/astratoy or if you tweet, tweet what you’re doing today with #ToyStoreDay.

Some of my favorite neighborhood toy stores:

  • the newer store down in Jennersville, Wackadoodles. They have a great assortment of unusual things.
  • The Mushroom Cap/Growing Tree in Kennett Square has these very cute train cars, and they are Thomas-compatible, and you can get them in letters to spell your child’s name. They also sell those cute scrabble tiles.
  • And many times before I’ve posted about my friends at Avon News–they have the best Webkinz assortment in the region and Melissa & Doug things, just to name a few. And yes, all of those stores have sales, so disregard that notion that a small, privately owned store will be much more expensive–it’s just not so! Avon News is also one of the exclusive carriers of the new Tail Towns toys, which is the latest craze on Facebook.
astra

Shop small and support your community.

 
I just love shopping at these stores. First, I save gas and time. Second, I always get so many compliments on what I purchase there. This past summer, I stopped at Wackadoodles to get some toys for Kevin for his birthday. This one cute thing, it’s a treasure chest with coins, we took it to our pool with us almost every day. I can tell you, almost every day a mom would stop me and ask me where we got it. So many kids tried to hijack that toy, lol. Every person commented on it’s uniqueness. I’ve never had that happen with any of the mainstream toys I purchase.

Have fun, and let us know what you find!
 

 

Filed Under: Kids & Families Tagged With:
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