I’m sitting here, a mere 2 months after Santa Claus did his thing and my Dudes have few toys that are still played with, unbroken, and totally relevant.
I can honestly count on one hand the things they are still playing with since the big guy touched down.
That’s sad.
But mostly, it’s just annoying.
I’m not sure why it is that I fall for the I-need-this-random-piece-of-plastic-that-won’t-last-long-or-really-even-work-right mumbo jumbo every year.
I guess I get wrapped up in all of the flashing lights and pretty colors a bit myself.
And also, I clearly just like to shop.
So, I buy a thousand little Lego Dudes that can’t keep their heads attached to their bodies for anything. And I admit a ridiculous number of remote-controlled do-hickeys into my house.
And they play with them for an hour a day, a week tops, before they are decimated, lost, sucked into the Dyson, or deemed a “stupid old boring toy”, unworthy of their attention.
Recently I discovered (because they emailed me) an awesome company called Spark Box Toys.*
They seem to have figured out a really cool way to solve this exact problem.
Here’s how it works: they find a whole bunch of age appropriate, educational-ish-but-always-fun, engaging toys kids like. They pack them in a box and mail them to you. Your kid plays with them until they get bored (four weeks or so), and then you whip out the return address label, pack the bad boys back into the box they came in, and mail them right back.
So they can send you another age-appropriate-educational-ish-but-always-fun-and-engaging box of toys for your little person to enjoy.
No one gets bored. No one loses or breaks anything (at least my kids didn’t because, while they seem to lack the self respect required to care for their own things, they do an amazing job of caring for things other people loan them; probably out of fear as I’ve told them the scary and bleak things that happen when you destroy property that doesn’t belong to you). And they have the added joy brought on by anticipation.
Spark Box Toys is packed with the newborn to four year old child in mind, but in all honesty, all of The Dudes got pumped when the box showed up.
And, while #3 was most entertained by the contents, all three of them have been caught starting a band with the musical instruments included, and playing memory with the card games that came along with the box we received.
And, just because they know some of us moms are just slightly less, um, creatively inspired, they pack each box with helpful product cards (so you know what the heck you’re looking at and why it’s going to make your kid smarter and happier) with great, in-the-play-room-trenches playtime ideas (so you know how to make it fun and feel less inclined to just chuck the toys at your kid).
The box has sat untouched in a corner of our playroom for the past week or so which would normally make me annoyed enough to threaten them with a trip to the Goodwill force a jam session on them, but now it just indicates that it’s time to send it back.
Pack it up and wait for something else engaging, educational-ish, and age appropriate to show up.
No waste involved. No desperate need to fight my children’s borderline hoarding tendencies. No feelings of entitlement to worry about.
Just some friendly toy exchanging among people who would probably totally be our friends if they weren’t based hours away from is in New Jersey.
I may not be able to muster up the energy to compost, or host a garage sale, or even stop at one when I see it, but I can be green when it’s this easy.
And I can save a little cash and a bunch of sanity while I’m at it
Want to learn more about Spark Box Toys and how your child can be a part of the educational toy sharing revolution? Check out their site and go green with us.
Be sure to find Spark Box Toys on Facebook and Twitter (@sparkboxtoys) too!
*pBd Admits It’s Free: Spark Box Toys sent The Dudes a box of toys to try out. We have to mail it back soon, just like you will if you decide to check them out. All opinions are my own unless they have been slightly tampered with by The Dudes themselves.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I would never remember to send the box back, but this is a really good idea.
Luckily they aren’t super naggy about it.
This sounds awesome. Just one question – how do you keep track of all the pieces so you can return everything that they sent you?
So we have a basket in our playroom where we kept just these toys. So they didn’t get mixed in with the other junk. And, my Dudes are really good about taking care of other people’s things. Just not their own. So we always put these items back in the basket when done playing with them and we’ve been able to keep everything together that way. Plus, they LOVE getting toys and stuff in the mail so I impressed upon them that this was an important test to determine if we could keep doing that or not. They didn’t want to ruin it!
What a smart idea! Love!
That is a good idea but what if your child finds one toy out of the few that they send that they don’t want to return because they actually do fall inlove with it? That would have been me when I was little. I had a thousand little toys that I took everywhere. All in all, great idea!