Helpful Mom

Are your kids like mine? My oldest is an absolute stuffed animal fanatic. We try to limit the number that come in the house because they are everywhere and they want everyone they see, but they sneak in no matter how hard we try. And we haven’t mastered the sneaking them back out, Katrina has a memory like a steel trap remembering that random animal at the most inopportune times, especially if you’ve gotten rid of it. She’d most likely remember it the day after you’ve dropped it off at Goodwill ;P And did I mention she wants to sleep with each and everyone of these precious pets? So after weeks of bedtime calls for animals she couldn’t find in her ever decreasing bed we decided we had to come up with a plan.

We decided to get one of those nets for her room to store “extra” animals in. Fortunately for us I was able to get two hanging towers off Freecycle so I got them for free and one for each of their rooms so we were able to enforce the same rule with both girls. They were so excited by their beautiful towers that they both willingly went along with the plan immediately. We let them each pick a handful of their absolute favorite animals to sleep with and the rest all go in the tower. They can ask to play with any of the others whenever they like but they have to be put back when they are finished. And if they want to sleep with different animals they have to trade one of the animals in their bed for one in the tower to keep things reasonable.

There are various types of these nets or towers to choose from or you can establish a simple rule of for each animal that comes in you have to get rid of one you already have and have your child choose who goes.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bargain shopper.  I love garage sales, thrift stores, consignment shops, hand me downs, and those back of the store clearance end caps.  My favorite is I actually had a coupon for a garage sale once!  No joke!  I have actually turned this “addiction” into a thriving home business buying and reselling online, a great after hours job to feed that need for something un-child related.

So when a friend from MOPS mentioned Freecycle I was intrigued, other people’s old junk for FREE!  Where do I sign up?  It’s a Yahoo group that you have to apply to join.  Basically it is focused on keeping stuff out of landfills so if you have something you want to get rid of but it could be reused, fixed, repurposed, and want to avoid throwing it out you can offer it through your local areas group and it will get added to the list and emailed to the members, who in turn can reply to the listing and request it.  You pick someone and arrange a time for them to pick it up from you.  And in turn when someone else lists something you can request it, you may or may not receive it.  But if you do it’s great because it’s free, you just have to pick it up.  We have received some great things-a single jogger stroller, kids clothes, boots, shoes, books, toys.  A week ago I received a bag of stuff that included brand new sealed kids toothpaste, pullups, toy storage nets, and a bunch of toys that thrilled my girls.

And it works to get stuff out of the house too.  You know that clutter us moms are always trying to get rid of.  Or that thing that is missing a piece is exactly what someone else is looking for cause they are missing the other parts.  We tore out an old slate floor a few years ago and we were able to have people come take away all of the old slate to be repurposed for their garden walkway, and the old wood flooring was also taken away to be used to make boxes and for a youth group bonfire.  And when we redid our bathroom all the tiles were taken to use in craft projects, the shower doors found a new home, and so did the old sink and vanity mirror.  It felt great to keep those things out of the trash and know that we can benefit too.