After the rush of the holidays and the significant influx of toys and things that came with it we felt it was important to set aside some time to clean out Annabelle’s toy room and make a donation to a local charity.
Since Annabelle is our first child I don’t have a ton to compare her to but she is just not into toys. I’d say her top three favorite activities are reading, coloring, and pretend cleaning – which might just be her most favorite thing to do. Give that girl a spray bottle full of water and some paper towel and put your feet up because she’s good for at least twenty minutes.
Ken and I have made it a point to keep toys out of our main living area for the most part and luckily we have the space to keep all of her toys in one of our extra bedrooms. In our family room she has a crate full of books and some smaller toys and there is a drawer and a shelf in our entertainment center for her coloring books and crayons. Everything else lives in the playroom which is a blessing and a curse. It’s great to have a spot to keep everything so our house doesn’t look like a smaller version of Toys ‘R Us but it’s also very easy to shut the door and ignore the mess and overabundance that’s happening in there.
With a new year in front of us we spent about a half hour last weekend going through toys with Annabelle, being honest with ourselves on what she plays with and what she doesn’t, and explaining to Annabelle how her toys would be going to boys and girls who will love them and truly appreciate them. I’m sure she didn’t understand much of the process but we wanted to include her so that charity becomes something that she’s familiar with from an early age.
Throughout the year we’re hoping to share more ways and ideas to give back. I’d love to hear how you and your family incorporate charity into your lives! All of the toys we donated went to the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). I use this site to schedule donation pick-ups. It’s super easy and they pick up everything right from your porch!
And now that our playroom is clean the next steps is to paint and get it a bit more set up. Hopefully I’ll be able to share more photos soon!
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