It must take place late at night while everyone is sleeping.  I’m not sure if it’s multiplication, cloning, or mitosis, but some how when I wake up in the morning there are twice as many toys in our house as there were when I went to bed!  And some how my kids seem to know which ones are new and which ones are ‘old’.  Old as in a few weeks.  New toys are, of course, more exciting and entertaining, so now the ‘old’ toys get shoved to the back of the closet or under the bed never to be played with again.  Or maybe not. . .

I’ve noticed a phenomenon that seems to take place every time I try to donate those ’old’ toys.  When I dig them out from the depths of the closet and put them in a box destined for the donation truck all of a sudden they are the greatest toys ever!  “You can’t give it away, it’s my favorite.”  Before I know it my box is empty and all of the ‘old’ toys are now new.  Amazing how that works.

Now if you really want to get the biggest reaction ever to ‘old’ toys take some Rubbermaid bins and toss about one third to one half of the toys in it and stick the bins in the attic or garage.  Wait anywhere from three to four months and then rotate the new ‘old’ toys for the old ‘new’ toys.  Does that make sense?  It’s like Christmas every time we get the bins out of the attic.    I try to get my timing right by rotating the toys out of the attic during times like spring break, the beginning of summer, when we have a new baby, basically any time I need my kids to be self entertained.

So the next time your kids come to you and say their bored simply grab a box and start piling all of the ‘old’ toys in it and sit back and watch the old become new again.