At our home we seem to have the perpetual problem of unplayed with toys or unread books. But as soon as we go to a friend's home, all their toys are the newest and greatest things ever. Anyone else have this "problem"? Well, I decided to have a toy swap with some of my friends. Step2 generously donated a couple Little Helper Shopping Carts for the kids to collect their new toys in, everyone brought toys, books and games that were in good shape, with no pieces missing and for about 2 hours our kids swapped their toys away. Curious how we did it? Here are my tips on how to have a successful toy swap and what to do with all those leftover toys!

Send out your invites:
First decide how many people you want to invite. Do you want to just invite your friends or open it up to all the kids in your neighborhood. Just remember, the bigger it is, the more varitey of books and toys there will be to swap- plus the more you have to share/donate at the end.

Pick your place:
Small swaps can be easily done in a home. Or if you have a local church or community room to use they are great way to guarantee enough space for everyone and everything. I hosted our toy swap in our basement and cleared out any items we wanted to keep so that there was no confusion about what toys they kids were allowed to take and which ones were off limits.

Set some rules:
You can use a ticket system and give each child a ticket per toy. Although most parents are happy to get rid of old toys and not take as many back home. We didn't hand out tickets and with a dozen kids running around swapping toys we had no problems. Step2 sponsored our event with Little Helper Shopping Carts so the kids went around the room and put their favorite items their cart. The Little Helper shopping carts were pefect for the kids, they were able to grab stuff and keep looking without getting loaded down with whatever treasures they may have already found.

Snacks:
You don't have to supply snacks. But what kids doesn't like snacks? Food AND toys.. my boys are in heaven. Plus it apparently takes a lot of energy to look around a room and get new toys, because those kids made quick work of the snacks. We just had "Toy Swap" bottles of water, Twizzlers, cookies, gumballs and M&M's for everyone.

Donate:
With all the leftover toys, you can donate them to a local charity. We donated our toys to Hannah's Treasure Chest in Centerville. We were able to donate 2 boxes and 2 large trash bags of toys, books and games when our event was over. There are several great local charities in the Dayton area; Goodwill, Salvation Army, AmVets and several others, but I felt drawn to donate the items from our swap to Hannah's Treasure Chest. First, the items at the swap were all in good shape, no pieces missing and nothing broken. So I didn't feel bad donating our swap items to them. Hannah's Treasure Chest is a non-profit organization that exists to enrich the lives of children in need by providing clothing, books, infant/toddler equipment and toys. Their main warehouse is located at 124 Westpark Road in Centerville. They use their donated items to help children in poverty by supplying them with things that they need. Their list of clients include social service workers, family advocates, school counselors and church pastors. Whenever my boys outgrow an item I sometimes hate to just "get rid of it," I would rather give it to someone that I know can use it. The problem is that there isn't always a friend or family member in need of what we have when we are looking to give our stuff away. Hannah's Treasure Chest is the perfect way to donate stuff that you no longer need or use, but you want to go to someone that can really use it.

Our toy swap was so much fun. The kids had a great time getting new toys and all the parents had a good time just being able to hang out. Toy swaps are a great way to clean out your closets and empty out some toy baskets plus it is a great way to teach your children about sharing with others. We all have things that we no longer use and this is a great way to teach our children about helping others out by donating items they no longer play with to someone that will appreciate it more. So next time you feel like the books and toys are taking over your home maybe grab a few friends and have a toy swap.

Disclosure: Step2 provided me with the Little Helper Shopping Carts. But this post and opinions are my own and not paid for or influenced by the item provided.