Tiny Toy Treasure Chest

Contain Choking Hazards

• What: Store tiny toys
• When: Mixing toys from different ages
• Why: Keep younger siblings safe
• Where: Your home

Have a new family member in your household? Maybe you still want to figure out how to balance the complex toy limitations for different ages when your kids have younger siblings. Your older kid gets bored with baby toys, but you don’t get enough sleep to keep track of all the tiny choking hazards that come with big kid toys. I had three kids under five for longer than I like to recall, and here’s how I solved the problem of little kids and tiny toys.

I removed all the tiny pieces and parts whenever we received a new toy. All of these tiny things went straight into the same box, much like my beloved busy boxes for travel. Only this time, I didn’t intend to take the box en route with us and risk losing all those small toys. Instead, I stored it in a safe place out of all my kids’ reach. Then, while the baby napped or my bigger kids needed extra entertainment, I whipped it out and let them play with it on the table out of their younger sibling’s reach. When they finished, everything went right back into the box.

It ended up being a very random mix of animals and free stuff and other items. But all three of my kids, now all big enough to play with toys of any size, still love to get the box out and set up scenes and manipulate all the tiny pieces. And I still love not stepping on them or losing track of accessories.