I may not be liked very much for this idea, but that’s okay, I can live with it. This all starts every time I walk around my house and see toys on top of toys and stuff on top of stuff. What I am talking about is all the things my kids own. I can’t help but wonder where it all came from. I know I didn’t buy all of this stuff. It seems like there’s never a time we leave the house that we don’t come back with more stuff. So, this year we are doing things a bit different. 

The plan is for the kids to weekly go through their rooms and bring out a box of things they don’t play with anymore and another box of things that are broken. Then comes the fun part. We are going to take the junk and teach them that it is okay to throw things away or to give them away to people who will enjoy them more. Either way, it is leaving our house every week up until Christmas.

The last step is the best part, at least to me it is. You see, our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are crazy. We now have to make the rounds to not one house, not two houses but five different houses. Every single one of those stops has more gifts for the kids (not to mention some birthdays gifts also as my twins are born on the 14th of December, so there is some spillover). When the visit is done, we move all of those gifts into the back of the car and off we go again. By the time we get home, the kids are so tired, they wander in to watch T.V. and rest while I am tasked with bringing in the gifts and piling them up in each of their areas in the living room. 

What I have learned is they don’t even remember what they got at each house or who it is from. I know, it’s sad, but they’re kids. So here it is: don’t bring them all in! Leave a decent amount of them in the back of the car, and once they have gone to bed, you can move them to a good hiding spot. This way, you never have to run out for the last minute birthday party gift for one of their friends, or when they are extra good one day, you have a little surprise for them. This stockpile should last you most of the year. 

So, there you have it, my Christmas Life Hack. For any friends or family, I’m sorry if you come to a birthday party and see your gift being regifted. I was just trying something practical. ■