It started yesterday. ...well actually, it started Friday when we discovered (the evidence of) a mouse in the garage. Which led to cleaning out the entire garage (4 garbage bags worth, and a dump run in the near future). It then travelled upstairs to the kids room (the cleaning... not the mouse) and finished in the toy area of the basement.
Some people get a rush from shopping, I find my natural high when I declutter and get rid of stuff.
And so I was finished... three rooms later and two boxes full of toys!! The kids were a great help, they understand that they have MORE THAN ENOUGH toys, and they also understand that other children are not as fortunate... but mostly, they understand that Santa can't bring more toys if there's no room for them to go. (whatever does the trick!)
So I started my day with two huge boxes full of toys. What should I do today?
I could place them online and sell them 1 by 1. or I could drop them off at any given donation centre. OR I could list them on kijiji for free and trust that if someone is willing to reply to my FREE TOYS ad, come to my house and pick up two boxes of toys, that they must be exactly the right person for those toys.
This is not the first time I've done this, and one would think that after doing this numerous times a year I would be use to the result.... but EVERY single time, I'm shocked and heartbroken.
I posted this ad:
"Great Toys for under the Christmas Tree. Free.
We are making room for the new toys Santa's going to bring, and with the season of giving, we would love to pass these on to someone who will truly love them.
Boys lot includes (age 2-4yrs old):
Fisher Price train set. Fisher Price remote control dinosaur, and fire engine, Fisher Price power touch, trucks, cars, and stuffies!!
Girls lot includes (age 4-7 yr old):
My little ponies, Polly pockets (people, clothes, car), groovey girls, disney pop-up book, disney puzzle book, Disney beads, and stuffies!!
Most in Great giftable condition!!
Smoke free, Pet free home.
Free to a good home.
From my family to yours.... Happy Holiday's!! :)"
WITHIN 10 minutes I had 5 replies. Within 20 minutes 15 replies.
EVERY single reply had some sort of simple story explaining why these toys needed to be under their tree.
I'm not writing this to receive my Hero cookie, I'm writing this to challenge you...
It's this time of year that we donate money to organizatons, new toys to the firemen, and canned goods to the food bank. And although each and everyone one of those are for an amazing cause, please don't forget about the people inbetween. The people that don't qualify for these programs or are too proud to even sign up. The ones that thought they could do it on their own, but are now finding that money is just too tight to make it stretch any further. Because I bet those are the people that are replying to my ad.
My challenge...
Go through your toys and put them in a box. Take a quick picture and list them on kijiji for free.
Don't fool yourself and think that no one will be interested. I promise you, not only will someone be interested... but they will be very appreciative too.
What did you do today?
