Treasure Box for Your Children’s Little Treasures

Tracey Clark, Sorted

If you have kids, you’ll probably have lots of these too!

• Shells from the beach

• Rocks and stones found when out walking

• Little crystals

• Kids meal freebies that don’t fit in with other toy categories

• A medal or a badge

And so on, and so on...the list is endless

Children just love to collect little treasures that get squirrelled away in all sorts of places. In little pots, in with the box of cars, the dress up box. In fact anywhere where they were last playing with or admiring their important stash. Now, lo and behold their parents might have inadvertently thrown one of these little treasures -they will be inconsolable.

These items defy classification and are a kid’s version of a ‘junk drawer’. One of the best ways to store these items is to give your child their own treasure box. It could be a simple decorated shoebox, or maybe an inexpensive toolbox, according to the space you have and budget.

• Help your child to gather all of their special items that they cannot live without.

• Once they are collected lay them all out on the floor, in categories if they have many of the same thing.

• Encourage them to pick 3 to 5 of their absolute favourites from each category. They may want to keep absolutely everything and if there is the space then they should be able to keep more of a certain category but having a conversation about what’s really important and why we don’t always need more ‘stuff’ could be helpful.

• Set them up for success with easy wins; let them know its ok to release an item if they don’t feel attached to it.

• If their haul is more than the box allows you could offer to look after and store the rest of the stash for them. If they go 3 to 6 months without needing more or mentioning them then you can let it go!
  

Make room for what’s important!