My children love treasures. They love finding them. They love collecting them. They love scattering them all over the carpet.

They love their treasures more if they believe said treasures are of importance to the adults in the household.

So we deliberately create Treasure Troves for the children. And this is why our children are the happiest on the block.

  1. The drawer in the stand that holds the Receipt Basket holds postcards, old cell phones, and a pair of toddler sunglasses.
  2. The basket next to the television holds between 8 and 234,986 remotes. (Only one of which is usable.)
  3. The end table next to the couch holds a nifty little basket of coasters.
  4. The lower drawer in our nightstand has an old Gameboy and a working flashlight.

We could be anal neat freaks and insist that the postcards stay IN THE DRAWER. The remotes stay IN THE BASKET. And the coasters do not belong ALL OVER THE FLOOR.

But, in my experience, children are happiest when allowed to explore and make messes. And, in my experience, mommies are happier when their babies are happy. Let’s do the math: 10 minutes scattering postcards + 2 minutes modeling sunglasses + 5 minutes “talking” on cell phones + 5 minutes climbing the chair next to the remote basket to take them out one at a time to examine and drop + 3 minutes throwing coasters like frisbees + 5 minutes “playing” Super Mario Brothers = 30 minutes of Treasure Induced Child Euphoria (TICE). Subtract the 5 minute clean up, and that’s a good quality 25 minutes of peace. Read, blog, read blogs… or just do the dishes without a 12 month old trying to climb in and carry off the dirty pizza cutter.

AND (wait there’s more!) I’ve found that when certain areas are designated as “Yes!” areas for children to pick apart, the “No!” areas are all but forgotten. I mean, who wants to stick forks in a surge protector when you could be playing Super Mario while talking on a cell phone and skipping coasters across the floor?

Oh, and note that none of the treasures have the Fisher Price logo? We have spent entirely too much on toys the past three years.

Works for me.

Has anybody else out there planted Treasure Troves in their house?

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Be sure to come back tomorrow for Recipe Swap: Toddlers – What do they eat?!