When you’ve used up a tissue box, don’t throw it away – you can turn it into an exciting toy for the baby in your life.
The shovel
Nursery teacher and mom Jamie Robinson (@sprouting.little.learners) posted a video of her clever tissue box hack. In the video, she shows how to turn an empty tissue box into an interactive toy for any baby from around 5 months old by filling it with thin tissues.
“(It) helps the baby practice grasping and pulling,” she explains, showing her own child happily pulling the scarves out of the box.
The hack couldn’t be easier since the only materials needed are the empty box and scarves or fabric.
How it works
While Jamie shows off the toy with sheer scarves she ordered from Amazon, you can easily save money and avoid clutter by repurposing fabrics you already have around the house.
This trick goes way beyond the tissue toy. For parents, the amount of necessary purchases for their children is overwhelming; they need wardrobes, toys, and activities at every stage of life. But with a little clever thinking, it’s possible to parent much more cost-effectively by trying to repurpose things you already own rather than buying something new.
A prime example of this is the Buy Nothing Project, which is growing nationwide. In these hyperlocal social media groups—typically formed on Facebook but also in its own app—people give and trade items they no longer need with members of their community. This is a particularly fertile place for parents, as each new year (or even month) ushers in a new stream of possessions, making several obsolete.
It’s also a great way to create a more sustainable, waste-free future for your little ones. Baby products create a staggering amount of pollution, from the 30 billion disposable diapers thrown away each year, according to the McGill Office for Science and Society, to the millions of tons of plastic generated by the plastic-intensive toy industry, according to the Yale Environment Review.
“Baby gear highlights the overabundance of many of our purchases because even when we use them, we probably won’t need them for long. And there’s just so much of it,” wrote author Tatiana Schlossberg on the website Parent Data.
What our users say
Commentators were excited and eager to try Jamie’s trick, and more and more parents shared their enthusiasm for repurposing, recycling and regifting toys.
One person also left a lighthearted comment, writing, “I love the fact that every time he manages to successfully take/hold something from his hands, he puts it right in his mouth. All babies are the same.”
A heartfelt post on parenting blog Scary Mommy praised the community-building aspect of the Buy Nothing groups. “I see so many things that have changed hands. I imagine children playing with toys that others loved and then passing them down,” wrote author Thao Thai. “It’s a new kind of inheritance that is passed down not through a single family but through an entire community.”
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