Today’s Hint: How to Save Tissues from Toddlers

There’s something about toilet paper and tissues – toddlers just love unraveling toilet paper rolls and emptying tissue boxes.

Perhaps this is because tots enjoy playing with anything they see their parents regularly use, or maybe it’s simply because these activities are fun for the little ones.

But regardless of the reason why the various types of cleaning paper are attractive to tots, the cost of the wasted tissues and rolls – dirty and crumpled up after passing through toddler hands – can quickly add up.

The good news is that there are ways you save these items from toddler hands. In an earlier hint, for instance, I covered six ways to save toilet paper rolls in particular, and perhaps the most obvious tactic for saving toilet paper and tissues from little hands is simply to keep toilet paper rolls and tissue boxes out of a toddler’s reach. However, this is easier said than done and doesn’t allow for toddler exploration.

This is why today’s hint is a tactic for conserving tissues while simultaneously enabling toddlers to get their fill of tissue box-related play.

The trick: Take a relatively full tissue box and empty it of all but a few tissues, moving the removed tissues to the top of another open tissue container or somewhere else where only adults will be able to easily access them. And make sure to remove the plastic film from around the opening to the tissue box (plastic that could pose a choking hazard, as PJ Feinstein points out on her site Bunny & Dolly).

Then, give your little one the relatively empty, and childproofed, tissue box and let him (or her) play with it, and the few tissues in it, to his (or her) heart’s content. Then, as needed, you can add tissues to this play tissue box.

But what if you really don’t want to waste any tissues at all? Well, there are other items you can fill an empty tissue boxe up with instead of real tissues. For instance, if you have scarves around the house, you could fill an empty tissue box with colorful scarves, a clever tactic I came across at the site Learning Through Play.

Or, you could fill an empty tissue box with fabric pieces (think scraps from cut-up old bibs, a smart idea I came across at the site Adventures of Adam). You also could repurpose a tissue box into a “guess what’s in the box” game, filling the box with all sorts of different objects (for example, small stuffed animals and blocks) that your little one can take out and put back in, as Rachel suggests over the kids activities blog.

Meanwhile, if you don’t feel comfortable letting your little one play with a real tissue box, there are toys on the market designed to satisfy toddlers’ tissue cravings.  For instance, Excellerations sells a $25 “Plush Pull & Play Tissue box,” a soft play tissue box filled with scarves.

Of course, there’s the always the chance that the various types of toy tissue boxes mentioned above may not satisfy your little one’s tissue fix. Still, if your tot seems to enjoy wasting tissues, they’re likely worth a try.

What are your tricks for saving tissues from toddler hands?

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