What? You don’t have a gift closet? Everyone should have a gift closet, and that goes double for moms of young kids. There is always an unexpected birthday party invitation, and do you really want to race out the day before or the morning of and overpay for the first suitable hunk of plastic you find? No. A thousand times, no.

I’d say that 80% of the items in my so-called toy stash come from Amazon. They often clearance toys down to almost nothing and then tack on free shipping. That’s the time to stock up.

Yesterday, I got a couple of these.

Genuine Home Depot brand children’s tool set; originally $19.99, down to $5.29 with free shipping (ages 8+). It’s hard to go wrong. Today it seems to be coming in and out of stock, and I promise to be more timely in the future with specific deal links. But this is just one example of the kind of shopping I do; I stock up on items that I might be able to use either for my own kids or other kids, and if Christmas rolls around and I still haven’t given it to anyone? I donate it to Toys for Tots.