Goodbye, Play Kitchen

Almost four years ago, I wrote this post about finding a Step 2 play kitchen in excellent condition at the thrift store for only $12.99.

Caden loved it. Soon I moved it out of his room and next to our kitchen so he could play with it while I cooked (the kitchen was gated off). I expected to keep it for a long, long time. But it eventually stopped getting played with. By the time Caden was 3, he wasn't interested anymore. He loved playing with the food he got that year for his birthday, however.

I was determined to keep the kitchen because we had a new baby and I still couldn't get over the price I paid for it. Replacing it in the future would most likely be very costly. And whenever we had other children over, they enjoyed playing with it.

Gabe ended up not really interested in it either. He preffered dumping out the food to use the bucket as a step stool and sucking on the food. I got tired of cleaning it up several times a day, so I got rid of the felt food first. I put away the wooden food and dishes a couple weeks ago to keep for periodic use. (The boys like to play with the dishes in water.)

Then I made Caden take down all the things he had stashed on top of the kitchen and cleaned it to get it ready for selling. I taped up the hole so the kids couldn't stuff toys into it. It took me half an hour of shaking the kitchen back and forth and trying to stick my hand inside in order to get everything out! I even found the original utensils I had completely forgotten about.

I changed my mind about selling it at first, until one day I noticed the bucket inside the washer with a load of laundry! Somehow I missed Gabe putting it in there. I put the bucket away too, making the kitchen completely useless to my boys. As much as I still wanted to keep it, I decided it had to go. I'm really trying to weed out stuff we don't use, and unfortunately it fit the bill.

I sold it, including all the food and dishes, yesterday. I was kind of sad, but I know I'll get over it. Generally speaking, I don't let myself get attached to material things anymore for this very reason. So, goodbye, play kitchen. You served us well. May your new owner enjoy you longer than my boys did.