It has been one year since I last posted in this category so I thought it would be a good idea to give you all an update. This post will be all about getting your holiday trains ready for the upcoming holiday season. You will need the following supplies: cotton balls, rubbing alcohol, bleach, water, a bucket and a cloth.

The first thing that you will want to do is to get out your holiday toy trains and make sure you are not missing any pieces. You will want to check their batteries and make sure the stickers and decals are still in good condition. Then check the wheels, bells and other movable pieces for damage and missing parts.

After you have finished replacing broken and missing pieces you will want give your holiday trains a good cleaning. You don’t want to get your toy trains soaking wet. So to clean the train set you will want to use indirect moisture. This is accomplished by moistening cotton balls and Q-tips. These can then be used to wipe down your trains.

The final step is getting your holiday train set ready for the holiday season is to tend to your toy train table. You will want to first give it a good cleaning. Then touch up chipped paint. Finally top the table with a holiday themed table cloth. You can use the table cloth to set the mood for the next holiday be it Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah or New Year’s.

As far as summer toy storage goes I like to separate toys into two categories, outside toys and inside toys. Outdoor toys needs generally carry more dirt and bugs than indoor toys, so I like to clean them off with a hose before the temperature gets too cold, dry them off and then store them in a large plastic tub that has a lid. This helps keep the bugs out and the moisture out. Since outdoor toys are designed for harsher conditions, I don’t feel bad about storing them outside on a carport or in a garage during the winter months.

While you are putting away summer toys, it is a good idea to plan ahead for the new toy storage challenges that you will be facing during the holiday season. Now is a good time to go through your child’s toys and seem what toys they want to keep and which ones they have outgrown or no longer play with. For the toys that your child has outgrown or no longer wants, either put up for sale on an auction website like eBay, pass on to friends and family with young kids or donate to a charity organization.