Giveaway: Toydozer

If your house is anything like mine - and c'mon, make me feel better and say that it is! - cleanup is not the most fun part of the day. Ok, cleanup of toys may not actually happen every single day. But you do make your kids clean, don't you? It's not just me?

I'm a firm believer in teaching the wee ones responsibility, but that doesn't mean that it has to be drudgery, right? In fact, right now the wee ones are really into vacuuming and actually argue over who gets to vacuum because I somehow turned it into a game. I'm still not sure how that happened, but I'm going with it.

Of course, before we (ok, they) vacuum, the floors need to be picked up. I've tried the timers, I've tried the races, I've tried taking away toys that aren't picked up. They do it, but grudgingly. And it's painful for everyone.

I finally received a product for review, though, that's making the pickup part as fun as the vacuuming. I was sent a Toydozer for review. It's a plastic scoop that acts like a toy bulldozer and makes cleaning up faster and easier in our house. It comes in three fun colors - yellow, purple, and blue - and the gatherer intelligently Velcros onto the scoop itself so that they pieces don't become lost and separated.

When I first gave it to the wee ones, they actually made a bigger mess so they could clean it up. While this wasn't quite what I was hoping for - I don't need any more messes in the house - Mister Man declared that it was awesome and "Mommy, can I clean some more? This is fun!" And no, I'm not making that up. I only wish I'd had my video going so I could have captured his enthusiasm. Weird, no?

Because the scoop is fairly large and sturdy, it doesn't just clean up the dreaded tiny Lego pieces that I inevitably step all over, but the wee ones have quite creatively begun to use it to pick up anything on the floor. They use it to scoop up books and put them back on the book shelf, and when there are scraps of paper by their desks from homework, they're using the Toydozer to clean up the paper and put it into recycling. This has made cleanup so much faster, and I'm not getting near the arguments I used to.

Yes, I'm sold. Not surprisingly, the Toydozer was invented by a mom who was tired of having the same cleanup battles I had. She put on her thinking cap, and now you can purchase her Toydozer from her website for $18.99, including shipping to anywhere in the US or Canada. You can find out more about the Toydozer story and what they're up to on the Toydozer Facebook page.

This is something I'm pretty sure I'll be purchasing for my friends who have children into Legos and other tiny piece toys. It would make a great birthday present for them, and not only does it have no batteries (always the mark of a great gift) and makes no noise (ditto), but it makes life easier for the parents, too.

Are you ready to go buy your own? Wait, (I feel like the infomercial!), I have a bonus for you. You can save 20% by using the code BLOGGER20. Or you can win one.

So what do you have to do to win? First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count! That means that please please please leave your contact information. If I cannot get ahold of you, you cannot win!

This giveaway is open until Friday April 19 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 24 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me: What tricks do you use to make cleanup easier at your house?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for following me on Twitter, then tweeting this contest with the following tweet: "Want to make cleanup a game in your house? Enter the #toydozer #giveaway from @honestandtruly http://bit.ly/HqxzTr" (leave a link to your tweet as your comment and make sure you do all the steps!)
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.
4) Earn one additional entry by liking Honest & Truly! on Facebook. (Yay, it's legal again, so long as you know you have to leave a comment here to enter and that simply liking me isn't the entry, along with acknowledging the fact that Facebook has nothing to do with this giveaway whatsoever.
5) Earn an additional entry by putting me in your Google Plus circle. Am I already in your G+ circle? No problem - just leave a comment letting me know that you've added me or already have me there.

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, this post is part of a Toydozer blogger outreach campaign. I was provided with a complimentary Toydozer to review and have been compensated, as well. That said, all opinions remain my own.