Editorial policy

Ten guides and two calculators sit on the front page. This is how they get written.

Where the numbers come from

Party arithmetic and storage advice are working knowledge written down, and presented as rules of thumb rather than laboratory results. Where a guide touches a regulation, the regulation is read first: the ages guide is written from the CPSC's small-parts rule and the card-mailing guide from the Postal Service's published letter sizes, and both sources are listed with the date we read them.

Sources are read before they are cited

Every source in the list was opened and read, and the sentence on the page was written from the source rather than the source being found afterwards to prop up a sentence already written.

The sources themselves

Named on the guides that use them, and linked here.

US Consumer Product Safety Commission: Small Parts and Choking Hazard Labeling FAQs. Products meant for children under three may not contain small parts at all, and a small part is anything that fits entirely into the test cylinder of 16 CFR 1501, about 2.25 by 1.25 inches. Craft kits with beads, buttons and googly eyes sit right on that line, and the ages block above is written around it. Read 2026-08-02.
US Postal Service, Business Mail 101: Sizes for Letters. A letter mails at letter price between 3.5 by 5 inches and 6.125 by 11.5 inches, up to a quarter inch thick, and a square envelope pays a nonmachinable surcharge no matter how pretty it is. The card-mailing block quotes these figures directly. Read 2026-08-02.

What we refuse to say

That anything here is a toy, or carries a safety certificate from us.
That removable adhesive is consequence-free on every wall. It is not, and the guide says where.
That a figure is verified when it comes from our own packaging and we have not measured it.

Ratings, honestly

Ratings across a thousand-product catalogue are re-read in batches. A product whose batch has not come round shows no stars. We would rather show a gap than a stale number.

Advice this is not

Nothing here is safety advice for your particular child, wall or printer. Where a question touches the small-parts rule, the page points at the CPSC rather than guessing.

Last updated 2026-09-14.