Creative Boxes

Do you know how expensive boxes can be? Just the other day I saw a nice storage box listed for $40! Now, I love cutesy containers, but $40 for one box?! I have found a much cheaper way and have turned collecting, decorating, and using boxes into a hobby.

Many boxes and containers come into my home every week for free. For example, the box that the cereal or crackers come in, coffee and nut tins, diaper boxes and boxes from jugs of water (these are actually the best because of their sturdiness). 

Today, for example, I took two cracker boxes, cut off the top flaps, trimmed them down to be a little shorter, and then glued decorated card stock on all sides. The kids helped me a little with the decorating. We put their names on the side. These boxes are now on the shelf so that each kid has a place to put their current artwork or any paper that is given to them that they want to keep. When the box gets full, we will weed out some things that don't need to be kept and others can be put into a scrapbook or hung up somewhere.

Problem: what to do with all the coloring sheets, drawings, cards, scrap pages that accumulate with children.

Traditional solution: buy office containers or some sort of filing system. Average cost at the container store: $10 each, with some filing systems costing $40.

Creative Solution: take boxes we already had in the house (finding boxes that are the perfect size for where you want them), let the kids help decorate them to make it more personal, begin organizing!

Yes, cracker boxes might be more flimsy than store bought solutions, but they can be easily replaced!