There are many items that are purchased at different stores, especially food stores, that come in containers. Some are plastic zipper bags(with actual zippers). Others are containers that can leftovers. But these same containers can serve multiple purposes. They can be used to store small loose items around the house, and also to store children’s small toys in.
Containerize Children’s Toys Hacks
The zipper bag can be used by little girls as a diaper bag for clothes and bottles for their baby dolls. Little boys can use it to keep their toy soldiers or animals, or if it is a small one he can put his marbles in it.
Baking powder cans hold an 8-pack of crayons just perfect in them, and the crayons won’t get broken. When I was little, my Mama used to give each one of us four children a Calumet Baking Powder can for our crayons, and she would write our name on our can. That way if one of the cans got lost, she would know whose it was.
If the child is older, a plastic shoebox-size container can be filled with all kinds of pens, pencils, highlighters, whiteouts, scissors, and glue, and even calculators. By their toys being in plastic or metal, they won’t get wet when and if it rains. Everything stays neat and dry inside.
In the garage, the small containers can hold things like different sizes of nails, screws, nuts and bolts, and sockets. The larger shoe box size containers may be used for screwdrivers and pliers. Of course, this is taking it for granted that there is no toolbox.
I’m sure that if you look at the size of the container, and look around your house you will see what little things that are sitting out that you can put in the containers. I am sure that you can think of other things to put in the containers as well. You will probably surprise yourself.
The crates that are like milk crates, that are being sold nowadays, are great for storage too. They can even be stacked 3 or 4 high, depending on how heavy what you are storing in them is. Phonograph records can only go two crates high. You can try three crates high if you are a daring person. I myself never stacked them any higher than two high. I didn’t want them to fall and break all of my records.
The same crates can be used for magazines and books. When I was little (back in the 50s) the grocery stores used to receive their fresh fruits and vegetables in wooden crates. My Mother would ask the store owner for some of the crates, and he would give her four or six crates.
My Mother would use the brads that hold wood together to connect two of the crates. She would then cover them with different kinds of wallpaper. When she was done she told us the three oldest children which two crates belonged to which one of us.
We were responsible to get our toys up in the evening and putting them in the crates before bath time. After bath time, it was time for bed. If after we went to bed Mama found any of our toys out, she kept them until we asked where they were the next day.
She would get out the toys and whichever one of us that they belonged to had to go and pick their switch for the customary three swats on the back of our legs. If by chance we didn’t pick a switch that was big enough, she picked it for us. Mama having to pick the switch, and getting it in the morning didn’t happen too many times.