A Bit of a DiY Project
Let’s make one thing clear. Like most of the blog posts I’ve put out on this site, I’ll preface this with I am by no means an expert. I am not some Parenting expert, nor am I some organizing Marie Kondo. I am just like you - a guy, with a daughter, and a mess to clean up. I’m just doing the best I can, with what I have, like the rest of us.
So here is a little DiY project that I thought I’d share some photos with. This was all made with stuff found in the garage. Bits and pieces left over from the renovation of our house. Bobs and things found in storage and that could be useful.
I swear. This is more organized than it used to be!
Add to all that caveats that I don’t have any Work In Progress photos to share. I’m sorry! I know that is the most important part of DiY blog posts, but this was done not only to help organize and keep the house a little more tidy, but also to give my mother - still in Stay at Home like the rest of us - a project. I handed her off the buckets (staying more than a dozen feet away of course) and in the afternoon on my back porch was a wonderful little contraption that will do the job just fine.
So. Enough prefacing. Onto the main event.
Really hasn’t changed much about these buckets in 30 years …
I have found that more and more toys entered this household; my daughter got more interested in pretending and playing with things that weren’t self contained little light flashy contraptions of noise and (hopefully) limited battery life. As this went on there were more and more piles of toys in more and more rooms. I’d spend 20 mins going through the house and picking up - but after a long day working and dealing with kiddo and all the other wonderful things going on during Stay At Home in this Covid-19 area those toys were just getting piled into boxes and crates and put off to the side. At least it was picked up and it didn't feel like a mess - but it wasn’t put away. It was everywhere.
The other day I was down in my Lego workroom with my daughter, and she was helping me (in her beautiful two year old mind way) organize pieces. She pulled a bunch of old Lego Buckets out of where they were stored and was absolutely enamored with them. So much so in fact she insisted on taking one with her everywhere for two days.
Well. This is fortuitous I thought, and started using those same buckets to organize her toys a bit. Keep them out of the way, maybe a bit more. What do you know, it worked well too! Being two, she also loved the fact she could pick up a bucket and dump it all onto the ground. How great! Let’s be great parents by not only teaching how to clean up, but also how to organize… and how much fun it is to just dump a bucket full of stuff and watch it go everywhere! I think this is a good task to learn.
As I said, I also gave this idea to my mother to help keep her hands busy in this very difficult time as we self isolate as much as possible. She loved the idea, taking these buckets and building a simple shelf system for them. It is nothing fancy - Left-over pvc piping built into a frame, bolted and screwed into an old prefab shelving unit. The framing purposely set to leave the buckets at an angle, making them better for storage. Not noticed at this time is the backboard of this little project is a white board! Facing outward, when the kiddo is a bit older we can find a better place for this where the backboard is accessible - a great place for the kid to play with her current favorite toys - markers!
Finish it off with some command hooks and a bit of organizing and there we go! Finished project. Kiddo’s toys are organized, the various crates and boxes that were nice enough moved to the same corner to hold the ever growing pile of stuffed animals (or at least, give it a central point to overflow) and there we go!
I expect the kid to absolutely spread all of those toys all across the house within minutes of seeing it.
(and Yes. That is a frying pan on the side. Doesn’t your kid have a frying pan? Rapunzel would be proud.)
