building more than just a family

This week, we made this box …

… to contain all of the toys that make their way to the living room from Vince’s bedroom. Some day we will have a play room, and all the toys will live in that room. Until then, they kind of live everywhere, although I do my best to keep them contained.

We’ve been through a number of containing devices in the living room.

The first was a basket:

Need I say more?

So the basket was retired to the garbage can after being horribly mutilated by the two year old destructo. Next came a rubbermaid container without the lid. That worked well. Until Vince decided that it was highly entertaining to throw the thing around on the hardwood. The corner cracked. But I wasn’t read to give up on the rubbermaid, so we continued using it. Until Vince and his friend Ethan stood on it. I heard a huge CRACK sound coming from the living room… there, in the corner of the living room, stood two little boys, sheepishly standing in the remains of my rubbermaid container. It was shattered. Ah well.

Anyway, so we had the wood slats from a neighbor’s old IKEA furniture, and then a few ends of wood I bought to repair our bed frame, and out of the scraps was born the idea for a much sturdier box. It can be sat in, stood on, and fortunately is too heavy for Vince to lift, so throwing it around won’t be a problem. It holds more toys that it will ever need to (hopefully) and fits perfectly between the window and the couch. (this picture is actually before I sawed off the tips of the corner pieces… they were sticking out a little much, so we just chopped them off after we got the sides and bottom together).