DIY: Toybox On A Budget

Who wants to see my latest cheap (but great) creation for my little boy?

As you all know I’m on a very tight budget, but I refuse to let my son go without; I just have to think of creative ways to get things sometimes!

The latest item is a toybox. These are not cheap brand new, so I posted an ad on my local Freecycle to see if anyone had an old one they no longer needed.

Freecycle is an email group where you post things you no longer want so people in your local area can collect them, rather than the items being binned and causing more waste the world cannot manage.

Thankfully a very kind mum was happy to give me her teenage daughter’s old, pink toybox!

Before Pic: My Free, Greencycle Find

The original idea was I would go to the trouble of finding one for his father to refurb, because at the time he had no money to get him a gift for his first birthday. However, after having the box for over a month and not making any attempt to source some free paint, he had produced nothing by the week of his birthday.

Three days after his birthday, his ‘father’ received £125 and to this day (3 months later) has still not bought him a present, and has instead continued to spend all his money on… you guessed it, HIMSELF.

So anyway… this week I got sick of having it taking up space in my junk room and decided to do something about it. I located a half tub of leftover white paint in my cupboard and for the last 3 evenings once my son was in bed, I got to work (in between cleaning, prepping for the next day/work and the usual rubbish of course).

I then used some stickers I had bought in the £1 shop and put a baby blanket on the lid, so it is now a bench as well as a toybox. And voila!

AFTER!

It probably cost me under a fiver in all (petrol to pick it up, stickers and the paint), so I’m very pleased with it!

My son’s going to get a nice surprise when he wakes up in the morning and sees it in the hallway;- his face lighting up with excitement and a huge smile always makes any hard work worth it!