DIY Toy Storage - Upcycled Diaper Boxes

Christmas has left us with an abundance of toys and a shortage on storage space. We have a small house that quickly feels claustrophobic with clutter. And I like things to be tidy and organized. I went to Walmart yesterday to see if they had any baskets or totes that would work. The cheapest one was $20 and didn't look so great. So it was off to the interwebs to see if a more frugal solution could be found.

I found several tutorials for making canvas bins out of diaper boxes. Perfect! We have a million diaper boxes hanging out in the garage, and I actually had a canvas drop cloth out there too. I waited for DD to take a nap and then I got started. I read through several tutorials to get an idea of the process, and then changed things a bit. Mainly because I didn't want to get out the sewing machine to sew a basket liner. So my baskets are completely canvas covered.

No-Sew Canvas Bins

Materials:
Diaper boxes
Hot glue
Canvas drop cloth - or another sturdy fabric, approx 1 yard.
Tape measure
Scissors
Box knife
Iron

I started out with an empty box. Using the box knife I carefully cut off the top flaps and set them aside to use later.

Next I glued the short flaps inside the bottom to cover the gaps. One piece had to be trimmed to fit on my box.

Note: At this point I thought I might decoupage the outside of the box so I first covered it in white copy paper. Then I got impatient and decided to cover it with the canvas instead. So from this point on my boxes are covered in white paper but its a completely unnecessary step!

Now its time to measure the fabric. Here's where my tutorial starts to differ from the others. I didn't want to sew a fabric liner so I needed to have the fabric cover the outside and the inside. I thought the easiest way to do this would be to have two large strips - one to run length-wise (approx 11' x 52 '') and one to run width-wise (approx 18'' x 44'').

I set my box down on the canvas and measured allowing .5'' room on the sides to overlap. Once my strips were cut I ironed them smooth.

Then I began to wrap the box, starting length-wise. I turned the box over and started on the bottom. Centering the fabric, I began on one side and glued down the fabric, stretching it tight and pressing firmly into the glue.

 

I glued the bottom first, then each of the sides on the outside. Lastly I finished up by tucking the fabric inside and gluing it down. Don't worry about making it meet the bottom edge exactly. You want a bit of fabric left on the bottom of the box. It will be covered in the end.

Then I went back and glued down the sides, being careful to cut and tuck the corners to get them as smooth as possible.

For the next piece, I folded over the edges to get a nice, smooth seam and ironed it to keep the strip straight and uniform.

Again starting on the bottom in the middle, I began gluing down the fabric. Run the glue all the way to the edge and press firmly for a nice, tight seam.

Glue the bottom, outside walls, and then the inside. 

Almost there! This is what the box should look like once it's fully wrapped

 For the bottom, I used the two long flaps to make an insert. You could tape them together, but I was too impatient to go find the tape. It works fine without taping. Measure a piece of fabric to cover the flaps.

Glue down the fabric, stretching tight to get a smooth finish.

Now tuck the insert into the bottom of the box. It should be a snug fit. Press down well in all corners to secure it.

And that's it! This would work with almost any kind of fabric. A great way to reuse those diaper boxes (or paper boxes, or any other kind of box you may run across). DD has a bookshelf in her room that is just waiting to get some new bins! For now, I am thrilled to have the toys contained in the living room :)

2013: Steps to the Goal

$24,500

That's the amount we need to pay off this next year. WOW! Its more than double the amount that we managed to pay off in 2012, and about ten times the amount we paid in 2011.

That comes down to $2042 per month. So how are we going to get there?

1. Regular monthly payments account for $644-650 (depending on interest).
2. DH is bringing home a pretty steady income now. That will account for at least $1,000 per month.
3. The remaining $400 is going to have to come from extra wiggle room in our budget or extra cases from DH.

Precious posted today about her grocery budget. Ooooo, that is one area we are notoriously bad about. I hate to cook and DH loves to go out to eat, so most of the time we end up going to grab something or we order in. If I do go shopping I usually don't have much of a plan so we end up with random bits and wasted food.

Last year I bought an eMeals subscription. There was a Groupon or Living Social deal to get the whole year for $29. I tried it for a couple of months but then got lazy :( Now that I have the plans, I am going to recycle them for this year :) Each week contains a menu with 7 meals and a shopping list organized by section of the grocery store. The meals are quick and easy to cook and DH loves them (which is saying a lot since he's pretty picky). Not only do we need to save money, we need to eat healthier and start eating together at the table as a family now that DD is getting older.

The sad thing is, I think we could make up most of that $400 just by cooking healthy meals at home and avoiding takeout. It costs us around $20 for fast food and $40 for a sit-down restaurant. I can make a meal for us for about $8.

2012 Looking Back and 2013 Looking Ahead

Just like every year before it, 2012 has been full of ups and downs. But overall I am thrilled with where we ended up :)

Job: I got a promotion in July, still working on the same team I joined last year. I love it! We will be moving office locations soon so my commute will increase, but overall no complaints.

House: We got bad news from the realtor earlier this year so for now we are staying put. But our cozy little place is working well for us now. We've not had any more scary incidents around here lately so that's nice.

DD: Wow, has she changed this year. She turned 1 in July. It seems like every day she's turning into more of a little person with her own likes, dislikes, and opinions (boy, is she opinionated!). Now she's starting to pretend play with her dolls. So funny to watch her act out things like changing diapers, getting a bath, or getting ready to leave the house. Hopefully its good "Big Sister" practice :) She is in love with Minnie Mouse and will talk to the TV when Minnie is on (and generally ignores the TV any other time). She loves to wear her cowgirl boots but won't let me keep barrettes or hair ties in her hair. Consequently, she usually has dirty bangs.

DH: We had a rough start to the year, but we worked through things and our relationship is solid. DH is kicking butt at work and finally starting to make some real money. I am so proud of him :)

Debt: this year was a big one. We ended up with a payoff of $11,547.06. Considering 2011's total paydown was $2,374.15, I would say we did a great job. Most of the payoff was due to DH bringing in big checks. I am hopeful that 2013 will see even more progress.

For 2013 we really just have two goals. But they are LOFTY goals!

1. Have another kid

2. Pay off remaining credit card debt. $24,500

The first goal we really have no control over. It could happen right away or we could be in for a long journey. Who knows. But we did get the all-clear from the Dr. and we are doing things to help boost our chances.

On the second goal, most of this will have to be accomplished by DH. When he gets paid on large cases, the goal is to start hammering away at this debt. Then, if we have time, we will start savings for maternity leave and insurance deductibles. Whenever we find out for sure that a baby is on the way the savings will get bumped up in priority.

Here we go! Good luck to everyone for a great 2013 :)

TWW

Its been soooooooooooooooo long.

Torturous.

And only one freaking day into it.



I am so not going to make it!




Good thing we have the holidays to distract me. I picked up 5 pregnancy tests at the Dollar Tree tonight for my POAS habit. The girl behind me looked at me like I was a nut. Probably because I am.

I like control. I like to know exactly when things are going to happen. And TTC takes all of that away from me. There's nothing I can do to make things happen any faster than they are going to. I am employing the use of every old wives tale that I can find just to make myself feel better but I know the reality is that I have no control over it. And that freaks me out.

Thanks, Murphy.

I got the new Galaxy S3 for my Christmas present. We got the $50 Black Friday deal :) My phone came in two weeks ago and DH let me activate it early. I love it! Last night I was helping DH wrap some presents for his friends. I left my phone on the couch and DD was trying to be helpful and bring it to me (she loves it when she finds my phone somewhere - she knows she is not supposed to touch it, but she can't get in trouble for playing with the phone if she is bringing it to me, right? Smart little bugger). As she was bringing me the phone she tripped and fell on our hardwood floors. Thankfully DD is ok - but my phone is not. The screen is slightly cracked and the display will not work. DH took the phone to the Sprint store last night and they confirmed that it is beyond repair. Thankfully I had purchased the insurance on the phone, so for a mere* $150 they will be sending me a new one.

There goes any savings from getting it at the Black Friday sale! I am thankful that we didn't get it at full price to begin with. I went ahead and spent the extra $20 for an Otterbox to put the new phone in.

Last week I went to the dentist for my semi-annual check-up. Somehow I have managed to crack one of my back teeth :( I have to get a filling, and if that does not hold, I will have to get a crown. Insurance will pay for almost half of it but I have to pay the other half on Tuesday.

Nothing like spending an extra $300. I am just thankful that this year we have it to spend. And very thankful for insurance!

*Is it just me, or have those deductibles gone WAY up? I swear it used to only be $50! 

*ETA - My dentist ROCKS! From the time I left my office to the time my butt was back at my desk was 30 minutes. Granted, the office is just two buildings over, but still. She did a great job, did it fast, I had no pain at all, and it looks like this filling will be enough to prevent me from having to get a crown. YAY!

Crawling to the finish line

Friday is payday. After this there's only one more payday for the year. I can not believe 2012 is almost over!!!
 
I just updated our numbers. We went backwards quite a bit here at the end. I knew we would  The good news is that we still have paid off almost five times as much this year as we did last year. Great progress! I am excited to see what 2013 will bring. DH has some big cases that have been submitted and we are just waiting to see how long it will take for them to process. So the checks are coming soon, we just don't know if they will come at the end of Dec or the beginning of Jan.
 
The focus for 2013 will first be to open up cash-flow. There are two debts we have that are just over $9,000 together but represent $450 in monthly payments. The goal is to knock those out as soon as possible and use the cash to snowball on to the 0% balance transfers. If all goes according to plan, we could retire all CC debt in 2013. This part of the journey could finally be over, six years after it started!
 
From there our focus will shift to saving up for a new house. We still have a car payment & student loans, but the interest rates are really low on those and we want to be in a new house as soon as possible. Tenantive timeline is spring 2014 unless something works out sooner.

New Year, Big Decisions

We have almost made it through 2012. Not going to lie - our checking accounts are a mess right now and the CCs went up a smidge. Its no where near the mess that 2011 was, though, and plans are solidly in place for 2013. We will make it!

DH surprised me last night with a conversation about goals for next year. I have been ready to start trying for another kid for a few months now, and I keep asking him to talk to me about it. DH never really wants to talk through what he's thinking about, he just keeps telling me that he's not ready to entertain the idea and he does not know when he will be. So I had given up on it being an option for 2013. Kind of made me sad since I wanted our kids to be 2 yrs apart (especially since we both want 4-6 kids, having come from large families ourselves). I will be 30 next year and I don't want to push things off too far. Last night DH said he would be ready to TTC in January!!!! Um....ok.

Now that he's given it the green-light, I am starting to panic a bit. We have to figure out a new daycare configuration since MIL is not up for watching an infant and a toddler. With that comes an increased cost for daycare (adding in the new kid + paying more for DD). We also have diapers, possible formula, and other misc baby costs. If we have a girl we can reuse most of our things, but if we have a boy we will need to buy or borrow a new wardrobe. DD is still sleeping in the crib, so we would need a new toddler bed or a new crib for baby (or baby can sleep in the PnP for awhile). We will also have increased insurance costs, utilities (although slight), food, etc. We will have to save up for maternity leave and insurance deductibles.

We had set out a plan last week that would pay off ALL of our CC debt in 2013. All $24,000 of it. A kid is going to easily add on $10,000 more to save up.

And then there are the what-ifs: what if I get pregnant with twins? What if we have a baby with special needs? While both are rare occurrences statistically speaking, we could not financially handle either option at this moment.

So while I am excited that DH has given it the green-light, and I am anxious to give DD a sibling, I now have more goals to knock out before I feel comfortable moving ahead. I want to see where we are in March and then we can go ahead. Unfortunately, that puts us on the Dec/Jan line for delivery which could mean paying OOP max for two years instead of one for insurance purposes.



Dang it. Why can't this decision just be easy?