As a mom to 3 kids I’m always looking for more ways to contain the mess (ie. toys) that always seems to fill their rooms.
But I didn’t want to buy more storage containers, they each have a few of those already… so I decided to make my own diy toy storage bins out of cardboard boxes and gift bags!
I actually made these boxes over a year ago and they’ve been holding up really well.
DIY Toy Storage
I used boxes I had gotten after I received some packages in the mail and noticed that they were really thick and sturdy. I knew I didn’t want to throw them away so decided to reuse them. You could use any cardboard box but the thinner ones might not last as long.
At the time my youngest two girls were in dire need of some extra storage in their room (they share a room). So I realized I wanted to use them as toy storage bins and just needed to spruce up the outside.
I’m also a collector of gift bags. Anytime my girls have a birthday or at holidays, I always save the gift bags that are given to us and reuse them again throughout the year.
Since I had so many gift bags and they were thicker than regular paper material, I decided they would be perfect for covering my boxes… and they already had built in handles!
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I started by cutting off the two bottom flaps on the inside of the box to level out the bottom, and then cut all the flaps off the top of the boxes- use either a box cutter razor blade or heavy duty scissors. NOTE: You can also just tape down the flaps on the bottom of the box.
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I used the really thick shiny gift bags so they wouldn’t tear and they wipe easily if necessary. I carefully cut open one side and undid the bottom of the gift bag so I could wrap it around the box. I just used some clear packing tape once I had it how I wanted it to hold it in place, and it’s held up really well!
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For the handles I used a hole punch to put a hole in the box where the gift bag handles lined up and fed the rope handle through both holes and re-tied it. Now the girls can carry the toy bins to wherever they want to play with their toys.
These diy toy storage bins have held up really well and it was simple enough that I can change the gift bag whenever the girls get tired of these characters, the possibilities are endless when it comes to gift bag patterns and if you don’t have any on hand they can be found fairly cheap at just about any store or at most dollar stores for only $1 each.
