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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Milk Crate Cubbies

The Center I work at is a new facility. The resources are limited and the budget is tight. I do consider myself quite thrifty and pretty resourceful when I have to be. The cubbies that were purchased for my classroom simply did not fit all of my kids belongings. I decided to make my own and you can too. Here's how...

Ask your local grocery store to donate crates to your classroom for your project. Apparently, you're not allowed to wander behind the grocery store and stock up on them. I figured this out when my husband and I looked up into the security camera behind our local Publix Supermarket...hee, hee. We kindly stacked them back neatly and high tailed it outta there. Can you imagine the morning newspaper, "Preschool Teacher caught on camera stealing crates for her class!" We decided the proper thing to do was ask.

You'll need:
crates and zip wire (can be purchased at your local hardware store)
spray paint (optional)

Place the one crate on top of the other. Use the zip ties to secure them tightly. Add additional crates as needed. Here's how it looked with 6 crates.

Then I added three additional ones.

There is a safe spray paint made especially for plastic if you want to change the color. I chose red crates so I wouldn't have to paint.

Ideas you might want to consider:
*Place a picture of the child on the back side of the crate.
*Choose other colors. I did see blue, green and black crates too.

Go Ahead, Make it yourself,


Feeling pretty motivated? See here how to make your own clothes rack for your class.

5 comments:

  1. That is an excellent idea Myra! I bought a "waffle" shelf...dang, I could have made one for free!:)

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  2. lol..."The more you know the smarter you grow"

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  3. Shannon H. CarrollApril 13, 2010 at 7:58 PM

    Awesome idea:] I too work at a new center, so i just might try this. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. It also seems like it would be simple to put some cheap patterned (or even just bright) construction paper in the back of each cubby for some color and to provide a "wall" in case you use the cubbies to divide your room into different sections! If the paper was laminated, it would probably last a long time!

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