Picnic Baskets

 

For years, my solution for storing crafts, math supplements, coloring books and extra pencils and paper has been plastic bins.

Which worked great as far as practicality and price are concerned.  They are inexpensive and easy to find. 

But there is that aesthetic factor, that I can’t help but notice after a while.

They just aren’t lovely.

And eventually they started cracking and breaking.

Of course the practical side of me said I should just replace them with more plastic bins. 

But the beauty-lover in me said surely I could find something prettier?

 

So I kept it in the back of my mind, and one day, while I was casually browsing through the basket section at Goodwill, I saw a very pretty picnic basket for just a couple of dollars.  And I thought it might work.

 

So I took it home and filled it with the math supplements. And I loved it.

I had another picnic basket in the family room, which we’ve had for years and had just been sitting, gathering dust.  I filled it with the puzzles, which fit perfectly in it.  We don’t use them often, mainly just when we have guests with small children, so I put it on the bottom of the shelf.

 

Then a month or so later, Glenn brought home a small picnic basket he had been given through his work.  It had small jars of jellies and some chocolate bars.  And it was just right for the dozens of extra pencils and colored pencils and sharpeners which don’t fit in the pencil basket on the school table.

I filled it up with them and sat it on top of the puzzle basket.

  

 

At that point, I was checking Goodwill for picnic baskets whenever I went for something else.  But for a while I couldn’t find any.

And then one day – there was a really big one! 

I was so excited because it was just what I needed for all our crafts!

 

Now I only needed one more for all the coloring books and colored paper.  So it would have to be a big one. 

I looked and looked, and after another month or two, I found one.

 

And I was finished.

I think they look so much better than the plastic bins. 

And the most I paid for one was $5.

I don’t expect them to last forever, but they should work for a long time. 

And when they eventually do start to fall apart, I know where to look for replacements. 

     

 

I just may need to be patient.