My kids are still fairly young, but I cannot believe the things that we have accumulated over that time. Every once in awhile, I step on one too many Legos while barefoot decide it is time for some decluttering, and the kids and I go through their toys and get rid of what they don’t play with anymore.

One day, when declutttering, I found this amazing box that used to house some sort of puzzle. The puzzle got moved to a more appropriate container with a lid (who would give a kid a puzzle box with no lid, don’t they know how frustrating it would be to lose a puzzle piece?).

I immediately decided that this box, would make an awesome tray for storing all kinds of things around the house. One kid’s trash is this mom’s treasure. So, using some paints, I already had on hand, I had a free craft project.

The sides of the tray I painted with chalkboard paint to indicate what I would be using the tray for at any given time. The inside of the tray, I thought it would be fun to use several different colors and possibly a pattern.

Using the light blue paint, I painted the entire inside of the tray with two thin coats. Then, when it was completely dry, I used Frog Tape, and taped a chevron pattern. I thought about using directions like this, but ended up eyeballing it myself.

Next, using the yellow and turquoise colors, I painted in between the taped off sections.

I let the paint dry over night, and removed the tape.

Now, I have a fun little storage box or tray I can use for all kinds of fun things, and I can label it for whatever I happen to be using it for at the time.

And it didn’t cost me anything but some time.

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