Cheap and Easy Storage Solutions | Permanent Marker Hideaway

I should have known it was coming. Ada was about this age when she started doing it. It's worse with Ida because she is a climber. It doesn't matter where I stash them; she always manages to find them.


They are, of course, my permanent markers. And just about every wall in the house bears testament to how much fun they are to write with.  Hubs and I agree. We're so glad we decided to put off replacing carpets and painting the interior after we bought the house. We'll save it for when the kids are past the drawing on walls and spilling anything and everything all over the carpet stage.

Still, I'd like to minimize the artwork on the walls. And Ida also like to draw on her own tattoos, which gets a little embarrassing at the store because I can't always get it off her face. So the permanent pens need a home where she just can't get to them.

I have an eye for seeing how two unrelated household items (one of then usually destined for the garbage bin) can be combined in to some awfully useful storage solutions.  Converting a Ramen Noodle Box into a portable bookshelf, or a plastic blueberry container into kids' puzzle storage are just two examples of how this has worked in our house.

Here's another.

As an Australian, having a cuppa is very important. A cuppa is a cup of hot tea. Milk, no sugar for me.  I have an English friend with kids of a similar age, and we get together weekly so the kids can play while the mummies have a cup of tea and a chat.  It is something that is bred into most of the commonwealth.  At home you see road workers in the heat of the day with their sandwiches for lunch and a thermos of hot tea.

And my children are the same. They like their cuppas. But they don't have tea - too young for the caffeine. They have either a grandma's cuppa (hot water, milk, and sugar - the way my Dad's grandma used to have it) or Ovaltine. If we were in Australia it'd be Milo. Or Horlicks in winter. But they don't have those here. So we have Ovaltine. And it does the job.

And the plastic jars are pretty useful too.

An empty ovaltine bottle just happens to be the perfect height for permanent makers. And the lid is just big enough that little hands can't twist it off and have ready access to said markers.

I no longer have to move my pens from hiding place to hiding place, never able to find them myself when I want them. I can keep them out in the open, safe in the knowledge that Ida can rattle that container as much a she likes...she's not getting my markers!

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