Frugal Living: Inexpensive gifts in a box

It’s a shame to throw away shoeboxes. I’ve often reused them to hold household items such as mail, CDs, coupons, odd small toys, photos, over-the-counter medications and to organize dressers. By accident, I realized they make great gift boxes, too. I bought some travel toys and crafts for my kids and placed them in spare shoeboxes. I’ve used ice-cream buckets, zip-enclosure bags and plastic lunchboxes, too. They’re simple containers to keep toys, books, games and activities contained while in the car. Once we got back home, I placed their filled boxes in the closet. The next time I brought their boxes out, they were happy to look through their goodies. The boxes were like a mini version of our large-sized activity boxes that I assemble for rainy days and treasure boxes I made to use as a reward system. Watching my kids rummage through their boxes gave me the idea that the boxes would be a great tradition for holiday gifts. They’re easy to mail, so they would work well for long-distance gift-giving. They can easily be personalized or made into a themed gift boxes, too.