My purple plastic tub of delight

By kellyburnie, February 10, 2014

Big purple tub waits patiently to be filled with mountains of kiddy crap.

When Annie was on the way, people were constantly telling me I was going to have my hands full. Then she arrived and I found out that I did, quite literally, have my hands full – all the time. Suddenly all the tasks I’d figured out with one kid seemed impossible with two, like getting out of the door on time or reaching the supermarket checkout without tears (theirs… mine… the checkout operator’s…)

I found running errands pretty frustrating, especially getting home with a car full of packages and two ratty children. I’d be driving up my road assessing the situation like I was going to war. Were they asleep? Would they transfer? What if one starts to cry? Which should I take in first? How do I get all those packages into the house? I needed to get it right because of the dangerous combination of a toddler who loved to bolt and an unfenced driveway shared with neighbours. Henry would be threatening to run while Annie needed me inside with my boobs out, like, yesterday! I know it sounds simple enough but I would honestly breathe a big sigh of relief when we were all inside with the door safely shut. Nobody got run over and I remembered to bring in the baby – high five!

Then one day I bought a big plastic tub, with no idea that it was going to change my life. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I love this tub and that I got really excited when I realised what a difference it was going to make. Every time I find a time-saving use for my tub, it makes me fall in love all over again.

The purple plastic tub of delight sits on my passenger  seat, is filled up with all the junk that I offload from the buggy when I’m out, can be carried easily up to the house without making five trips, and then waits patiently at the door to be refilled with more junk I have to transport to the car. There’s no need to ‘pack’ because stuff can just be hurled across the room. (Watch out, cat!) But wait, there are more amazing uses for a tub:

• Take it to the pools or the beach and keep clothes and towels dry and sand-free
• Load it up with picnic goodies – it’s much easier to carry than a basket
• Transport mountains of toys back to the kids’ bedrooms or use the different sizes and colours for coordinated toy storage
• Use it as an extra laundry basket
• Fill it with weeds, dried leaves, tools or use it to water the garden. It holds so much water and if you hold the handles together, the tub has a perfect spout
• Bathe the babies when you’re camping
• As a handy helper for rubbish and recycling on bin day
• I use it for my weekly car clear-out when I need to transport about 50% of the stuff we own back into the house
• It has even been on hand for a quick train set confiscation when the two-year-old started launching pieces of wooden track at his bedroom door during a time-out

Forget owning a million different bags and baskets, this is the piece of plastic that keeps on giving. I’ll shut up now for fear of boring you senseless but do share any genius tub uses with me. You know I’m a saddo and I’ll really enjoy reading them. Would also love to hear about other household items that have revolutionised your life.

Categories: Manic Mondays