Milk Crates for the "M"

Week two is coming to a close in the A to Z Challenge and I'm using Milk Crates for my "M"

Milk crates or crates of some sort were something that were always laying around our house, either in the garage or in one of the barns. My first personal experience with upcycling a Crate was to treat it like a dumb waiter for the upper story of the Pack House, that's a two story barn where you pack cured tobacco for all of those not raised in the rural south. They generally have a short ladder to get to the second story and a door on one of the end walls, kind of like a hay barn that you see in movies. There was no way we could have carted all of of our goodies up to the second level so we loaded up a crate and sent down a rope to be tied to the crate and haul up the goodies. It wasn't such a bad idea for kids, although we were sharing space with the spiders and the mice, but they didn't take up much room..lol. The barn is gone, one too many hurricanes for it, but I imagine there are still a couple of crates laying around...

Here's a couple of crate ideas for you, how about storage and seating, there are a couple of different styles to fit your needs.

Dwellinginhappiness.com Shared this idea for a simple yet cute storage ottoman.

The Eager Teacher used her's in the classroom for her students so she left the bottoms plain.

So you don't need seating but still need storage? How about these ideas?

They can be a cheap but sturdy storage system for areas like your garage, you'll not have to worry about rusting..

Carrie Wilson  Created this system for her boy's toys

Or add a little fabric and some embellishments and you a plain milk crate turned into a fancy basket

Sewmanyways

And last but not least how about this child's swing- Playtivities has a tutorial on how to make one for your backyard. I wonder how big of a plastic box I can find?

And I'll end week two with that idea. Thanks so much for following along this upcycling adventure!

Be sure to check out all of the other great blog that are Blogging from A to Z in April. Monday we'll start back with a N idea, and you'll have enjoy time to get all of your supplies together for some fun Father's Day crafts.
Have a great weekend!