- Kelly H.
- Thursday, March 31, 2022
I don't know what it is, but I have the hardest time throwing things away. I just can't do it. Anything I can use for a craft during children's storytime tends to find a home with me. Sheets of cardboard, egg cartons, plastic gum containers...you name it, I save it.
All of that wasn't too bad when we were doing regular storytimes. But with storytimes canceled during the pandemic, my supplies built up. And up. And up! And now I find myself struggling to find places to keep them.
One of my tasks at the library is to process the boxes of new books that come in every few days. At the bottom of each box is a sheet of cardboard. I started saving that cardboard, then planning a storytime craft to use it once I had enough. For example, one time each child glued string to a piece of cardboard, then covered it with foil and colored it to make a design. Another time we used the cardboard to make picture frames. And, of course, there was the time we used gold-painted cardboard to display "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and the butterfly he turned into.
Using the cardboard in this manner helped to keep my supply in check. And when the pandemic first hit, the storytimes were canceled and our shipment of new books was put on hold. So no cardboard in, and no cardboard out. But then we started getting books again. Since we still weren't doing storytimes, my supply started building. So cardboard in, but no cardboard out. The counter where I kept the cardboard began overflowing. When one of my co-workers retired last winter -- freeing up a drawer in the back room -- I began putting sheets of cardboard in that drawer. Only now I've outgrown that, and I'm keeping the cardboard on the floor next to a storage cabinet. And next to that there's an overflowing brown paper bag of small cardboard squares -- formerly used on top of the stack of new books to cushion them in the box.
With indoor programming slated to start soon, we've begun cleaning up the rooms we use for storytimes. And that's when my stash of egg cartons and paper towel cardboard tubes came to light. For some reason, though, the supply of those was easier to cut off -- I just stopped bringing them to the library and threw them into the recycling bin at home instead.
Luckily, I will start doing storytimes again soon, so we'll begin using up my hoarded supplies. Maybe we can start by making the Empire State Building...in cardboard.
If you find yourself saving things like I do, check out some of these crafting books that use recycled products.