Turn Your Old Bookcase Into a Sensory Activity Hub
From time to time you move into a new home or change rooms in your current home and you find that you have a bookcase that is no longer suitable for a new or renewed space. So what do you do about it now?
Well, if it’s really good quality, you can save it to use next time you move / rearrange in the future, or you can sell or donate it. But if it’s a cheap product that you bought from Ikea or Walmart because you needed something simple for this place, and you have a toddler, you can repurpose it as a center for sensory activity.
Writer Megan Desterhouse in Homes I Built shows us how:
Now Duesterhaus has done its best. She was given a Wayfair bookcase for an advertising project and decided to create an outdoor sandbox, complete with colored spray paint, a plywood base for the reinforcement (because the sand) and a plywood lid (because the outside). If you are ready for the challenge, she offers detailed instructions that will guide you through the project from start to finish.
If you want to repurpose this shelf without going shopping or spending an entire weekend, you can also do this:
1. Place it on the ground in any place of your choice (playroom, dining room, ready-made basement, or wherever your toddler is playing, where you can follow him).
2. Get rid of sensory materials that you already have at home . Some ideas are shredded paper, peanut wrapping, bubble wrap, or plastic baby food bag lids. You can put materials in one or two compartments, and some “tools,” such as plastic kitchen serving spoons, ladles, and tongs, in other compartments.
(I suspect my son would also grab a couple of plastic dinosaurs or figurines to jump and dive into various materials, using them more as a backdrop for his imaginary play than a main event, which is great too.)
3. Let them sit and play. That’s all! You’ve created a sensory basket, only on a larger and epic scale.