apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Kate,
I live in a Chicago condo as well - with a small deck area off of our kitchen. I bought two Rubbermaid "Snap Toppers" (30 qt, 7x16x23in) that had lids. One I filled with sand and the other with sand/water toys. They both slide out from under our wicker loveseat so they are out of the way when not in use. On hot days I filled the toy one with a few inches of water. It is big enough to sit in or just splash and play -supervised, of course ;) The lids are important because we have outdoor cats in our neighborhood as well as those crazy Chicago squirrels - neither of which I wanted near my son's playthings, or using the sand as a litter box. I also put an oilcloth "splat mat" on the deck when he sat and played. Then it was easy to pour all of the spilled sand back in the box.

I suppose you could use a box inside a box. Or triple-box it. If the sandbox is not heavy... What's 50 lb.?

Our sand and water table by little tykes is not water proof and we've never had an issue with bugs, despite 6 years of being outside. Of course, on the annual one nice winter day we always open the lid to a block of sandy ice...but then we get to pour hot water on it and have a science experiment!

Me and my husband are getting ready to move into our first condo in Chicago, our son loves his sand box, but our new place does not have any outdoor space. Instead were building a small box on casters that can roll under his bed, and instead of sand were using rice. Its cheap, and is easy to clean up.

I live in Idaho, winter is long and cold. I use a plastic storage bin for my 2 1/2 year old's "sand box." It's about 6 inches deep and 24 inches long and has a snug fitting lid. I store it on our small porch under a chair. I left it there all winter and it's just fine today. Instead of sand (I was worried about sand grains in eyes, noses, ears, and in my house) I used dried lentils. About 10-12 bags and rougly 50 cents each. Cheap, and any strays get swept away to be enjoyed by the birds. I keep a small shovel, rake and "sand" trucks inside the box. Nice and tidy!

For the past year, we've been using this lidded plastic under-the-bed storage container from Ikea. It gets a lot of year-round use on our porch. We live in Vancouver, so we get a LOT of rain, and so far it's worked really well. Best part: it was only 15 bucks.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! It sounds like based on everyone's experience that I may not need to worry so much about the rain and critters anyway, so that is good news. And since these options are fairly cheap, I can at least give one a whirl and see how it goes....

Thanks again.
-Kate

I live in a more rural area, but when I was a kid I had a great sandbox made with a big old tractor tire my dad brought home from work one day. it was perfect for holding sand...and fun to jump on!