Milk Cartons= Green Building Blocks
The Greenest Toys Your Kids Will Love
When Colin and Ryan Brush have a play date at their West Bellevue home, there’s bound to be some building going on. That’s because these brothers have an astounding collection (like, hundreds!) of homemade milk carton blocks.
The idea to reuse milk cartons came from their mom, A.J., who grew up doing it and even competed with her neighbors. “I was always jealous when they had more blocks than we did,” she says.
So when son Colin was born, she started 
saving every half-gallon carton of milk the family used. Fast forward 7 years and another child later, and the Brushes have consumed lots of milk and conserved lots of cartons.
To make a block, you need two cartons. Wash and dry them thoroughly. Then cut the tops off of each and slide one into the other. The result is a solid, sturdy-yet-lightweight rectangular block. They are perfect manipulatives for toddlers because they’re easy for little hands to stack. As kids get older, they can use the blocks for forts, castles, tunnels and whatever else their imaginations inspire.
While the Brush brothers—and all their friends—love their blocks, dad Mike envisions a slight problem in the near future. “We’re running out of space to store them,” he says.
—Kavita Varma-White
What a cool idea!
Don’t forget to make other sizes, too – quart and pint cartons give a little variety to the block size. I believe I orginally got this idea from a great book called “Mother’s Almanac”, which is full of all sorts of fun things. “Painting with water” is another green idea (for a warm day) – bucket of water, old paint brushes (big ones from house painting work best), a sidewalk and a small child are all you need. For some reason, my daughters just loved this, and the sun does all the clean-up! – Colin & Ryan’s Grandma