Creating an Affordable Outdoor Play Space

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I think most moms would agree that outside play is important. Not just for the moms who get a little break when the kids are outside ( 😉 ) but also for the kids. However, a quick look online or a walk through the outdoor toy section at the store shows that an affordable outdoor play space can be difficult to attain if you don’t stay focused. There are so many great ideas and items to make outdoor play fun…but also expensive. With a few simple tips and ideas, it doesn’t have to be. Here are some great ways to create and affordable outdoor play space for your children.

Check yard sales, Goodwill, etc.

Yard sales and thrift stores are great places to find outdoor toys. The trick here is to think outside the box. Sure, you want to look for things like ride on toys, buckets and shovels, and other outside specific toys but you also want to look for other things. Old pasta strainers are great in the sandbox or water table. Play dishes are also great for outside, both in a sandbox and just in general. I remember using things like stones, twigs, and dandelions for pretend food when I was a child and am watching my own child start to do the same thing. She uses her very cheap, thrift-ed play dishes to serve up this pretend “food.” Craigslist is also a great place to find some of the bigger items. It took more than a year or searching but we were able to get a $1,500 swing set for $200. Sure, you can get a $200 swing set at a big box store anyway but we got one that was much sturdier and will last much longer for the same price but being patient and buying used.

Do it yourself

Have you ever checked the price on a sandbox? They are incredibly expensive! We have used a $10 plastic wading pool for our daughter’s sandbox the last two years (be sure to drill drainage holes in the bottom…we learned this lesson the hard way the first year). If you or someone you know is handy, it is pretty cheap and easy to create a wooden sandbox. You could also make an outdoor play kitchen pretty easily with old wooden crates or even a couple plastic storage totes.

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Use what you have

The first year Abby really played outside and had a sandbox money was really tight for us. After paying for the plastic wading pool and a few bags of sand, we didn’t even make money for sand toys. That first summer she used old plastic bowls and scoops from my kitchen. Even now when she plays in her water wading pool she uses spoons, cups and even an ice cube tray from the kitchen. A daycare where I worked in college used old, clean yogurt cups for sandbox toys. As a child, we used washed out dish detergent bottles instead of squirt guns.

Choose one area

This isn’t so much a “save on stuff” tip as it is a long-term saving tip. Choose one area of your yard to be the play space. This doesn’t mean you need to confine your kids to this space but that you keep the “stuff” to this space. The swing set, the sandbox, outdoor toy storage, kid-sized picnic table, etc. should all be in the same area instead of spreading out if you can. Kids have a great way of destroying a lawn. By containing the bigger items to one area you can save on lawn maintenance. Our play area is a sandy section near our deck that years before we moved in used to have an above ground pool. We would like to put some wood chips down eventually but for now, it is fine as is.

 

Encouraging outdoor play doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. By using a little imagination and these tips, you can create an affordable outdoor play space. Have you created an outdoor play space already? How did you keep it affordable?

 

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