Some time ago I saw a video that gave me a vision of what could be in my home. It was a video of someone opening up their Original ScrapBox DreamBox (stay tuned for a coupon code at the end) and I was absolutely smitten. I showed my husband, I planned and plotted and dreamed how much easier it would make my life, I gazed longingly at the website, I stalked reviews and video tours. To understand the extent of my obsession with the DreamBox, you must first understand the chaos of my life.
I am a homeschool mom of 5 young children who are home like, all the time! I never get a break, they never stop making messes. Disorganization has become something I just accepted as part of my life. On top of that, I am a blogger, author, speaker, and avid planner. I have spent years collecting journaling supplies, art supplies, stationary and more to help me write my planning book and organize my busy work life. Between school supplies and my own art supplies, I am so tired of things getting misplaced, broken, or not being used because they aren’t accessible.
The DreamBox started out as a dream of something better, a way to make sense of the chaos and allow us to do more with what we already had. On a whim I sent them an email saying I would love to review it and show how it could work for homeschoolers… and they responded.
For me, the DreamBox was the catalyst for change. We took our horrible, unfinished basement and committed to finishing it so that we could have a functional school space and space for our DreamBox. We had a goal in mind and now we just had to put it into action.
Our School Room Makeover
What you need to know before you buy…
I will be doing a full YouTube video tour through my Original ScrapBox DreamBox, but I wanted to do a visual tour through pictures for anyone who may be considering it, doesn’t have time to watch a video, or just wants to scroll through and see.
Let’s start out with what you need to know before you buy.
Price
The Original ScrapBox has created a ton of high-quality options to help you get organized that are reasonable for all budgets. The DreamBox is like the BMW of organization, I’ll be real with you and tell you the price tag is gasp-worthy… but it is worth it! The Original ScrapBox DreamBox is made of quality materials, it comes with all your storage bins which are high quality plastic, not brittle and breakable. it comes with all your shelves and dividers and everything you need to customize it and make it your own. Though the price starts at $2399, they do have payment plans as low as $77.40/month available that mean you can work it into your budget and have organization today.
You guys, I drop $100 at Walmart all the time on stuff I don’t even remember and definitely didn’t need. $77 a month is doable, and this system could be just what you need to breathe again. It’s cheaper than a housecleaner and it’s going to last you a whole lot longer!
Size
In all the excitement of finishing our basement and waiting for the DreamBox to come, I kind of underestimated the size. I had anticipated the width I would need to have it open, what I hadn’t though about was the depth of the system when it is closed. I recommend you think about whether you will have it open or closed and make sure you have an empty wall to put it on so there is room to open. The dimensions when it is closed are 37″ wide x 34″ deep. Because I had underestimated the depth of it, it didn’t really work in the school area I had been intending for it and so we decided to put it around the corner instead.
On the plus side, it did motivate my husband to finish our entire basement in record time. So… what is really a bad thing?????
Assembly
When the DreamBox arrived I was a little bit blown away. It doesn’t come in little boxes or bins, it comes in a huge crate! Some people even repurpose their crates and use them for other storage and DIY projects! The crate become a fixture outside our front door for a month while we finished our school room and the kids had all sorts of fun taking pictures by it, sitting on it, eating lunches on it, building snowmen on it, or whatever else their imaginations could dream up.
The next step was to finally open up our sturdy crate and bring everything inside. I love how everything was packaged in very easy to understand and well organized packages, in order of what you needed for assembly. It made it simple to just open and go without having to understand the entire picture all at once. The kids were eager to make their own little assembly line and help with this process. And by eager I mean dragging their feet. But I’m a class-half-full kinda gal.
Next we were ready for assembly. Our room was finally complete and all I needed was a friend to come help me screw in a hundred little screws into little pre-drilled holes. This is the kind of job that only a best friend will do for you, so we sent our kids to play outside and got to work. The instructions say 4-8 hours but we were definitely on the lower end of that taking between 4-5 hours from start to finish. Something to keep in mind is that they now offer assembly services where all you need to do is connect your doors to your unit and you’re ready to go!
The Original ScrapBox DreamBox Tour
For the purposes of a visual tour, I decided to have my son help me open the box so you could really grasp how this system works.
The Original ScrapBox DreamBox is closed here. This is the first stage and shows you how you can take all your knick-knacks and hide them away into a beautiful cupboard. I have added the light and the crown to mine so that I have more light shining down on my workspace but you can also get it without that additional part on the top. My kids are VERY excited about the DreamBox. They also know that if they touch it without Mommy’s permission, Mommy will have anxiety. So they stay well away from it unless I tell them to grab something specific. I’m now taking bets to see how long that will last 😉
I personally prefer to leave it open, it takes up less space in my room and I think the organization is so beautiful to look at, I don’t want to hide the best part of my house 😉
Now we get to see the complete open-view with the table not yet extended.
Next I wanted to show you the two table configurations: the first is a bit taller, you lose a bit of table space and instead would have a table and an inner shelf, but it is perfect for the height of a stool. The second is a lower table for a desk chair and gives you the full length of the table including what is inside the box.
I decided to organize my Original ScrapBox DreamBox into to sides. The left side is for my own personal journaling supplies and has my pens, ink, brush lettering, painting supplies, journals and more.
The middle is more of a business section that has shipping supplies, paper, travellers notebooks and binding combs. The shelves have my iron, a binding machine, a cutting machine, a postal scale, hole punch, etc.
The right side is for my homeschool supplies and has construction paper for the kids, extra pencils, glue, paint brushes, sticky notes, index cards, stickers, and more.
Now let’s take a look inside some of the bins so you can get an idea of how they work. They come in three different sizes and two of them come with optional dividers to allow you to organize smaller items into compartments (like I have our beads organized).
Beads organized into compartments with the provided dividers
pipe cleaners for kids crafts
Index cards for school supplies
photography and scrapbooking for my journaling/planner
feathers for kids crafts
My paints
Book binding supplies for making my own Travellers Notebook inserts
chalk for kids school supplies
alphabet stickers for crafts and school supplies (kindergarten)
embroidery floss for kids arts and crafts
My journals/travelers notebook inserts
Paintbrushes (can you ever have to many?)
School supplies: pencils!
School supplies: extra markers for when ours get “lost” or dried out
Kids’ paintbrushes and sponges (don’t touch mommy’s!)
My final thoughts on the Original ScrapBox DreamBox
I think it’s easy to fall in love with the DreamBox. I have seen some bloggers do amazing things with theirs and color coordinate them far prettier than I did. In comparison, mine seems pretty plain Jane. But here’s my motto: function over fashion. Today, I needed something to make me breathe easier. I needed something that could store what I had, not what looked nice. The DreamBox makes even my messy, non-color-coordinated life look pretty and it is honestly the feature piece of our basement. I just go downstairs and look at it with a coffee and feel happy.
I am so beyond thrilled with the results in my personal life as well. Supplies I haven’t used in months because I couldn’t find them are accessible and organized and available to me. I am doing more journaling, more art, and so are my kids. Everything is ready to go next time we feel the urge to do something creative, and to me, it is SO worth every minute of time we spent on this whole transformation and every penny we invested.
If you are interested in the never-never plan (hey, those plans are amazing!), or just want to learn more about the Original ScrapBox DreamBox, take a look at their website here and don’t miss my exclusive coupon code for $100 off with HSON. You can also stay tuned for my next YouTube video where I will be taking you on a video tour through the bins and how I have it set up.
Get $100 off with code HSON!
Join the conversation! Comment Below!
What do you love about the DreamBox? Have you heard of it before? Got questions? Post them below and let’s talk about it!
