Best sand box?

[123LuckyMom]

My DS is a sand box junkie, and I've been resisting buying him one at home, because I'm a little afraid he'll play in it to the exclusion of running around and exploring, but the poor kid practically begged his gran to get him a sandbox for him to have at home, and she told him she would. It's not crack or anything, so I'm not going to Grinch out and say no. I'd love some guidance on which one to get. I'd like to have a big wooden one with seating on the side so I can play, too. It MUST have a good cover to protect it from becoming a cat box. If DS (3.5 yrs old) could get the cover on and off himself, that would be spectacular. Any suggestions?

[essnce629]

We have the Step 2 Naturally Playful sandbox and DS2 loves it. It's not wooden, but it has a great cover that keeps cats and rain out and DS2 (who just turned 3) can take it off himself. I had the same one for DS1, but sold it when we moved cross-country, and ended it buying the same one again last year for DS2. It's not huge, but we've had 4 kids playing in it at once-- the kids just sit on the outside of it. It holds up great as well and when I sold my first one on CL it still looked brand new.

[misshollygolightly]

I know this isn't what you had in mind, but we use a large, under-bed Sterilite storage box as our sandbox and it is awesome! It's plenty big for 1-2 kids to play with at a time (driving matchbox cars around in it, digging/building, etc.), but it isn't big enough for them to really walk around/sit inside of it (which suits me, because that cuts down on the mess and the amount of sand getting tracked into my house!). Since it's a sterilite storage box, the lid fits on very securely and keeps out bugs, animals/litter, water, etc. At the end of the season, we usually dump the sand, wash the box out, and use it to store outdoor toys in our garage. Sometimes we fill it with pebbles instead of sand...both work well. I paid about $8 for the box at Big Lots or Target, and then another buck or two for a bag of play sand at Lowe's.

[123LuckyMom]

The sterilite box is a great idea. He's actually using a box that size now as a stop gap measure, but my mom wants to get him a big sandbox, and I figure if she's up for it, I want one I can play in with him. I saw one that has a wooden cover that opens into benches. Does anyone have that one?

[brittone2]

It may not be big enough for your needs, but we've been really happy with our Step 2 naturally playful sandbox too. We've had it for 7+ years now and it is still going strong. It survived two major out of state moves too.

[diamond]

I know this isn't what you had in mind, but we use a large, under-bed Sterilite storage box as our sandbox and it is awesome! It's plenty big for 1-2 kids to play with at a time (driving matchbox cars around in it, digging/building, etc.), but it isn't big enough for them to really walk around/sit inside of it (which suits me, because that cuts down on the mess and the amount of sand getting tracked into my house!). Since it's a sterilite storage box, the lid fits on very securely and keeps out bugs, animals/litter, water, etc. At the end of the season, we usually dump the sand, wash the box out, and use it to store outdoor toys in our garage. Sometimes we fill it with pebbles instead of sand...both work well. I paid about $8 for the box at Big Lots or Target, and then another buck or two for a bag of play sand at Lowe's.

I love this idea. Simple and cheap. If you don't mind can you plz link the sterility box u used for this purpose?

[KpbS]

We have the Step 2 crab sandbox and it's been great.

[KrisM]

We used 8' long 4x4s to make a sand box. It's great. We easily fit 7-8 kids in it to play. Kids are 4-8 years old, too. It wasn't hard to make. It does take about 1.5 yds of sand to fill.

[mnosky1]

Not to highback this post... But Kris, did you use any particular plan for your sandbox?

BTW, We have a naturally playful sandbox, and I think it's very nice for plastic and has held up great (ours is 6 years old and looks brand new) but I could never climb in it.

I want to build a huge sandbox and am not terribly handy but have looked at some plans online and it looks straightforward enough. I'd like to get the construction as simple as possible- my youngest is 4 so this thing doesn't need to last forever!