Tuesday, September 9, 2008

WFMW: Inexpensive white board and cleaning tip!

Dry Erase boards can cost quite a bit of money, but kids love them. Want a less expensive version?

Go to your local home improvement store. They should sell shower tile in large 4 foot x 8 foot pieces. The cost is about $12. This piece of shower tile is huge, but you can have it cut into any dimensions you specify. But you do have to buy the entire piece.

I chose to have mine cut in half. This is one half of the shower tile, wrapped in electrical tape to protect the edge. For $12 I have two of these and they work perfectly as dry erase boards:




But shower tile is NOT magnetic!

Even so, for $6 you can split the cost with a friend and get a 4 foot by 4 foot dry erase board. Great for school lessons, or a rainy day activity!

Now, how do you make that board sparkling white again? (Because we know that the board eraser doesn't work well forever...)

This pink grapefruit all surface cleaner by Method is the best dry erase board cleaning product that I have tried. I happened to have a bottle of this and was desperately trying to find something to get the dry erase marker off a board. It worked like a charm. I have used it ever since. It works better than the Expo cleaner meant for dry erase boards. This was an absolutely fabulous find that I just happened upon!

You can also use the shower tile as a backing for any type of large poster. I have two very large maps. I didn't want to put them on a wall because it is nice to move them room to room, but I couldn't find foam board large enough. I now have a 4.5 ft x 4 ft piece of shower tile that I put them both on. The World Map is on the front and the US map (shown) is on the back. (ironically, the sturdy shower tile was less expensive than mat board at the local craft store)

And that Works for Me!

For more Works for me Wednesday Tips and Tricks, visit Shannon!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fabulous! Here's another hack I've tried in a pinch: bathroom mirror as dry erase board. Perfect for those nights when you KNOW you're gonna forget something important the next morning!

Momma Roar said...

Great idea!

Andrea said...

WONDERFUL idea! I have barely any wall space and this might just be the solution we need!
Andrea

American Mamacita said...

Finally made it onto THIS one of your blogs and chuckled at the last picture - we've done the same on our tile boards. One has the U.S. map with the stickers we add each week, and the other has a map of the world. We'll add the stickers to that one when we do world history, but for now, we color in countries we talk about with dry erase markers.

Then we flip the boards around and practice our blend laddders or do our calendar (whichever it is). Yea space-saving ideas! I SO do not want the house to LOOK like a school classroom, so I love that we can tuck all these boards behind the hutch in the Dining Room or wherever and look like "just a house" again after school time is over.