You know how kids will get a brand new toy and instead of playing with it, they spend hours entertaining themselves inside the cardboard box the toy came in? Well, when it comes to parenting hacks that made life a little easier in our house during quarantine, we got inspired by those cardboard boxes — actually, quite a few items in our recycling bin.

If you’re looking for easy and fun ways to keep your kids entertained, here’s a few of my favorites hacks for turning trash into treasured playtime.