Remember the last time the Olympics was held in Tokyo in 2021 and the cardboard beds that the athletes were given to sleep on made headlines all around the world? As a crafty mom who’s constantly building stuff at home with her kid, I do! So this time when the 2024 Olympics in Paris came around and athletes started posting about the return of the cardboard bed, it got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be a fun way to get my almost-4-year-old hyped up about the Olympics if we built something like that at home?

Now, before you start saving up kuaidi boxes, there’s a super easy option out there on Taobao, China’s wonderful online shopping platform where you can essentially find everything you could possibly think of and more.

Now, this isn’t the exact design by Airweave that the Olympians are using, but it’s sturdy and easy enough to build at home and will withstand the weight of a child without problems. This company offers multiple options for cardboard beds, and, although we’ve yet to attempt building a bed, we have done several castles and cars at home before. And from experience, these are surprisingly easy to assemble and paint. It’s definitely a half-an-afternoon project and not an all-weekend project.

If beds are a bit large for your apartment, there are plenty of other cardboard designs as well. The more functional ones that can actually be incorporated into your kids’ play areas range from tables to chairs. They’re fantastic for letting your little ones go wild and express their artistic side by decorating them. Who knows, you could have a future furniture designer on your hands.

Then there are the cardboard playsets that are more commonly found on Taobao. We purchased our first one after a failed DIY attempt at making a pirate ship from all those kuaidi boxes I had saved up…

Back then, my daughter was obsessed with Marshall from Paw Patrol, so building a custom Paw Patrol fire engine together was such amazing fun.

Pro tip: If you want to make your cardboard creation a bit more durable, reinforce all insert slots with a hot glue gun.

Images: Taobao, Mina Yan