My new sewing box

My sewing box situation was rather dire up until a few weeks ago, a couple of old biscuit tins and a cardboard box for my spools of thread to replace my old larger box that had finally given up the ghost. I never had what I wanted with me and it was a pain carrying two boxes around with things spilling out of them and everything all jumbled. I've always wanted one of those lovely wooden expanding sewing boxes, some of them stand on long legs so that everything is just where you want it. But they're rare and expensive and probably more suited to delicate ladies doing embroideries in their sitting rooms than being carried back and forth between the spare room and the kitchen table! The ones available from sewing shops are useless and hideously over-priced. So one day when I was in a big hardware store (Mitre10 Mega for those Antipodeans) I had a brainwave and went looking at tool boxes. Something big with lots of compartments was what I was after. And what did I find? Cherry red, expandable and pretty much perfect for $30, I present to you:

I love that the lids lift up so I can have all the frequently-needed stuff right there

And it expands out for all the other less frequently used things

I have great plans to make up cute dividers etc., which will probably come to naught, but it works well as it is. The only drawbacks are that my pincushions are too big to fit in the top trays and that the trays in general are fairly shallow, so no big objects. But I can make a new pincushion (oh the hardship!) and put the bulky objects somewhere else.

I'm a happy (and semi-organised) camper.