Featured Product and Story of Shannon DiPadova- Tub Cubby

I’m a working mom with three kids and this is my story about how my kids and I invented the Tub Cubby. 

One night about four years ago I walked into the bathroom and couldn’t believe what I was looking at. It was like a bomb went off with toys, shampoo and soap everywhere.

I calmly screamed at the top of my lungs “Marco!!! Get in here and clean up this mess!”

Marco came back in the bathroom and tried to organize his toys by stuffing them under the sink, but there wasn’t room and really no place to put them all.

His two sisters came up with a great idea to take a re-useable grocery bag and stick a hanger through one shoulder strap to hang it from the towel bar. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing and my girls were feeling pretty smart for their ingenuity.

Later that night the kids were watching Shark Tank, a show about entrepreneurs who bring products to market and they decided they wanted to make bath toy organizers for other kids.

The next day we found an old mesh style beach bag and I helped them cut and sew some pockets in it for soap and shampoo bottles. We bought some suction cup hooks from the local hardware store and the first prototype Tub Cubby was born.

We shared it on social media with my girlfriends who had kids and within a few hours we had several orders before we had even made any real ones.

I figured it would be a good business lesson for my kids so the next day I spent $140 on supplies which only made about 7 Tub Cubbies and took us a week to make, but we sold them all, earning us a whopping $70.

At this point I felt my economics lesson was on the verge of failing, we were out $90, and my kids kept reminding me we weren’t making any money. My doubts were starting to get to me, and I could hear the Shark’s saying, “Cute idea lady but we’re out!"

To make matters worse, the kids’ initial excitement had turned to dread. They were tired of the 2 hours it took to make one Tub Cubby and explained to me that it was eating into their schoolwork, which I knew was code for please don’t do this to us.

But the one thing that kept me going were my girlfriends who had bought them from us. When I asked, “OK, be straight with me would you really pay $10 for one of these?” they all said without a doubt it was a lifesaver and they used it every day.

And more than economics, what I really wanted to teach my kids was perseverance. So, over the next few weeks we did some researched online and found a manufacturer to produce them. 

Against my (usually supportive) husband’s advice I went ahead and invested in 500 units and listed them on Amazon. It took about six months, but they eventually sold out, with many customers leaving us 5 Star reviews. Some left pictures of all the toys they could stuff in the big mesh net bin. One Mom said it even saved her marriage and another funny guy posted a photo of his “Beer” shower caddy.

With all the great feedback my kids were getting excited again and helped me come up with new ideas for making it better by adding soft foam bath toy ABC & 123s letters and numbers.

It’s still unbelievable to me, but the first full year we sold $250k worth of Tub Cubbies, and last year in 2019 we sold $838k, with lifetime sales of over $2.2 million dollars.

We even got a call from the producers of Shark Tank and asked to send in an audition video, so fingers crossed!

The best thing though is now I don’t have to worry so much about my kids’ college tuition, because as I explained to them with a little ingenuity and a lot of perseverance you can accomplish great things. - Shannon DiPadova

https://amzn.to/2UIcKPi