Badass on you for going car-free!!
The 5yr old can pedal herself, no??
Honestly I'd hold out for a cheap or free used basic Instep trailer and convert it to cargo. I just picked up a lightly used one for (drum roll) $6. And gave away my old tired used one...
I have 2 of them daisy-chained together; quite useful :)
The almost 5 year old sadly couldn't pedal herself. She's just starting to ride and wouldn't be able to get 10Km to a park meetup to play with friends for a few hours then pedal home. She might even want to nap on the way home... Which is why the trailer was great! I think she'll graduate to a tag along type system soon, but not quite yet.
Which is why I am loving your suggestion! No big cash spending! I am amazed you found a trailer for $6! Wow! A quick search in my area had them from $60-$675! But I was inspired and did some searching.
Found this guy who just collapsed his trailer down and added a removable board on top so it could go from cargo to kid trailer quick. He even showed it with duffel bags and the like!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFD0qRy-1VQSo I went out to the garage, collapsed the trailer as best I could and now we can just bungee the hockey bag on top! Sticks we're still working out, we're both pretty confident at this point!
When our daughter is out of the trailer for good, we'll probably fully convert it then. I'm so happy we can use what we've got!
Thanks for everyone's suggestions!