Do you really need those boxes?
A quick survey of my basement finds that I have boxes for every piece of electronic equipment in my den. I also have shoe boxes for shoes that I haven’t worn in four years. What am I saving these boxes for? I guess if I move again they could come in handy. However, a trip to my local grocery store could yield me boxes for a move.
So what does one do with these boxes other than throwing them in the trash? Well, shoeboxes can be used for some organization in your junk drawers. Cut the top few inches off of the box and you have a handy little compartment for all of your office supplies that seem to get lost in the abyss of that unorganized mess. Keeping everything in its own compartment will make finding things easier and make your junk drawer less of a headache.
If you are an eBay seller, you may want to keep some boxes for shipping your products. Original shipping packaging for computers is often valuable. To save space in your house, though, you should collapse these boxes down and reassemble them when you need to send something.
If you don’t find immediate uses for your boxes, then it’s time to face the music and recycle your boxes.
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Posted by Matt on May 2, 2007 |
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8 comments posted
Posted by Adam Rice - 05/02/2007
“shoes that I haven’t worn in four years”
What’s that about reducing clutter then?
Posted by Erin - 05/02/2007
Adam … that made me laugh, too. I hope that Matt was being funny on purpose. Matt, you were being funny on purpose, right???
Posted by Lyn Never - 05/02/2007
Boxes are always popular on Freecycle, as well.
Posted by Phillip - 05/03/2007
We’ve just had a huge clear out of boxes from our roof space. I used to keep the boxes for everything – but I’ve made a pledge not to do that. I’ll keep the box for a new piece of equipment for maybe a month, just incase it fails in that time, otherwise its flattened and thrown away. It did alarm me the amount of packaging that come with most consumable eletronics though – not good for the environment at all.
Posted by Matt - 05/03/2007
Ok, I must admit the shoes were more like three years old. That’s a little better right? For some reason I save certain shoes as “work” shoes and I don’t get rid of them. (I don’t claim to have a clutter-free home.)
Posted by algal - 05/08/2007
I used to keep all original boxes and packing material religiously. This was a mistake.
I was doing it hoping to increase eventual resale value, to make shipping easier, and to make moving easier.
When I realized this, I settled on my new regime: keep only the boxes of items that are likely to retain their resale value, and/or which require the original shaped packaging material to shipped safely.
For examples, should one keep the box for …
1. external hard drive: no, loses value to rapidly.
2. mac mini: yes, resellable on ebay later.
3. food processor: yes, impossible to pack otherwise.
4. 18″ LCD monitor: no, too small to warrant preserving the resall premium provided by a box.
etc..
Posted by Anonymous - 05/31/2007
The one box I actually needed, my laptop box with the boot disks and other info for my laptop, got thrown away by my roommate. So if you’re going to keep them, label ‘KEEP; along the side
Posted by Annie - 06/15/2007
I did a “container” inventory: 4 pages of baskets, computer packing boxes, file boxes and drawers, luggage, tambour-lid cases, notebooks, backpacks; and most of these are empty and nested! Now I realize I am a sucker for any cheap (especially a thrift store rescue), good-looking but maybe not really useful – maybe matches something I have – “container!” “Just in case.” Next, I did tools and supplies. Turns out I have too many of those, too. Actual content is not that much – that is, it isn’t the real volume of clutter.
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