We used to live in a tiny basement apartment. One Christmas, we received a new bed frame, headboard, and about a million other things. All were delivered from Amazon, and I’m pretty sure they had to design a special larger mail truck to handle our delivery.
There was barely enough room in the apartment for the gifts. We felt #blest…until we tried taking items out of the boxes. There just wasn’t any room for the boxes and their contents and us in the apartment. So, while we had this new setup for our bed, we were forced to sleep outside because we couldn’t fit it in our apartment.
Well, maybe it wasn’t that extreme. But, we did need to figure out what to do with all of that cardboard. If you have been in the same pickle, here are some tips for what you can do with your Amazon boxes.
Be the Coolest Parent Ever
These days, as soon as a package arrives from Amazon, I have a toddler on my case to open it up and give him the box and packing materials. He usually transforms into a robot or pretends he’s a delivery from Amazon. Anything to get his father’s affection.
Anyway, if you’re crafty, you can make it so your kid doesn’t even need to use his imagination. Excellent uses for cardboard boxes are Halloween costumes (Erin used boxes to make a Transformer costume for our older son), dioramas of your child’s favorite scenes from the new Twin Peaks, and cardboard cars. BuzzFeed put together this clickbait-like article of more cardboard box fun for kids.
Use Your Space More Efficiently
I put the Brains Report’s Department of Nonsense Statistics to work, and they came up with 546,299 ways to use cardboard boxes for storage. The ideas range from the obvious – putting your cleaning supplies in one stupid box – to the clever – create drawer dividers so your socks don’t have to mingle with your underwear or sex toys. If your homemaking skills make Martha Stewart look like a no-talent hack, then you might try some of the next-level storage ideas here.
Look Like an Insane Gardener
I helped Erin do this one spring. She was preparing her first garden…on top of a bunch of gravel in our backyard. So, of course, she had to lay down plenty of cardboard. I had no clue what she was doing and was certain Pinterest had led her astray. Well, it turns out that when you lay a good foundation of cardboard, water it down, then add the soil for your garden, you fight the growth of weeds. You should have seen the size of her melons! You can also use a piece of cardboard to protect your knees as you garden.
Seasonal Decorations
Nothing says Arbor Day like piles upon piles of cardboard. Okay, so maybe that isn’t the best holiday to celebrate with cardboard. But, with a little paint, scissors, a lot of wine, and your imagination, you can create cardboard ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, turkeys, Jesuses, and American flags. You can also design your own ornaments for your President’s Day tree.
Donate to Charity
Through Amazon’s Give Back Box program, you can fill your Amazon shipping box with a bunch of accessories, household goods, clothing, VHS tapes, and other crap, and they will pay the shipping costs for sending it to Goodwill or some other partner organization. This way, you get rid of your box and your clutter. Win-win.
If you don’t want to go with any of the above uses, please, at the very least, recycle. Nobody wants Al Gore to have to make another movie.
What ideas do you have for reusing your Amazon boxes? Please share!
