Now that Valentine’s Day has come and gone, you probably have a lot of candy boxes laying around your house ready to be recycled and broken down. One thing a lot of people love using for their cardboard is box cutters. And these seem simple to use at first glance, but so many people use them irresponsibly and end up cutting themselves.

The problem with using boxcutters is that it’s easy to hurt yourself pretty badly if you’ve never used one or are using it as if it’s not a harmful device. Whether you’re in a hurry or don’t know how to use one, just know you need to slow down and use them carefully. Let’s dig into a few things you can keep in mind.

Look at the blade whenever using it.

We know you need to keep an eye on the candy boxes when cutting them, but seriously, don’t look away from the blade. It’s not about where you’re going to be cutting, since cutting into cardboard boxes isn’t ever a precise and perfect thing you need to worry about messing up. There’s always more cardboard to cut if you really mess up. But if you mess up and cut your fingers, you could seriously harm yourself.

Keep it pointed away from yourself.

And that means making sure no one is near you when you’re about to cut something. This is what you’ll hear most often from anyone teaching you to cut, because you don’t want to stab yourself by cutting towards your body. And as often as this is said, you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t do this right. It’s more than 50%, I can guarantee you that.

Keep your box cutter stored in a specific place.

This is because you want to make sure your blade is covered and locked when not in use. Even if it’s fully retracted, it can still come loose on accident. You just want to make sure that you, or someone else, don’t end up cutting your fingers or worse.

Similarly, don’t try to catch a box cutter if it’s ever falling from the table or something you were just using. This is a good way to get cut. And we get it, it’s natural instinct to reach for something that fell because you don’t want it to break. But whether the blade was in or not, don’t try to catch it or else there will be a lot of blood to clean up.