Category Archives: Cardboard Boxes

Shipping Makes Eating Easier

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The more I get into eating healthier, planning out my meals, learning about my diet and how it interacts with my ideals, and purchasing cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable food, I feel like I owe it to myself and to what I believe in to keep pushing forward.

The latest push forward I’ve been wanting to make finally took place this past weekend: purchasing shares from a community supported fishery (CSF). Basically, by paying a certain amount of money per month, you’re guaranteed a certain amount of fish by the pound in that given month. This is huge for fisheries considering that you’re paying them more money up front for their product (which allows them to expand, do better in their practices fishing, and pay more towards other causes). It’s also huge for the customer because they’re guaranteed a particular product that is unmatched by any competitors out there. Why is that?

Because there really aren’t many other competitors at the moment that matter. CSFs are basically competing with bigger stores (like Meijer or Walmart or Kroger) that sell fish at cheaper prices. The thing with their fish, though, is that it’s more often than not farmed, it’s not as healthy, it’s been frozen twice, and the methods of obtaining the fish are bad for the environment, bad for the ecosystem from which the fish came, and bad for the fish themselves.

So while you’ll be paying a little more for your food, the efforts that these CSFs go to in order to give you the best experience possible is outstanding. What’s cool for the consumer, too, is that once you’ve ordered your share, you’ll receive cardboard boxes full of your flash frozen fish (with dry ice to keep them frozen in transit!) on a monthly or bimonthly basis. All that you need will be sitting right there on your doorstep once you get home.

Even better, there’s no better way to get the freshest, most environmentally friendly and sustainable fish out there if you’re landlocked and don’t have access to truly fresh, wild caught fish. For example, I live in the Midwest and there’s no way I could find anything else as good as the product which I’m now buying in on.

CSFs made their model based around community supported agriculture (CSAs) that are becoming more and more frequent. Now that I’ve made the leap to a CSF, I know I’m extremely interested to be a part of a CSA around me. After all, I do live in the Midwest.

The Usefulness of Cardboard at Big Events

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I’ve now made my way down to the heart of Tennessee for the best week of the year twice in a row now, and that celebrated title goes to The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Camping out among one hundred thousand other people stoked to see similar shows that I’m into, eat the most amazing food you can think of, and be among beautiful people is the highlight of my year for two straight years. As much as I love the music, I love the experience, culture, and community with the people even more.

That’s why setting up your campsite to be “home base” is so important so that you can hang with other people, have a good time, and still get the sleep you need (which is a huge functional part of the festival weekend that many people forget about).

So, I decided to stop and revisit my experience this past weekend to write down what I must bring next year, and I’ve figured out a few things that are must haves for my future Bonnaroos. But one thing that stuck out to me as useful kind of surprised it.

Without realizing it until after the festival, I suddenly figured out how absolutely useful cardboard boxes would’ve been as storage at my campsite. There were so many things scattered around camp by the time Sunday came around that we had a somewhat tough time of finding what we needed, when we needed it. This could have saved precious time while also fending off losing anything we may have let wander into someone else’s campsite.

I know that next year we’ll be packing more appropriate and useful items while also cutting back on things we really didn’t need as much, so adding cardboard boxes to my list of things I have to have is important to me. The best part about it that is in spirit of Bonnaroo is that cardboard is free, easy to assemble, and biodegradable in a way that plastic containers are not. These three things make it the perfect item to have when it comes to keeping all of your loose things in a storage container that you know it’ll be in when you go to find it in the mornings or evenings back at camp.

While a lot of festival attendees may not think of cardboard as ultra useful, I’m beginning to realize it’s what I need from every year here on out.

A Big Question

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Often you can find me writing about topics that have meaning to me or tie into my recent life doing. Sometimes, it’ll be about my hobbies and adventures, so you’ll begin to see more things centered around festivals, road trips, hiking, concerts, and camping. And at other points, you’ll see the lifestyle articles, such as pieces on organization, budgeting, and indoor improvements to your home.

Today, I’m leaning a little more towards the latter. In fact, I’ve recently proposed to my girlfriend of almost 3 years, and so I’m kind of interested in chatting about something a lot of people don’t consider: the ring box.

Here’s the thing to consider: most jewelers will give you a box with a place for the ring to sit. This is mostly for proposing and showcasing the ring itself so that it can be on display when opened but easily portable and hidden on the go.

But the thing is, those little boxes are hardly ever easily hidden when you’ve yet to pop the question. They’re always too big for real pockets. They’re so bulky that even putting them somewhere else, like a small bag or satchel, will cause a bulge.

There just never seems to be a low profile box for you to carry your ring in safely while not drawing attention to itself. I always thought there should be some way for a box to be a thing and low profile while the ring is stored, yet able to be manipulated in a way that the ring can be on display once the box is opened. I mean, honestly, what’s so tough to make a few small adjustments to a box so that it can prop the ring up (even if it needs to be done manually) when it’s open, yet the ring can lay flat and discreet when it’s closed. There should be no reason that an impression must be noticed in your pocket if you’re about to ask because that’s a dead giveaway that you’re about to propose.

It’s not like it needs to be high tech. All I’m saying is that the current “boxes” you’re given by jewelers are glorified mini cardboard boxes. Yes, I truly think that they hand out tiny cardboard boxes that happen to have some cushioning inside that protects the ring.

To me, they can do better than this for customers that spend upwards of 3 or 4 thousand dollars on average. (In fact, the actual average seems to be above $5,500 in current times. Couldn’t the jeweler find a way to spend 50 bucks on a ring box that is nice, discreet, and useable for other rings, too?)

Gifts for Minor Holidays

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Mother’s Day got me to thinking about inexpensive little gifts you can get for your mother on that specific holiday and even the things you could pick up for your dad on Father’s Day, another holiday that comes not long after Mother’s Day. While these two holidays don’t necessarily mean you must get something for your parents, it’s one of those things that shows you were thinking about them and went out of your way to pick up a gift for them.

Sometimes it can be hard to hone in on a specific item that you think your mom or dad has been needing for awhile, something that’s very particular to their tastes and hobbies. These are the gifts that, in my opinion, are better off left to bigger holidays and birthdays.

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, however, are two days where you can afford to pick up a more generic, unintentional gift just to show you care.

So, check out a few of our quick, easy ideas for these two holidays to let your parents know you’re thinking about them but didn’t break the bank for them (because that’s the last thing they want from their kids).

Candy.

If anything, a few candy boxes is a way to tell your parents that it’s alright to have a little extra sugar since they deserve a break from the everyday grind. The best part is that you can pick up their favorite candy boxes in just about any store that sells packaged goods. They’re cheap, easy to get, and you usually should have an idea what candies your parents would be fine with eating.

Sandals/hats.

I always find that these items go perfectly with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, simply because these two holidays pretty much kick off the great summer weather everyone has been waiting for. And even better, you can’t really screw up a pair of sandals or a ball cap so long as you’re in the general ballpark of your parents’ feet size and head size (but hats aren’t as much a problem with snapbacks being one size fits all).

Gift cards.

Last but not least, a gift card or two allows your parents to go out on a date together when they can afford the time. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount of money.

Just try to think of what a typical meal would cost for two at whatever restaurant you happened to get them a gift card for. So long as it mostly covers the bill, it’s a great way to tell your parents to get out of the house and spend an evening together.

Memorial Day

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Early summer marks a time of the year when some important holidays fall on the calendar. While most of us may start to think of Memorial Day when I say this, I’m talking about two equivalent holidays that are some of the most celebrated throughout the summer only behind Memorial Day and the 4th of July: those days would be Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

As a kid, I never quite understood why moms and dads everywhere got their own specific holiday to have celebrated for them, yet there was nothing along the lines of son’s day or daughter’s day. Or just a children’s day in general. I always, always thought it was unfair that my parents had dedicated days for them on top of their birthdays.

That’s because I was naive and never really noticed how geared towards kids Halloween, Christma, and Easter are. I was a selfish little kid for thinking my parents didn’t deserve their own holiday.

As I grew older, I started realizing what the days meant for them, and for our family in general, it almost always meant spending the day doing whatever my mom or dad wanted and eating the food they loved most. Sometimes we’d buy them some little gifts, but for the most part it was more about being there for them and spending time with them (as that’s one of the best gifts a parent can think of from their children).

Now that I’m older and live alone in a different state from my parents, though, it won’t be as easy to make it home twice within a month’s span to celebrate both holidays with my parents. So things have become a little more challenging, especially when my partner’s parents live in the same city as us, so we’ll probably be spending time with them at their place.

Luckily, though, my parents don’t care too much about it and realize that we all have our limitations as adults now with separate lives. That’s why I’m planning on getting a few things for my mom and dad, wrapping it all up in a few cardboard boxes, and having them shipped to their home as gifts for their respective days. I don’t think there’s anything my parents would mind about some gifts in cardboard boxes, so I’m all about doing something as a gesture to show them I still care and I just can’t be there.

No matter what happens, though, I’ve learned to see the holidays for what they are. Parents put up with so much stuff throughout the year that they deserve to have at least a single day each year where everyone else tends to them. (And I say this in full confidence knowing I’ll enjoy the heck out of my Father’s Days in the future when I have kids.)