What to Do with Your Collection of Cardboard Over Time

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Over the past 10 months, I’ve accumulated quite the collection of large cardboard boxes. The funny thing is, I thought we had all the furniture and other amenities we needed upon moving in.

Yet here we are with multiple large boxes from random things as time has gone on. It just goes to show how you never really realize how much you add to your home on a yearly basis. Things just sort of add up over time and you never actually think you’re adding much to your place.

TV.

We had to have a new television for the basement (i.e., our hang out spot) when we moved in. While I opted to get a cheaper and smaller TV since it wouldn’t be our primary one, the box it came in actually has taken up quite a bit of space the past half year. While I’ve been keeping it behind our couch, I finally pulled it out recently to recycle it. It felt good to get that out of the basement!

Dartboard.

Ahhh, the true entertainment of the basement. We enjoy playing darts, especially steel tip. Well, we mounted a dartboard and cabinet in our basement after receiving it as a Christmas gift. Guess where its box ended up? Yep, right there in the basement alongside the other TV box that we had neglected to recycle. Just as we made sure to recycle our TV box, though, we did the same with the dartboard’s housing box.

Fire pit.

Well, it’s not an actual fire pit that we built from scratch (otherwise it wouldn’t have its own box). For Easter we just received a nice little porch fire pit with its own basin and dome cage on top of it. It’ll be the perfect addition to summer evenings with friends and family. It’s quite a large box itself, and since we haven’t been able to get it out to assemble it yet, the box itself likely will hang around our place for another month or so before I decide to get it along to the recycling center.

Ultimately, we’ve come into possession of quite a bit of cardboard boxes since we moved in last June. I’m just glad we’ve done our part in recycling all the material over time (even if it’s been sitting around in our place, making a mess all the while waiting to be recycled). Heck, we even used one of the cardboard boxes as our cardboard recycling container. O the irony.

Subscription-Based Sweets?

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Lately there’s been a craze for subscriptions. Namely, subscription boxes. Anything you can imagine most likely has some sort of subscription-based company marketing its goods towards you. From clothes to music and fresh ingredients for meals to makeup, people are crazy for subscription boxes that are sent directly to them.

Candy is no different. In fact, you can have unique candies from foreign countries packaged up and sent to you once a month with all sorts of new things to try each time. And it’s become very popular. Why has it caught on, though?

Just another product for subscriptions.

Just like all subscription-based services, candy has found its way into homes on a monthly basis thanks to the subscription box craze. It makes sense, really. Why would other products work on a month-to-month schedule and not candy? Especially when it’s unique, foreign, or seasonal candy that is considered exclusive or limited edition. People eat that stuff up.

Thanks to candy boxes, candy is more than just the sweet treat itself. It’s the presentation of that treat, the colors that accompany the sugary snack. Specific art on the boxes can trigger emotions and desires to buy the product because of its look, its statement, or its ability to stand out among other candies. This is how marketing applies to all sorts of products and is exactly what ropes customers into buying it in the first place.

Why not just buy some candy from the store?
What makes these services work so well is the specialness of it all. The feeling of gifting yourself something new and exciting every month is a powerful one, especially to break up the monotony of life. People look forward to the feeling of unpackaging and ripping apart a box with unknown items within. It’s engaging, it’s interesting, it’s exciting, and it’s practical to not have to go buy your own stuff. It’s like a gift to yourself, really.

Another factor is how easy it is to simply sign up for a product and have it delivered to you. There’s no going out of your way to get it, such as driving to the store. It’s packaged nice and neat for you and sent to you. This all ultimately takes the effort out of obtaining it, at least on your end.

When it comes down to it, subscription candy boxes are just another good checked off on the list of “Things to Make into Subscription Companies”. And like all the items on that list, it’s a profitable service.

Music as a Lifestyle

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Ever since I moved into my new apartment in the city, music has become a larger part of my life in ways I never would have expected. I now have access to so much more live music without ever having to drive long distances, and even when I do have to drive to another city, I welcome it so much more since it’s something different than seeing live shows in my home city.

Music isn’t just a hobby of mine. That’s what I think sets it apart from some of my other interests. I don’t ever refer to music as a hobby since it’s so much bigger than that. It’s more of a lifestyle, a way of being, in my eyes. And I don’t try to make it sound like I’m some sort of music snob, because I don’t look at my preferred music as the best or as someone else’s as uncouth. I just make music such a big part of my life. I try to listen to something new each and every day and to even explore a new album in its entirety every two weeks or so.

So, it probably comes as no surprise that I’m pretty big on collecting vinyl records of only my favorite albums in their full glory. I enjoy sitting down and really getting into a full album, not just putting it on for ambient music or for just a few tracks. To me, collecting vinyls is so much more than that.

I’m quite lucky to have come into possession of a classic record player, thanks to my girlfriend’s dad. He had the entire audio setup and even came with a few cardboard boxes full of old vinyls from the 70s and 80s. So, getting us started on collecting those was all it took for us to go out and grab more of our own favorites.

I’ll be honest, it was exciting to dig through those cardboard boxes in hopes of finding a few classic gems that we love. While we didn’t keep everything, it gave us enough to start off with around 30 or 40 albums. Since then, we’ve added at least 10, and I figure we’ll add about 10 more each and every year at that clip.

Vinyls have fortified my love for music and I don’t foresee my interest and lifestyle changing anytime soon, because the more I discover and enjoy, the more I find myself craving more and more.

Easter is Near

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With April showing showing its face and spring finally in the air, there’s one thought on a lot of kids’ minds: Easter.

And with Easter at the forefront of a lot of kids’ minds, parents everywhere are starting to think of what they’ll fill their children’s Easter baskets with this year. Perhaps it’s a few candy boxes, some fake grass, and a video game. Maybe they’re choosing to give something more nontraditional like a plant to take care of or tickets to a music or sporting event.

However you choose to celebrate Easter, whether it’s for the religious aspect of it all or more from a seasonal standpoint, you almost definitely celebrate it in some fashion in America.

I remember growing up and always getting a basket full of different candies, sometimes apparel, and always some eggs with cash and other candies within. While I don’t consider myself an atypical child growing up, I definitely wasn’t about all the kinds of candies that came with Easter. Rather, I was more interested in what my parents (i.e., the Easter Bunny) would put in my basket that was unexpected.

I think one year I ended up with a video game that I’d been wanting for awhile. That was pretty unexpected, as I always looked at my Easter gifts as something below 20 bucks. Another year, I ended up with a spring jacket that was warm enough to ward off bitter winds and rain yet light enough to wear when the temperature began to rise.

No matter the reasons I celebrate Easter down the road, though, I’ll be sure to make it a fun event for my children. While the abundance of candy boxes and chocolate eggs won’t ever leave the tradition, I’m quite excited to put things like books, accessories, and useful items in their basket to show them that it’s more than just about the candy.

Of course, I don’t think I could ever forget the egg hunts I participated in growing up, so I want to make sure that I keep that tradition going for my children someday, too. That’s undoubtedly the best thing for all kids every time spring comes around: who can find the most eggs and how much money is within all of them.

While Easter means one thing to others, it’s always signified life and regrowth to me. More than anything, I’ve learned to appreciate the holiday as a celebration of the new season and new plant and animal life after winter’s long stay.

What Else Can You Use Your Cardboard For?

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Cardboard gets a lot of use when it comes to moving things, shipping items, and putting items away in storage. And to be honest, this all makes complete sense considering that corrugated cardboard is actually made for shipping things. So when it comes to the other tasks, cardboard boxes get the job done handily.

But have you ever had cardboard laying around the house that was once used for those things and you no longer thing you have a use for? While recycling it is your best bet (instead of throwing it in the trash), there are still other uses yet for the cardboard you think you don’t need. All it requires is a little bit of creativity and you’ll be reusing it like a master.

Part of the problem is we look at everyday materials like cardboard as expendable and worth next to nothing. While both of these viewpoints aren’t far off base, we don’t do nearly enough to reuse these materials, recycle them when we’re sure that we have gotten the most out of it, and reduce our overall consumption of more of those materials. The three Rs of recycling really do go a long way when trying to erase our carbon footprints. It’s just that most people don’t try and consider it too much effort (in which it really isn’t).

Shims.

Cardboard that’s been broken down makes for great shims when something is unlevel. All you’ve gotta do is cut it down to size to fit under whatever table leg, piece of furniture, or other thing it is that you need balanced out. Beats the heck out of fixing the dang thing sometimes, doesn’t it? It’s quicker, free, and makes use of your leftover cardboard boxes.

Recycling containers.

Seems fitting to use cardboard boxes for containers in which you recycle items, doesn’t it? I would advise not putting bottles or cans in cardboard though, simply because the liquids within may eventually seep out into the cardboard, soaking it and making it all soggy. Instead, put those in containers that you can reuse and won’t break down from the liquids. However, any plastic that you can recycle that has lids and all paper can go in your cardboard boxes set out for recycling!

Dividers.

When you need to compartmentalize items in your garage but don’t want to buy some brand new cabinet or storage box, look to cardboard for a quick fix. You can break the box down, tear off a piece of cardboard, and slide it in between items to separate them.