Packing Supplies and Solutions

My favorite gift over the holidays may surprise you a bit, to be honest. While I got some notable things I asked for like a pair of high-top sneakers from Brazil, some reverse suspenders that hold dress shirts in your pants, and even a new Bluetooth speaker to take with me on the go, the thing that I think was most useful and much needed? Well, it was an 18- by 24-inch whiteboard.

So, why would this be my favorite gift I received over the last month? Why something as “bland” or plain as a whiteboard, you ask? Because it’s something I’ll be using often. It’ll keep me organized, on track, and in a good routine. The whiteboard is big enough to include a grocery list, to-do list, and other space for little notes back and forth to my girlfriend. Pretty useful right there.

The thing is, its value increases when I attach it to how much this will help me from day to day. I already know I’ll be much more organized in general because of it. I’ll pick up the apartment more often and be cleaner in general. And all this stuff? Well, it’ll lead to a happier mindset and a much more productive lifestyle.

The thing is, I actually seemed to enjoy other gifts like this that I would get a lot of actual use out of. The clothes, shoes, music, and other things I received which I really enjoy having aren’t necessarily of much use, per se. But some of the packaging supplies I got, like a stapler, will see much more use in my office and at home.

See, it’s great to get new things that make us feel better instantly, such as video games, other technology, new clothes, an experience, and whatever else you can think up that you really loved opening. But it’s the useful items that really get a lot of mileage out of them.

Heck, even the things I got for my kitchen like a mini charcuterie board, a recipe box, and mini shot glasses just seemed more welcome than things that were superficial by nature. It’s the packaging supplies, kitchen accessories, and whiteboards of our gifts that we should learn to appreciate and even ask for in the coming years.
No matter the case, try to get a lot of use out of the gifts you receive from loved ones. If you ask for something you know you’ll forget about in a week, you’re setting yourself up for a life of materialism.

When most of us think about a cardboard box, we think about the stereotypical, brown, square or rectangular box. But did you know there are a lot of unique types of moving boxes, each with a unique use and purpose? Here’s some out of the ordinary boxes!

Hanging clothes boxes.

These boxes tend to be relatively tall, generally four to five feet in height. From the outside they look pretty ordinary, albeit a bit larger than normal. But, when you open the box, you’ll find a single metal bar going across the inside of the box. The purpose of the box, and the metal bar inside, is to allow you to store and transport hanging clothes! The metal bar lets you to hang clothes up inside the box, and the tall height ensures that they don’t drag on the floor of the box, causing wrinkles or damage. These boxes can be hugely helpful if you need extra storage for your winter clothes or if you’re moving nice articles of clothing like fur coats or an old wedding dress.

Shipping tubes.

One of the biggest challenges when packing or moving is how to handle posters or large documents. Laying them flat would require a very large, and probably very skinny, box, but folding them up will leave permanent creases that could damage a poster or piece of art. That’s where shipping tubes come in! Shipping tubes are just what they sound like, cardboard tubes that can range in length from a foot to six feet long! Posters, documents or art can be rolled and inserted into the tube, keeping them safe and crease-free. Shipping tubes can also be a great way to transport long, skinny items like baseball bats or fishing poles.

Handled boxes.

We’ve all been there, trying to carry a heavy box upstairs and suddenly feeling our grip start to slip. If you’re simply carrying boxes of clothes or something similar, a dropped box may not be that big of a deal. But if you’re carrying a box filled with dishes or other valuables, a dropped box can be a day-ruining experience. And that’s where handled boxes come in. These boxes fold up in a way that provides a handle a the top, similar to a shopping bag. It makes the box easy to carry and gives you the peace of mind that you won’t drop anything and have to deal with broken dishes!

There are plenty of other unique box designs out there and, if you need it, you can even find companies that will provide custom built cardboard boxes that will fit your unique need perfectly!

Wrapping presents. It’s most people’s least favorite activity to perform around the holidays, as it can be time consuming, and confusing. There also is not usually a “one size fits all” way to wrap presents, as each package can be shaped differently and some gifts can be quite large! Also, the art of tying a box and using twine to make your packages look pretty can be quite confusing. Below are some short and simple tips for how to make wrapping a present a no-brainer for you this year.

Tip 1: Make sure you have the right supplies

Do not use that old wrapping paper you had stuffed in your basement closet, the one that was bent and torn apart by the dog last year. Instead, make a special shopping trip out to grab all of the necessary packaging supplies you will need to get these gifts wrapped! Suggested items include: tape, scissors, ribbons and bows, wrapping paper, maybe even some coffee to help you stay motivated! We recommend getting new everything, that way you will for sure not run out. There is nothing more frustrating than getting started on wrapping gifts to find out that you do not have enough tape to finish the job.

Tip 2: Make a dedicated “wrapping zone”

Clear some space in a part of your house that can become the DWZ (dedicated wrapping zone) and make sure the kids do not have access to this! Places like the den, office, and attic all work really well. From there, if you have to move some things around and get some space cleared, go ahead and do that! If you have a clutter-free zone, it will only be better for you in the long run. Put in a small coffee table or workbench next to you that you can put all of the packaging supplies on that you just bought! That way you will not have to waste time looking for the scissors!

Tip 3: Get a practice wrap in

People often laugh at this, but this is a serious tip that is highly recommended. Find a weird shaped object and practice wrapping it a few times to get used to it. Ask yourself questions during this time like “how much tape did I use?”or “what parts of the paper need to be crunched in to fill the empty holes? Also time yourself to see how long it takes you to wrap a gift, in case you have to rush through any last minute shopping and wrapping on Christmas eve!

These practical tips should make wrapping gifts a lot less stressful for you this year! Finally, make sure you wrap your gifts as early as you can, because who doesn’t want lots of presents under the tree?

We had one of these articles recently, but another couldn’t hurt around this time of year. Whether your office is having a holiday gift exchange (and no matter how the rules work) or you just wanted to present something to one of your coworkers, this list of items contains enough unique but useful things that would be appreciated by someone in your office.

Mug.

Just stuff a nice or unique coffee mug (or tin mug!) into a box with packaging supplies like bubble wrap or packing paper and you’re good to go. If you don’t have packaging supplies like this, wrapping it in newspaper and putting it in a bag is fine, too. Just make sure you let people know not to knock it around if the mug you get is ceramic.

USB outlet converter.

I’m always peeved when I need one of these things but don’t have one. They’re useful for plugging phone chargers in. They’re useful for computers. They’re just downright useful. And who has ever been disappointed to have multiple of these? No one. This makes a great gift for a coworker.

Desk decor.

Whether it’s holiday themed or something that could sit on a desk yearound, pieces of decor like picture frames, figurines, or abstract artsy items can spice up a coworker’s desk for the better. If anything, they’ll at least have it on their desk for the first month after the gift exchange since they’ll likely suspect you’re looking for it to be on display.

Desk lamp.

I absolutely love desk lamps, to be honest. I have a standing floor lamp in my office currently, yet I’m fixing to move it across the room and put a desk lamp on my desk for a more ambient vibe. The cool thing is that desk lamps aren’t just functional; they also look great and come in thousands of varieties. The shades are quite unique and customizable among them too, so your coworker can always go out and get a different lampshade or even type of light bulb for different lighting. (Maybe I’m just hyped up about getting myself a new desk lamp soon. Maybe this isn’t as cool of a gift as I’m making it out to be. Ehhh, who cares?)

You’re sure to make an impression on someone in your office by bringing one of these gifts to your gift exchange this year (or whatever else you’re doing), so get to looking for something neat!

When your kid comes home from college, it can be quite an overwhelming task that they didn’t think about. But when it comes down to transferring their living things, clothes, books, and other essentials, it seems like there’s always a shortage on containers—you don’t have enough totes, bags, or other odd containers laying around. However, you can fix that problem and make the move home so much easier for your kid by getting a handful of cheap moving boxes. The uses you’ll get out of these things are numerous.

Reliable.
A lot of lids for containers like totes seem to go missing at some point or another. Moving boxes, on the other hand, always have their trusty flaps. Whether you crisscross the top flaps to secure them or use packaging tape, you’ll never misplace its “lid.” This is especially useful when they use these boxes during breaks throughout the school year. They’ll be using these boxes a lot.

Cost efficient.

Compared to other alternatives, moving boxes are quite cheap. As mentioned before, you’ll be using these moving boxes quite frequently while your child is in college. Why fork out a pretty penny just to move them to and from college when you’re likely already paying enough for their tuition?

Environmentally friendly.

I’m sure your child will come home at some point mentioning how many recycling bins there are on campus or the amount of student organizations there are centered around the environment. Get ahead of the game and choose corrugated cardboard boxes—they’re entirely recyclable and biodegradable (unlike plastic totes or bags!). Your kid will think you’re pretty up-to-date and cool for thinking of the environment.

Easily stored.

Because you can break down cardboard boxes by flatpacking them, their required storage space in your home is almost nonexistent. Whereas other containers, crates, and totes take up a lot of space, cardboard boxes can slide into thin areas or lean up against walls to take up virtually zero room.

So, when you’re helping your kid pack to come back home, send them along with some cheap moving boxes to make packing for break a lot easier on them. Their advantages far outweigh other common containers, because you’ll save a decent amount of money. As a bonus, there are all sorts of sizes to choose from when it comes to cardboard boxes. You’ll always have the size you need thanks to the many dimensions they come in.

Packaging supplies can be expensive if you’re relying on your shipping store to provide everything and all you brought was your item to be shipped. Rather than fork out more cash just to ship something to a family member or friend, think about getting your own supplies to have at home so you can package your own items for cheaper. Check out our list of things you can buy to save at home.

Packing materials.

Whether you opt for packing peanuts, bubble wrap, packing paper, or all of the above, you’ll save more than 3 times as much by simply purchasing your own instead of letting the shipping store upsell you on these things. You’ll like the idea of your item getting to its destination safely with the proper packing material to ensure it’s not damaged, but shipping stores make bank off of people who don’t have their own.

Shipping boxes.

This may be something you prefer to let the shipping store fit to your item, and you can’t be blamed for that. You won’t always find the perfect box lying around your house ready to go, so don’t panic if you have to pay the shipper for one. However, purchasing a few for the future is never a bad idea, especially with how versatile cardboard is.

Tape.

I’m not even sure that you would be charged for packing tape anywhere you would go, but having some of your own allows you to package your own items at home nice and neat, and it also goes a long way around the house in general. You never know when you need some heavy duty tape.

Labels/stamps.

These are great to have in case you’re in a hurry and need to drop an item off to be shipped immediately. Having the shipping store gather your information and print out a label can be time consuming, especially if there’s a line at the store. But if you have your own stamps or labels, you can have an item ready to be shipped in an instant, and all you’ll have to do is drop it off and go.

While this is an exhaustive list and you may be thinking “well, that’s everything I need to ship an item,” you’ll definitely save a few extra bucks each time you make a trip to the shipping store, even if you don’t have all the packaging supplies on this list.

We all know how useful cardboard is throughout the year. You use it to store things away. You use it to move items from one house to another. You use it for crafts with the kids. These all seem to be ways that boxes are used “positively” or as they were intended to be used when you first obtained them.

But what about uses you hadn’t thought of? What about uses for cheap moving boxes you have lying around that are a little more on the side of clean up? What about uses that will ultimately destroy your old boxes?

Well, here’s a list of ways you can put your old, tattered boxes to use this winter and not mind them getting destroyed in the process.

Cover a leak in your garage.

Not sure if you’ve ever seen your dad or grandpa do this, but if there’s been an oil spill or leak of some sort in your garage and you don’t have the means to soak it up with a typical clean-up salt or powder, portions of cheap moving boxes do the trick in a pinch. Just rip a slab off and place it on top of whatever liquid is pooled up in your garage. After a few hours, it’ll have soaked it up well enough to discard the cardboard.

Placeholder for firewood in your house.

If you’ve got a fireplace but no indoor wood rack, you’ll eventually get tired of walking out into the cold to grab wood off your porch. Even though you may not want to fork out the cash to go get an indoor wood rack or even build one yourself, placing a strip of cardboard on your floor will protect your flooring from wood even when it’s stacked up and it shifts around.

Kindling.

Speaking of fires, sometimes it’s tough to find the smaller pieces of wood used for kindling, especially if you don’t use firebricks. Cardboard can get the fire going nicely since it burns slower than paper and can serve as your backup kindling whenever you’re out of the necessary pieces to kickstart your flame.

So, the next time you think about tossing your old boxes because they’re ripped, slightly wet, or just falling apart in general, create a stash to use during the winter for these few things. You never know when you may want to use something like this as a means to save some cash and time.

When it comes to making a move, it’s likely that you have a fair amount of cardboard boxes to execute the move. Your things are in order. You’ve got everything packed nice and neat. Sure, some boxes are overflowing a bit at the brim, but those are usually the ones with clothes, blankets, and other things that won’t get damaged.

But what about your dishes, your pictures, or your lamps? What about the fragile, awkwardly shaped items that don’t necessarily just “fit” right in to any box? You’ve probably got a few lamps standing or laying in your back seat, your picture frames stacked in a box with some blankets around them, and your dishes are wrapped individually in newspaper.

But here’s the thing: that’s all unwieldy, time consuming, and still doesn’t guarantee protection. You want the ease of packing as all your other items and protection for those things more delicate than others, right? We’ve got a few options of cheap moving boxes for you when making the move.

Dish boxes.

Didn’t know this was a thing, did you? These boxes are still corrugated but have a partition kit within them to keep your dishes separate from one another and also provide layered protection. They’re about as good as you can get for your dishes when it comes to moving.

Picture frame boxes.

While you may not need one of these for every single picture frame you have, these are amazing for the ones you cherish, such as antique frames/photos or even expensive artwork. They’re thin boxes that typically come in three different sizes as to fit various picture sizes, and their protection is unmatched.

Lamp boxes.

These boxes are great for the awkwardness of lamps. They usually come wide enough to accomodate for your lamp’s shade, too, so you don’t have to worry about packing the shade separately. Of course, these come in a variety of sizes as well to fit smaller or bigger lamp shades.

Though you may have gotten past a few moves with blankets, newspaper, or other unsafe alternatives for your fragile items, think about choosing some of these cheap moving boxes and some bubble wrap the next time you move. Not only will you make it to your new location with all of your items in tact; they’ll be organized and you’ll have taken no time to do so in the process.

How often do you think about the essentials you need in your desk at the office? It kind of sucks when you really need a pair of scissors and don’t have any. Or when you’re out of staples because you didn’t think you would need to refill for a long time.

Having your desk at the ready with the things you need on a daily basis shows you’re thinking ahead, on track, and prepared for the unexpected.

Avoid looking underprepared by having to ask around for office basics by grabbing these ____ supplies.

Tape.

You’ll want it for pinning notes to your desk. You’ll want it to mend tears. You’ll want it to repair your cracked pen (maybe you should go get more of those, too).

Tape is one of the main items people think about when they hear “office supplies.” There’s a reason for that: it can be used in so many different ways.

Sharpie.

Sharpies aren’t just for writing on cardboard boxes and other shipping boxes. They come in handy a lot of the time around the office, too. Whether you’re addressing a package on a manilla envelope or writing a notice to be hung on your door, sharpies are too useful to not have in your desk’s drawer.

Also, while black is the go-to color that everyone needs, having a red sharpie can help to draw attention in the case of important notes.

Containers.

Plastic, cardboard, wooden. Whatever the case, having some sort of box, even old shipping boxes, is great to have in case you need to take documents or other work home.

You can even have two as “trays.” One for finished work, one for unfinished. Get crafty if you like.

White-out.

Ahh. The thing you never seem to have when you need it most. It’s one of those items that you question purchasing: “If I do buy it, I’ll never use it. But if I don’t buy it, I’ll need it at some point.”

At the very least, have some in case coworkers need it. Important documents with mistakes written in pen normally can’t be fixed, but white-out does the trick in a pinch.

When it comes down to it, having important office supplies is better than not having them. Make it a point to take a trip to the store and check the essentials off your list so that you can be better prepared when the time comes.