Chances are that you know somebody who is either in the military, or was in the military at some time while you knew them. And so there is a pretty good chance that said person/s is either on deployment or was on deployment at some point. When you are on a deployment (and I’ve been on two, so I’m speaking from experience), getting care packages can be such a heart-warming experience.
Perhaps my favorite of all was from a family friend, who had transformed the inside of a regular old box into an actual fairy land. This is probably laughable for a lot of people, but for a 19 year old girl it was pretty fantastic. I even put on the tiara! Here are a couple ways to transform some old, discarded, cheap moving boxes into care packages that will be the envy of everyone:
If you aren’t interested in turning those cheap moving boxes into fairy lands of all shapes and sizes, consider giving them a theme relatable to whatever holiday is coming up, or just passed. If it’s Christmas, line the inside of the box with wrapping paper. Or you could pick a theme that you know your loved one likes, like Star Wars! Put a well-known inter-galactic phrase on each flap of the box, like, “Love you, I do,” or, “May the force be with you.” Finally, after they’ve taken everything out of the box, they will find this on the bottom: “In a country, far, far away…”.
It’s easy enough to send soap and toothbrushes and wash rags in the mail. It becomes an absolute labor or love to send a care package that you have put some actual work into. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for hygiene, especially in the desert, but those are usually the type of things that well-meaning strangers send. So leave the basics to the well-meaning strangers, and get into something a lot more fun. It’s not disappointing to unwrap bandaids and gum from a kindergarten class in Minnesota.
It’s terribly disappointing to get a box from your mom or girlfriend that has some granola bars and chapstick. People have entire blogs devoted to how you can dress up care-packages for your loved ones overseas. It may seem intimidating, but they will literally walk you through it. Your first responsibility is to not throw away those cheap moving boxes. The next step is to hop on the internet.
