Some More Random Uses for Cardboard Boxes

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Alex Kava

Remember that one time I said that I have cardboard boxes coming out of my ears?  Well, it is still true, because life goes on and cardboard boxes are a part of life.  There is just no way around it.  There are now two ways that I recycle these neverending components of my life and that is by using them as bonfire starter, or by giving them, what I like to call, a “makeover”.  Last time I talked about how I transformed Kleenex boxes and cereal boxes into useful, household bins.  This time I am going to talk about some more random uses that I have discovered, since I still have more cardboard boxes than I know what to do with.

Last time I said that the Kleenex towel holder was my favorite.  This time I’m saying that the little hammering station for my 18 month old is my favorite.  I took a diaper box and spray painted it with a solid color, just so the background wouldn’t be too distracting.  Then I took a pack of golf tees laying around from the time my husband wanted to become a golf pro and then realized he didn’t actually like golf but had still invested in all of the equipment.  I poked the tees in the box and then pulled them out so that holes remained.  Then I gave my son a mini hammer (which they sell at Lowe’s for ten bucks) and he spent literally forty-five minutes hammering golf tees back into the holes in the box.  Ah-mazing!  Did I get a ton of work done while he was so busy?  Well, let’s just say that I got a ton of work done on the new Sue Grafton novel…

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I was so stinking excited over this new toy for my younger son that I wanted to find something to do for my older son.  I decided on a Toy Garage, so I started saving paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls, and when I had amassed a rather large quantity (which doesn’t actually take that long), I layered them inside of a cardboard box, using glue in between to keep them secure, and cutting down the paper towel rolls to the right length.  I spray painted it all very nicely and then put his matchbox cars in each of the holes.  At the top of the box I painted two little helo pads for his little helicopters.  Once again, major win for mom.  And this time I got to paint my nails!

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How to Transform Cheap Moving Boxes into Killer Care Packages

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Alex Kava

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:

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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.

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5 Fun Projects to Do with Shipping Supplies

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Alex Kava

You probably have a lot more shipping supplies laying around the house than you realized.  Cardboard boxes, packing peanuts, duct tape, packing paper, address labels, air pillows… these are just a few of the shipping supplies that we come across many times even in just a regular week.

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The great thing about all of this excess is that they can make for some pretty cool projects.  Here is a list of five fun projects you can do with a variety of different shipping supplies:

  • You know how charitable organizations often send you a book of address labels, usually decorated for a certain holiday or season, in the hopes of having you send them back a couple bucks for their time and effort? Just as soon as I think I’m getting to the end of the ones with the nutcrackers on them, I get a pack decorated with the American flag.  I have since discovered an amazing little secret: use the stickers to make roads and train tracks on the carpet.  It keeps kids well occupied, and they peel right off when you are done.
  • Packing peanuts make a great craft. Stick them together with toothpicks to form different figures and sculptures, or glue them on a piece of paper to make a raised mosaic.  I’ve even seen people dye them and sew them into long strings and hang them over a doorway to give the effect of a beaded entrance.
  • Perhaps no shipping supply has ever been quite so popular as duct tape. Nowadays they make with all manner of designs printed on it, everything from a colofrful tye-dye to bacon and eggs to sugar skulls.  For a long time now people have been using duct tape to wrap stuff in and call it “cool”, and the different colors and designs make it even better these days.  Try wrapping some pens in duct tape, or make wallets out of it, and sell them as a fundraiser.
  • Every time I order something from Amazon it comes in a huge box and wrapped in about eight feet of brown packing paper. That’s when I take the paper and take it up on the wall, close to the ground, and let my kids fingerpaint all over it, or color on it.  It keeps them busy and winds up being a beautiful collage for the next couple months.
  • That big box I mentioned you got from Amazon? There is no shortage of things to do with It: using it for storage or to put together a giant castle in the basement, the possibilities are endless.
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The Many Different Categories of Shipping Supplies

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Alex Kava

Shipping supplies come in all shapes and sizes.  That much seems obvious.  However, sometimes it’s helpful to take things to the next level, and I’m not suggesting you try this tip on your significant other later on.  Remember, this post is about shipping supplies, which is almost at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from romance.  I repeat: do NOT take anything that I say here and try applying it to your love life.  That might seem obvious, too, but they tell you not to put your hand under the running lawn mower for a reason, right?

Because someone, somewhere, at some time tried it, right?  And then probably sued the lawn mower company and so now the lawn mower company, and every company from napkin manufacturers to the greenhouse up the road come completely laden with disclaimers of every kind.  That’s just the kind of world of we live in.  As for taking things to the next level in the world of shipping supplies, that looks like identifying some different categories and explaining them in a bit further detail.

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Boxes: these are the most obvious, but don’t be fooled.  A box isn’t a box isn’t a box.  That is a really complicated way of saying that there are many different kinds of boxes for many different kinds of needs.  Heavy duty boxes, not-so-heavy duty boxes, and even boxes with specific qualifications for shipping hazardous materials.  Because apparently sending chemicals and bodily fluids in the mail is something that actually happens.  And enough that simply anyone can buy a box to do so with.

Tape: these are also an obvious member of the shipping supplies family.  Once again, don’t be fooled.  Not all tape is meant for sealing a package.  Some kinds of tape are actually not designed to hold a box together.  Your scotches, ducts, and maskings are good go-tos as far as this is concerned.

Labels: the most important part of sending something is displaying where it is supposed to go.  It is also helpful to display where it came from, so that your friends know they aren’t getting a box from a creepy stranger, or a customer can know that their order has gotten in before they even open the package, or even just so that it can make it back to you if the recipient can’t be found.  Instead of scribbling on the actual packaging, use a label to display the return and forwarding address.

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Three Kinds of Shipping Bags

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Alex Kava

This is the third installment of a three-piece collection about the “three kinds” of packaging and shipping supplies.  The first installment was on shipping boxes, and the second was on packaging tape, and this one is going to be about shipping bags.  You probably didn’t know that there is even such a thing as the “three kinds” rule, and even though it’s not an official designation it has been proven itself to be true after much observation.  The three kinds of shipping bags are: casual, serious, and professional.  Below, I will explain in greater detail the characteristics that make each of these categories distinct from one another

Casual: something that is done without much thought, effort, or concern.  Being casual doesn’t mean that you simply don’t care.  That would be called “disregard” or something equally as fancy, like “disrespectful”.  That is not what I’m talking about when it comes to casual shipping bags.  What I’m talking about is when you aren’t trying to impress someone.  You can wrap stuff up in old grocery bags and never stress out about it.  These are for the times when you are sending something off to close family and friends, of course, and you know that they won’t mind the informal materials.  As a matter of fact, they might even be grateful for some extra plastic grocery bags because they use them to clean out the cat box and tie up extra-dirty diapers in.

Serious: involving or deserving a lot of thought, attention, or work.  If you were to send off your manuscript, which is the same analogy for the other two parts of this trilogy, you probably wouldn’t put it in a recycled bubble mailer from Valentine’s Day that has a sketch of Snoopy on top of his doghouse shooting a heart-tipped arrow at Woodstock.  Any editor or publishing company would throw that in the trash immediately.  If you can’t take yourself seriously, neither can they.

Professional: exhibiting a conscientious and generally businesslike manner.  Shipping bags have a big place in the professional world of packaging and shipping supplies.  They basically make it or break it.  There are all manner of specialty bags that can be used to make sure that the item being shipped is represented in the best possible way.  After all, how an item is packaged is part of the first impression that someone is going to get from a company.  Make sure that items or categorized appropriately in their own little sacks, and don’t use a newspaper bag for sending off jewelry.

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America Comes in Shipping Boxes

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Alex Kava

I read a story once about this girl who leads a pretty messed up life (because how interesting would the book be if she was completely normal, right?), and how when she finally grows out of foster care she becomes an artist.  Her method is to decorate suitcases with paraphernalia that represent all the different stages in her life.  In her case, each suitcase more or less represented each foster home, and each foster home came during a peak season of her adolescence, and also contributed to it.  I thought it was really boring to read about at the time, the description of everything in these suitcases and what everything meant, but later I came to appreciate the ingenuity.

I got to wondering about America, and all of the shipping boxes that have gone out of this country during all of the different times.  It would be a cool museum display to have a bunch of them set up with the contents pouring out of them and set up all around them.  Each one would represent the time that it came from.

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Like the founding of our country.  It would be a wooden crate filled with supplies for gold-mining, all of which wound up being useless when it came to starting a colony.  Or giant containers fitting to the periods of time that they would have come from, full of everything that would have been needed during that particular war.  Muskets and funny-looking hats and candles for the Revolutionary War.  Boots and paper and little sacks of coffee for the Civil War.  Ponchos and cigarettes and magazines for Vietnam.  You could go on and on coming up with what those shipping boxes would have held.

They would have crossed the ocean in the bellies of giant ships that spent months at sea.  Can you imagine spending months at sea?  The thought alone makes me start to freak out a little bit.  Talk about being claustrophobic.  You would literally have no where to go.  They would have been shipped across the country in the beds of wagons or by train.  They would have been dropped out of the sky with parachutes attached to them- giant shipping boxes floating like presents down from the sky.  Even just the many ways that they travelled speaks of the history of the time.  Even just the material that they were made out of would as well.  All of it comes together to speak of the developments, the advancements, the improvisations of people from eras that are so far beyond our imagination.

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And A One and A Two and A Shipping Bags

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Alex Kava

Music is probably one of the greatest things that has probably ever existed.  If you think about it, it has been around for as long as people.  Every single people group revers music in one way, shape or another, and they always have.  I think it’s crazy fascinating to think about the people that invented musical instrument.  I mean, how incredible to have music so in your soul that you developed an entire machine in order to get it out.  Now that’s a miracle, like it or not.

I have always been a major fan of music.  But today I’d like to talk a little bit about shipping bags.  Shipping bags also need their place in the discussion forum.  Okay, I guess this particular topic of conversation will only pertain to a very small group of individuals, whereas music is completely universal.  Perhaps you could consider shipping bags to be “elite”, and not just under-whelming.  There is so much out there that was originally considered under-whelming but then quickly rose in importance and popularity.  Like the peanut, or any number of inventions that were originally thought to be silly and have now become vital contributors to everyday life.

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Like shipping bags.  From the bubble pack to the cardboard one insulated with that stuff that looks like dryer lint.  If a box isn’t necessary for sending something, shipping bags are ready to stand in the gap.  And how convenient is that!  They conform to the shape of what you are sending so much easier, and are therefore so much more spatially and cost effective, too.  Granted, they make for awkward stacking and handling, but that is something for the mail people to worry about.

Maybe you wouldn’t like to talk about shipping bags anymore.  Maybe that’s as far as your interest goes in such a subject.  If that is the case, I wouldn’t blame you.  I would encourage you to give them the respect they are due, and to even call them to mind every now and then in your daily life.  I’m sure you will find that you come across shipping bags so many more times than you think you would.

Now, back to much more universal and stimulating topic of conversation: music.  From the womb to our last moments on earth, as human beings we love music.  Animals don’t seem to care about it one way or another, but a baby can learn to dance before they can learn to walk, and a song will bring someone comfort in the valley of Alzheimer’s.

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My Stories about Stretch Film

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Alex Kava

So, I’ve had a few encounters with stretch film, and I would think they are worthy enough to take a minute to share.  Granted, they aren’t terrifying and horrible like when Frodo gets wrapped up and stabbed in the stomach by the giant spider.  And they aren’t as nightmarish and gruesome as the scenes that Dexter sets up for his victims.  Which I’m glad about.  I’m sure I wouldn’t tell them if I did.  I probably wouldn’t even be able to, I would be too traumatized.  I mean, a spider the size of my garage?  Come on!  There’s no coming back from that.  And forget about Dexter.  There’s certainly no coming back from that, if you catch my North Atlantic drift.

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Anyhow, my own experiences with stretch film have been mild at best, but somehow more than the average person’s, and so here is one of them.  Once upon a time, I was in the military.  Yes, it’s true.  And I’m not very old, but it was already so long ago that I sometimes wonder if it was actually me.  While I was there I worked in a supply shop that ordered new parts and sent off broken ones, for one helicopter squadron in particular.  Now, hazing in all forms is completely normal in the military, and I was primarily, thankfully, the victim of a more friendly sort.

It was more or less that I had about two hundred older brothers, like it or not, but most of them were pretty nice to me.  They didn’t know their own size or strength, and that was problematic every now and then, but overall I had a fabulous military experience, which a lot of people can’t wind up saying.

Well, one day at work the guys came across an extra roll of stretch film, and they took one look at each other and then came for me.  There wasn’t much point in trying to fight it, but I still did, and in between hysterical laughing and just plain hysteria I was completely cocooned in stretch film and then placed against a corner in the wall.  I couldn’t sit, and I had to be careful not to fall.  It was a couple hours before someone found me, and by then the game wasn’t funny anymore, and the guys wound up getting in serious trouble and I was given the whole next day off of work in the attempts of trying to bribe me not to take the issue to a higher-ranked official.  I had no intentions of doing so, but I did enjoy the extra time off.

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Shipping Supplies are Shipping Supplies

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Alex Kava

Isn’t it amazing when something ordinary can become something wonderful, and amazing?  Creativity can open so many doors for so many beautiful things.  If you are a creative person you could probably walk around your house and grab random things and turn them into a fascinating work of art, or an intriguing life hack.  You could probably take a stack of shipping supplies and turn them into a castle.  If you are a compassionate person you could probably probably walk around your house and grab random things and turn them into something that would help somebody else.  You could turn shipping supplies into a care package.

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It’s not really being redundant when we say that shipping supplies are shipping supplies.  Because they are!  All over the world.  It’s how we send food and household items to people in need.  It’s how we pack up blankets and t-shirts and socks and soccer balls and send them to villages high up in the mountains.  It’s how we can give tents and sleeping bags and school supplies and canned goods to areas that have been ravaged by a hurricane or earthquake.

One of my favorite times of the year is when little green boxes with red lids start popping up.  They are “shoeboxes” for Operation Christmas Child.  You can put whatever you want in that little box, anything to bring joy to a child from an impoverished nation.  I always choose the oldest age group, because I think they must be the hardest to shop for, and the most neglected.  It’s so much more fun to shop for babies and toddlers, and even five to eight-year-olds are easier to shop for.  Fun toys and candy are easy to come by.  It starts to get a bit more challenging when you are moving into the pre-teens.

A hand mirror?  A jump rope?  A toothbrush and toothpaste and one of those washrags that comes in a plastic cube and then expands when you get it wet (dude, I’d really like to see how they make those things).  A yoyo.  Chewing gum and sidewalk chalk.  A first aid kit and a sewing kit.  I love doing this.  Throughout the year I collect little trinkets and when December comes I get to dump it all out and remember all the fun stuff and get to choose which boxes they will go in.  I really try to imagine the child that will be opening the box.

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Hitch’s Bin Liners Part 2

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Alex Kava

Sometimes it was hard to be the one in charge of changing out the bin liners.  It was a big responsibility.  If no one was there to take out the trash, and replace the bag, trash would just pile up, and spill out of the cans, and onto the floor.  A mess would grow and consume the entire trash station, and a puddle of brown ooze would begin to spread across the tiles.  It would be a terrible tripping hazard, and maybe some old people would start slipping, and then their slipping would start to turn into a dance, and someone else would join in, and before you knew, everyone in the food court was doing a dance and singing.

Hitch called it his “bin liners” dream, and he liked when it had a happy ending.  Sometimes it didn’t.  Sometimes it involved an ambulance coming.  He was afraid of ambulances.  He had to ride in one once when he was twenty-two and he had a really bad seizure.  He remembered being really afraid, because he knew that ambulance was going to take him to the hospital, and he didn’t like hospitals.  He had spent a lot of time there are as a kid and it always hurt, and it was always loud.  Everyone was always nice, though, and that was good.  Because sometimes a lot of people just weren’t nice.

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After having this dream, his “bin liners” dream, Hitch would go into work the next day very seriously.  HE would pay special attention to staying on task.  Sometimes he would start to feel his mouth going dry, and a sweat beginning to form.  What if he wasn’t going fast enough?  What if the trash bin on the other side of the food court was already over-flowing?  He would try to use some of his like skills in moments like that.  He would say to himself, “It’s okay, Hitch, you will get there soon.

Don’t worry.  It’s okay.  Someone will tell you if it’s overflowing.”  This always made a lot of sense to Hitch, and he wished that he could find a way to incorporate it into his dream, even if it meant he no longer had the dream where it ended with people dancing and smiling and singing.  People always came up to him, sometimes in not a very nice way, to tell him that a certain trash can was beginning to fill up too much.  The public never failed to keep him notified.  Now he just had to find a way to get the public to do this in his dream.

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