Clever Cardboard Ideas (Keep Those Boxes!)

If you hate throwing out boxes, you’re going to love these clever cardboard ideas. Below I’m listing seven of my favorite things to do with a box if you want to repurpose it.

Do you love to shop online? Then you probably have an abundance of cardboard boxes.

While you can definitely recycle cardboard, there are also plenty of ways to use it around your home. Let’s look at some alternative uses for cardboard.

Clever Cardboard Ideas

My love of Amazon has contributed to my enormous collection of cardboard boxes. I must be part-hoarder because it pains me to throw them out or toss them into the recycling bin.

I’ve spent plenty of time thinking about what to do with cardboard boxes beside breaking them down and getting rid of them. These are my favorite things to do with a box.

Use to Protect Your Surfaces When Doing Crafts

If you or your kids love doing crafts, it pays to put down a mat to protect your table or craft area. While you can purchase mats for this purpose, why not use something you have around your home?

Cut a box to the desired size for your workspace and then tape it into place to keep it from shifting around. When the cardboard gets messy, you can then recycle it.

Protect Knives When Moving

Are you packing for a move? Instead of tossing your kitchen knives into a box without any protection, fold a piece of cardboard so that it fits around the knife blades and tape into place.

This will ensure your blades don’t get damaged and that there are no unfortunate mishaps when unpacking.

Cover Your Floor When Doing Repairs

If you’re doing some reno around the house, break down some cardboard boxes and lay them over your flooring. This will help prevent paint, dirt, and who knows what else from ruining your floors.

If you’re putting these boxes on the carpet, place the inside of the box downward that way the dirty part of the box is facing up.

Create a Weed Barrier

You can also use boxes to form a weed barrier. This is much more affordable than purchasing a weed barrier at your home improvement store.

Just place in areas where weeds are a problem and cover with mulch. Over time, the boxes will break down and serve as food for plants.

Make a Raised Garden Bed

Last, but not least, you can use cardboard boxes to create raised garden beds. This is not only a great way to recycle the boxes, but so much cheaper than buying raised garden beds.

Make sure your raised beds are placed in an area that doesn’t get too much rain or they may decompose before you’re ready. At the end of the season, you can tear the boxes up and toss them into your compost pile where they will finish decomposing.

Use as Drawer Dividers

If you love to have organized drawers but don’t want to spend a ton of money on drawer organizers, you can easily make your own drawer dividers with cardboard! You can use contact paper, duct tape, wrapping paper, fabric, or decorative paper to make them pretty.

Additional Cardboard Ideas

Boxes aren’t the only cardboard we end up collecting. If your eggs come in cardboard containers, here are some great ways to use them instead of throwing them out.

Start Growing Plants

Stop tossing your cardboard egg cartons. You can cut them apart and use each cup to start a plant in. Best of all, you can plant the cup when you’re ready to move the plants outdoors.

Make Firestarters

Cardboard egg cartons are perfect for making homemade firestarters. You just need dryer lint and old candles. I also add pencil shavings to ours since they burn well.

Cardboard can sometimes seem to take over our homes. While it is easy to recycle at the recycling center, why not recycle it at home? There are so many ways to use it.

You can help keep your home clean or use it for working in the garden. You can even use it to keep knife blades protected when moving.

The next time you break down a box for the recycling pile, think about what to do with cardboard around your home. Do you have any other repurposed cardboard ideas? Please share them in the comments.