I am nearly 5 years into my career as a Professional Organizer, so tell me why I am sitting here staring at a product box, thinking, “Well, it could be useful..for something. And it's such a nice
Box!”
Then there are the one-off appliances that come in boxes with fitted cardboard pieces and
tiny sheets of foam that make me think, “Should I be keeping this? It is a specific box made just
for this product, so maybe I’ll need it when I move?”
So, let me break it down here for all of you who are prone to the same gut reactions as me, with
product packaging and are drawn to it for various reasons.
For the pretty packaging:
First of all, yes, that box is a great box/tin/canister/jar. Now that we have admired it let’s
think through what we will do with it:
Will it solve a current problem? (I am guilty of trying my best to come up with a problem just so a
particular box can be the solution).
When, specifically, would I use it? (I see all of my fellow creative gift wrap hoarders, and I salute
you).
If I went to a store and this packaging was on the shelf by itself, would I buy it? (Really..would
you purchase that kind-of-dinged-up-but-mostly-still-ok-cardboard box?)
Now, if it isn’t going to actually improve our lives, I think it is time that we collectively let it move
along and out of our house. If you can recycle it, that is fantastic; otherwise use it as a donation
container and take that along with some other contents to charity.
For the packaging that you want to re-use for the product that came with it:
Unless you enjoy fighting for your life trying to get those little cardboard flaps to close just so, I
recommend letting go of the packaging. Product boxes for small appliances, in particular, never
fit quite like they do when you first open the box, and they are a bulky waste of space for
99.99% of the time. The .01% is the day we plan to use it for a move, but it is not true that your
product should go back into its box for moving either. Your item will be just as well protected, if
not more so if you wrap it in packing paper and box it in the normal size moving boxes. This
helps for tetris purposes as you load a truck as well - it is not helpful to have teeny tiny or
randomly sized boxes. There is a reason Tetris itself is a game of boxes that are all the same
cubic shape.
Now let me know which product packaging you have held on to and what you ended up doing with it!
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