boxes

[kodaka]

The key to the boxes at stores is talk to the manager and see when stock day is. Then tell him what you're looking for. You shouldn't have to drive all over town for the boxes. One or two stores should do it.

I suppose that might depend on where you live. In Kentucky, maybe. But when you live in a city of millions of people, even on stock day, you can't get boxes discarded from stores.

In most cities where retailers must crush or incenerate their garbage, and dumpsters must be wholly contained, the stockroom usually cuts off the top of the boxes as an order is received, then put them on carts to take out to the store floor. As the shelves are stocked, the clerks cut the remnants of the box down into small squares for easier transport back to the dock, crushing, and incenerating. By the time the 'box' makes it back to the dock, it is a stack of cardboard sheets no bigger than a paperback novel.

Even if the storeroom manager wanted to help you, they can't and won't. Their docks and storerooms aren't big enough. Real estate is too expensive, they just don't have room to keep empty boxes. And even if they did, how are they supposed to keep track of which boxes are set aside and for whom (out of all the millions they might be mistaken for). They just won't do it anymore.

I've moved almost 20 times in my life. When I was a kid, I used to go dumpster diving with my family for good boxes. By college days, it was really hard to find them. A store might set aside two or three for you, but you'd have to spend a day or two driving around to get even a few. Nowadays, its just impossible. I don't move as much any more, but I have moved three times in the past 5 years, and trying to find free ones is just impossible anymore.

[tilli]

I bought most of mine for my last move from U-Haul and I don't regret it, they were very sturdy and I was able to reuse them several times before giving them away to a friend for his upcoming move. I also supplemented with boxes from a small local liquor store for my books - liquor boxes are the perfect size for books and you don't have to worry about bugs in them like you do with grocery boxes. Most of them even have handles cut in.

[Magnolia Bloom]

Where I live, small boxes at U-Haul are $1.70 each, Lowe's price $.67 each. U-Haul's are a little more sturdy and I used them with my last move, but storing them, even broken down, was a hassle for me due to limited space.

Free boxes are good, but I am buying most of them- with grocery stores using crushers, it's not as easy as it used to be to pick them up while grocery shopping.

I like liquor boxes for books, too. I've been able to have my local liquor store save them for me and I can sweep by each day to pic them up.

[InTheYear3000]

Be careful as the quality of boxes can vary widely. With my last move, I bought a bunch of boxes off craigslist from a family who had just moved with a professional moving company, and the boxes are really nice. I also bought a bunch of boxes from Extra Space Storage (and have seen them offered at other storage places - they have cutesy phrases on the boxes like "grandma's china") and with the bumpy ride in the moving truck, many of those boxes crushed.

[kygman]

I do have a funny story about using liquor boxes. I have a cousin who lived in the Dallas area and worked for a man who was elected to Congress (in the early 70s). She drove to Washington following a girlfriend who was teaching nearby in Va. There was a high school senior who worked in the campaign and the Congressman-elect got him an invitation to the Presidential inauguration. He drove the Congressional Limo from Dallas to D.C. My cousin and her friend laughed a lot about him driving. Here is this 18 yr old kid, driving all the way to Washington, D.C. (flew back home), through Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, and on up...in a limo packed full of Jack Daniel boxes they used for packing. Even he was surprised that he wasn't pulled over more than once to see if he was drunk! lol

[pagirl34]

Ive been getting boxes from where I work... the IT dept always has computer shipments so the boxes used for these are perfect. I cant understand why anyone would pay for boxes so I say try to be as resourceful as possible. I've been collecting diaper boxes for the last 6 mths too (we have a child so instead of throwing them out, Ive been breaking them down and storing them). I understand what ppl are saying about bugs in grocery boxes but I still wouldnt say dont use them at all, just be careful. The post office will ship you small boxes for free but it takes up to 10 days to get to you and you have to pay for shipping. Go to USPS.com

[Wingsy]

We got about 70 Egg boxes from our local grocery store over the course of about two weeks. They're very good sized boxes with handle cut-outs, they're used to deliver 30 dozen eggs to the grocer. They get about 10 of these deliveries a day and we've had no problem grabbing a car full each time we've swung by the store.

Granted, we live in a relatively small town, so there isn't a huge amount of "competition" for scavenging the boxes... but if you talk with the grocery manager at your local store, you may be able to get them to designate the boxes for you for a few days.

They're really perfect... very strong, all the same size, rectangular instead of square which makes stacking them easy. We put two on the bottom side-by-side facing one way, then two on top side-by-side at 90 degrees, and keep repeating. We've literally been able to stack these floor to ceiling in our office, allowing us to keep the rest of the house relatively clear of boxes. And the handles in the sides have made it very easy to move them around.