You have completed your move without any issues, you have even unpacked everything instead of jamming your lesser used belongings in boxes in the back of your new closet, and now the time has come to sit down and relax. There is a problem however. Your entire house is covered in the empty boxes you used to transport your belongings, and you now look like the victim of a bizarre cardboard hostile takeover.

There are many options open to you in order to clear the boxes out of your house, the first and most logical is to simply give them away. It is more than possible that you were gifted the majority of your boxes by friends who had recently moved (and were probably in a very similar position to the one you are now in) and it seems right and sensible to play it forward and pass the boxes on to a friend or family member who has some moving to do.

However it is also possible that you bought new professional packaging and between that and the move, a little extra money would not go amiss. To this end, selling your unbroken boxes as near new may be the right choice for you. People will be more than happy to buy reliable and sturdy boxes as a slightly reduced price and the extra income generated can help take the stress out of the post move frugality a little. If you used a man with a van or a larger removal service, they may be willing to buy the boxes back off you as well.

Of course it is also sensible to keep a few boxes for yourself, you never know when you will need to transport something, or store some things away for a while. However, there is a limit to how many boxes one person needs and right now you are probably well past it, giving away or selling some boxes is certainly the quickest way to clear all of the packaging materials out of your house so you have somewhere to put down your celebratory champagne glass.

But these are not your only options, you can also have a little fun with your leftover boxes and get creative.

We all know how much kids love climbing in, on and around boxes, so why not make a treat for yours? A dollhouse perhaps, or a toy car, neither of which involve destroying the boxes (although there is, of course, no guarantee that the children won’t). Options for kids are almost endless; playhouses, toy stoves, musical instruments, a town for toys to populate, the only limit is the imagination of you and your children.

It is not only your children you can treat with cardboard boxes, simply by placing or sticking a few boxes together and cutting a few well-placed holes, you can make a maze or run for hamsters, gerbils, reptiles, cats and small dogs, the only thing to limit the size of animal you can make a maze for, is the size of the boxes in question.
There are also some uses for your boxes that can benefit you, an upturned box with a hole cut through it is a perfect holder for your washing basket, for example. The more creative person could create sculptures and wall hangings to decorate their new house.

The internet is rife with creative ideas to recycle and reuse cardboard boxes, so if giving them away or selling them isn’t your choice, spend a day with the kids making plans and creating cardboard box based masterpieces that the whole family can enjoy.