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STORAGE Boxes are meant for holding items, so use empty ones to organize a cluttered garage or attic or safely store less frequently used items like winter jackets or holiday decorations. If the brown cardboard aesthetic on a shelf just won’t cut it, paint the boxes or wrap them in eye-catching gift wrap, then label them.
As more people opt for online shopping, the number of home deliveries is skyrocketing. Almost every item ordered comes in its own cardboard box, and nearly 20% of these boxes end up in landfills, while the other 80% require significant amounts of energy to recycle. Here are four ways to reuse those boxes instead of just tossing them out. GARDEN BED STARTERS Because cardboard boxes are loaded with carbon and not contaminated by many other chemicals, they’re great for starting new plants or flower beds. They help reduce weeds and protect weak or young plants from the elements, and when the carbon in cardboard combines with the nitrogen in the dirt, a nutrient-rich soil emerges for plants to flourish in. COMPOST Clean corrugated cardboard —what most Amazon boxes are made of — is another great source of
useful carbon. Cut your boxes into pieces and place them
in your compost pile so the carbon combines with the nitrogen from food scraps. The process helps break
the pile down into nutrient-rich humus for healthy soil. TOYS OR ART SUPPLIES Kids tend to play with the box their new toy came in rather than
If you’re not sure how you want to use your boxes, just hold on to them until you’re ready. The beauty of cardboard is that you can break it down, store it easily, and reconstruct the boxes later when you find a use for them.
the toy itself for a reason. Cardboard boxes spark creativity, and the possibilities are endless! Boxes can be used as forts, spaceships, building blocks, art canvases, and more. Empty boxes can provide hours of fun with a little help from a vivid imagination.
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people I love, and time spent outdoors. For me, the combination of those things equated to a magical moment in time that could be felt in my heart and soul and deep in my bones. With that realization, I feel stress melt away. I don’t need extravagant plans for my family. It’s okay that we don’t have something on our calendar every day or week. It’s okay that the pandemic is slowing us down and
making us cross some activities off the list. In fact, it’s those casual, unplanned moments of just simply being together that become the moments that are everything to us. So, for the next few months of summer, I am going to continue to do what I’ve been doing the last three months now that I’ve had some extra time at home with my kids. I’m going to push my kids on the swing set under the shady tree, slurp on melting popsicles while playing barefoot in our driveway, race around the cul-de-sac on bicycles, climb trees, run through the sprinklers, and sit outdoors in our chairs hooting back and forth with the owls. Years from now, these will be the memories my kids and I love best.
2 www.FleschnerLaw.com
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