Friday, August 26, 2011

How Far Will You Go?



You must have a thick skin to get good cardboard. If you think shopping for fabric is hard, you haven't tried cardboard hunting. You must not bat an eyelid when people stare at you trying to load good cardboard into your vehicle. You must have nerves of steel when driving home when all you see in the rearview mirror is brown. You should probably always carry a pocketknife with you, because you never know when a delicious cardboard box will appear and need to be flattened in order to be taken to its new home. If you eschew weapons, you must always have at least one long fingernail in order to peel off the packing tape and turn 3D into flat. Your children must be pre-conditioned so they sing, "We're so lucky! We're getting cardboard! Look! Mum's making a tent in the car!" when said Mum is  internally struggling over whether to take just one of the two boxes sitting in the recycling bin, or both

Where did I find today's free cardboard gem, you want to know? IKEA, of course, where everything is flat-packed to keep costs low and let you easily take stuff home.  Think they were referring to their furniture? Hah! Think again.



P.S. I was kind enough to leave the other box, you know. Not too late to get in your car now and snag it.

8 comments:

  1. Girl, you just said you were off cardboard, didn't you?

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  2. That is an awesome box.

    I've actually wondered about where you found your cardboard before, because it nearly always seems to be plain brown on both sides!

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  3. I had a whole kitchen worth of boxes I would have GLADLY given you. Instead they've been leaving the house one bag at a time with my weekly garbage pickup.

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  4. Too funny! Among your many other talents, you have a great gift for writing. :)

    Now you're sure making me wonder what the next project is! Must be a wall for your two Humpty Dumpties to get knocked off of, huh? ;)

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  5. I saw some big flattened cardboard on a curb the other day and thought of you.

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  6. Appliance stores. You need to find the loading dock areas of your local appliance stores. The boxes from refrigerators and washer-dryer combo units are awesome! And because appliances are mostly delivered to the customer sans box, the store accumulates them in a way that IKEA, where customers take their purchases away still in the box, does not.

    Also, flooring/carpet stores are good for really long, sturdy cardboard cylinders of various diameter. They make good tree trunks, among other things.

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  7. Ah, you have to have this same sort of thick skin to be an art teacher, too. I'm constantly picking up things from the recycling bins.

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  8. You should move near a military instillation. It seems like someone is always moving in or out around here. Cardboard galore...

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