The sudden change in our normal lifestyles has been complicated for some. It is true with the coming of COVID-19 that our entire way of life has changed in the United States. My whole family works from home now and we are still told that being outside is a detrimental health risk and that we should only go out for emergency situations. The fact is that even if all of this is not true, that our lives are still ruled by new regulations that have been put in place. The unforeseen consequences of this have meant that my family shops mostly online now. We purchase our food, our housewares, and all the things we normally would go out shopping for. This sudden change means that it has caused us to live with an insane amount of packaging supplies that keep piling up in our garage.
The issue is simple. We order the majority of our goods online now and have them shipped to our house. Amazon has been incredible at allowing us to get our packages in safely and quickly when we are regulated not to go shopping at our local stores. But the issue has become all the extra trash that is building up. It is more than just my own household, but our state and nation in general. We are consuming more paper products than ever before and our landfills are filling up at a much-excellerated rate. The main issue personally is that we want to make sure we are disposing of all the cardboard boxes correctly and recycling what we can.
What we have had an issue with is the sheer quantity of packages that we keep receiving and are only allowed to recycle one trash can a week in our neighborhood. The ability to put all of these paper products into one trashcan has been a true challenge for my family and I want you to avoid the mistakes we made in trying to do it smartly or simply. I know that sounds silly, but after many cuts and blisters we got tired of trying to do the right thing and almost just gave up and trashed the boxes. That was something I don't want you to have to feel so follow these steps to break down all of those cardboard boxes correctly.
One thing to know is to not use your hands. It may be ok to break down on box with your hands, but you will end up injuring yourself. Massive paper cuts happen when you tear corrugated boxes. It is a thing that happens over time and if you do a lot of boxes that way you will one, not have even tears, and not be able to fill up your trashcan well and you will injur yourself.
Now scissors are also a bad idea unless you have industrial ones. We did not and still don't. Our first try with normal scissors allowed me to happily cut up one box and feel amazing about it fitting perfectly into the can. But the next box brought me a red spot on my hands where the handle was and the next box came to a blister.
Instead of doing this use a fixed blade knife and be careful. This was the only way we did not get injured, papercut, or blistered. I took my time. Made safe cuts and broke the boxes down happily. Hope these tips help you!
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