Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Save the Box?
The Container Store has made a blockbuster business out of selling boxes, and yet I often find myself with a client, disposing of excess boxes. People ask all the time if they should save the box. As usual, it depends.
I’m not talking about the Tiffany’s box that your engagement ring (lucky you!) came in. Keep that in your jewelry drawer if it makes you happy. I’m talking about the box for the heating pad or the Neosporin or the Kind bars.
Boxes have neat shapes that stack, and stacking is good. Boxes protect things from dust, too, so when you are stashing the curling curling iron you use four times a year, the box will keep it clean as well as make it an easier shape to store.
But when it comes to storing stuff, the point isn’t to cram as much as possible into the given space; you want to be able to see and access what you’re storing. That’s why stacking boxes of rarely used teas at the back of your pantry might make sense, but storing the granola and protein bars your family whips through in the boxes they come in might not. It’s smarter to toss their boxes and merge them into a single glass canister up front on an easy-to-reach shelf. There’s no reason whatsoever to keep the boxes that hang in the drugstore with that extra tab of cardboard (typically for creams and ointments). Corral the tubes together in a small jar or bin.
I always think about access. If you make something harder to get at by keeping it in a box, you’ll use it less. That’s fine for the knee brace you (hopefully) won’t ever need again (but might), but maybe not so good for the physical therapy straps you’re supposed to use every day.
Always ask yourself: Do I have room? Will I remember that it’s there? Can I get at it when I need it? Is the box going to help me see it, or make it hard to access?
I’ve decided to save the box from my son’s knee-shaped ice pack. I’ll be too superstitious to throw out the ice pack when his knee heals, but I can box it up and put it in the back of the linen closet with the rarely used nebulizer and the box of back-up epi-pens. The ice pack is a sloppy shape to store neatly, so the box will make it easy to stack. Hopefully we won’t need it again, but if we do, it won’t be dusty and I’ll know exactly where it is.