Despite being one of the most versatile and practical materials during a house move, cardboard tends to be underrated and even neglected by scores of home movers.
You don’t have to make the same mistake.
Sure, you’re likely to use plenty of cardboard boxes to pack up your stuff, but are you really going to take advantage of the many uses of cardboard when moving house? Probably not.
The great thing about cardboard is that it has some indisputable advantages:
- Cardboard is everywhere. Just take a look around and there’s a chance that you’ll see cardboard boxes lying somewhere. Therefore, it’s really easy to get your hands on as much cardboard as you need.
- Cardboard is cheap. That’s the good news. The great news is that, as long as you have enough time, you should be able to find all the cardboard you may ever need… FOR FREE.
- Cardboard is versatile. As you will see below, cardboard can have many super-practical applications during a move.
In fact, there isn’t a single reason why you shouldn’t use cardboard to protect the floors and walls in the home, safeguard delicate screens and glass elements, pack fragile items such as earrings, protect items from cold weather, and even have a bit of fun before or after the move.
Here are the best practical uses of cardboard before, during or after a house move:
Use cardboard to protect FLOORS
One of the best uses of cardboard during a move is for physical protection of your home. The reason being that cardboard happens to have excellent protective qualities.
So, your first stop? Protect your floors.
Position sheets of thick cardboard along the areas that will have to handle the heaviest traffic of feet on the day of the move. Break apart several cardboard boxes that you won’t use for packing and use them to cover your carpeted, hardwood or tiled floors.
The cardboard sheets will protect the floors from dust, mud, and moisture. To make sure those protective pieces are not shifting, use painter’s tape to secure them.
Good to know: How to protect floors when moving
Use cardboard to protect WALLS
Another way to use cardboard on your Moving day is to protect walls and wall corners against damage while you’re taking large furniture pieces out of the home when moving out or taking those bulky furniture items inside the new home when moving in.
Keep in mind that corners are most susceptible to damage from big and heavy items such as furniture and household appliances. In fact, chipped corners are not a rare sight during a house move so take preventative measures before it’s too late.
Place cardboard pieces on walls and wall corners to avoid accidental chips. Use painter’s tape to fix the protective cardboard on the wall without leaving any nasty tape marks.
You can also use cardboard to protect doors and door frames when moving out or moving in.
See also: How to protect doors and door frames when moving
Use cardboard to protect GLASS ELEMENTS
Fragile household items that have glass sections require extra protection to survive a house move intact. If you’re moving a china cabinet, a grandfather clock or another special item with glass shelves or doors, then you’d be glad to know that cardboard can save the day one more time. Also, cardboard provides an excellent level of protection when you’re moving large mirrors.
Cut out pieces of cardboard that match the size of the glass elements you’re trying to protect, place those cut-outs over the super-fragile glass items and fix in place with a painter’s tape that won’t leave glue residue like regular packing tape.
Use cardboard to protect SCREENS
By now you should be well aware of the fact that cardboard is great for protecting fragile items when moving between two homes. Another useful application corrugated cardboard is to shield TV screens and monitor screens against accidental breakage on the road to the new home.
Again, the best way to do it is to cut out pieces of clean cardboard that will match the size of the delicate TV or monitor screen you intend to protect. After that, position the cut-outs in such a way as to cover the entire area of the fragile items, then fix them with painter’s tape.
For best results, use bubble wrap on top of the cardboard covers.
Packing tips: How to pack a computer for moving
Use cardboard to protect EARRINGS
One unusual method of protecting your earrings is by using cardboard cut-outs that roughly match the size of credit cards.
Take a safety pin and poke two holes in each cardboard card, then attach a pair of earrings to the cut-out. Use tape to secure the hooks on the back side of each card so that the earrings cannot slip out during transport.
Finally, wrap the entire cardboard card in plastic wrap to immobile the earrings to the card and wrap the entire bundle in soft wrapping paper.
Using cardboard cards is a great way to protect your long earrings when moving house.
Good advice: How to pack jewelry when moving
Use cardboard to make FURNITURE SLIDERS
Furniture sliders are small pieces of plastic or rubber (for carpeted floors) or sponge or felt (for hard floors) that are used to slide heavy items – most often furniture pieces and appliances – across different types of floors without any type of floor damage.
When placed underneath each leg of a big and heavyweight household item, you’ll be able to slide that bulky thing almost effortlessly simply because the purpose of the sliders is to minimize the friction between the heavy item and the floor.
Use pieces of thick and strong cardboard as an alternative to standard furniture sliders. Remember to use cardboard sliders ONLY on carpets and never on hard(wood) floors.
Find more info: How to use furniture sliders
Use cardboard to make a WARDROBE BOX
Generally speaking, you shouldn’t have any serious problems getting hold of FREE MOVING BOXES before you initiate the task of packing your things for moving. As long as you have enough time to spare, you should be able to find almost all your cardboard containers for free. After all, one of your major objectives should be to lower your packing and moving expenses as much as possible.
However, one type of cardboard boxes that you won’t likely find for free is the wardrobe box – a special-purpose box that is designed to act as a mini closet (wardrobe) for your hanging clothes, hence its name.
Wardrobe boxes will keep your expensive formal and designer clothes not only wrinkle-free but also perfectly protected from dust, dirt, and moisture. The only problem? A single wardrobe box costs roughly $15.
Follow the detailed instructions below to build your own custom-made DIY wardrobe boxes from leftover pieces of cardboard.
Read more: How to make a wardrobe box for moving
Use cardboard in the GARDEN
If you just moved into a new house, you’ll be glad to learn that cardboard has a number of practical applications in the garden.
First of all, you can use large sheets of leftover cardboard to kneel or sit on when working in your garden. Also, used cardboard boxes can serve as self-recycling containers for compost.
Believe it or not, cardboard can be used successfully for weed control as well. Here’s what you need to do: flatten out some moving boxes and position the cardboard sheets over the areas in your garden with weed problems. Then, cover those cardboard pieces with mulch.
That’s it – the heat generated by the mulch and the lack of sunshine due to the cardboard should kill the weeds together with their seeds.
See also: How to move with plants
Use cardboard to have FUN
Finally, cardboard can offer many hours of fun and entertainment for kids and adults alike. Young children can get creative and build castles, forts, mazes or even entire cities out of cardboard (boxes), both before and after the move. Also, keep in mind that fun cardboard costumes never go out of fashion.
One big plus of cardboard is that it’s 100% safe for both humans and animals. As a result, your pet animals can also have a bit of fun with cardboard boxes to reduce the stress of moving house.
Read also: 5 super-fun things to do before moving out
