During the first wave of COVID, when the schools were closed, I saved my sanity by making my kids engage in DIY activities using custom cardboard boxes. I knew I had to think of ways to keep them indoors. As we did not know much about the virus. So for the first three days, we hunted around the house for empty custom cardboard packaging that we can utilize for our different projects. All these projects involved making little things for kids to keep them interested. We searched the kitchen cabinets to get our hands on different sized packaging boxes, which I think are great for recycling. We collected them and then proceeded to list down other to do things. There were quite a few things my kids wanted to make from these boxes. I also searched about them all on the internet and asked each of them to find them; 

1. Scissors 
2. Pen knife  
3. Washi tape  
4. Fabric 
5. Markers 
6. Glue 
7. Wrapping paper  
8. Stapler  
9. Buttons etc. 

Custom Cardboard Boxes are Very Useful

I knew they were already excited as we numbered all the different shaped custom cardboard boxes we had found earlier. First project involved using the sturdy custom candle boxes from my favorite brand of candles. I wanted my two kids to make dividers for their drawers using these custom boxes. I explained how they only needed to cut off the top lid from the boxes to adjust the height according to their drawer height. Moreover, I explained how the box height must be less than that of drawers and worked with them patiently. Eden, my six years old daughter, was the one who came up with the idea of using the base of the rectangle-shaped custom retail boxes as a divider. She rightly suggested that it can be used for storing her scattered colored pencils. 

After that, The final look of the drawers arranged with neatly aligned custom retail boxes, cut at the same height was amazing. There were square dividers to store stationery items like erasers and sharpeners, etc. And rectangular ones for storing pencils and longer stationery items. There was even a triangular cardboard box we had used for a divider where my daughter could store her hairpins and other accessories. She loved this neat new look of her drawer that we had achieved using old custom cardboard boxes. To give a neat look to every divider (and to keep her occupied for another day), I asked her to cover all sides of the dividers with any single-colored wrapping paper she likes. She opted for pink, which matched with her wall rooms as well.

Extra Usage of Custom Cardboard Boxes

For my next project, I asked both my children to help me make a mini-notebook for groceries. I wanted them to use the printer paper with only one side used. Because of lockdown half of my printer paper stock has been used up by kids for printing their projects. Sadly, only one side of these papers was printed. I asked them to stack all such pages neatly on top of each other and cut them into twelve inches squares. Once completed, I then asked them to cut twelve inches square from custom cereal boxes. These squares were covered in suede fabric using glue. In the end, we folded papers and cardboard squares in the middle and used a large stapler to bring them together as a book. This handy pocket-sized book is my favorite of all the projects. 

The other day my daughter found two beautiful custom candle boxes from my candle collection. They look like Christmas ornaments. She asked me if she could use them as pencil holders for her study table. I loved how she was thinking about upcycling custom retail packaging. I think if we all invest a little time, we can upcycle many custom retail boxes lying around and use them to our advantage. 

It takes a lot of planning on behalf of brands to come up with unique custom cardboard boxes for their products. However, They use services of expert packaging companies like ClipnBox.