I was up to my eyeballs in empty boxes daily at the store.
When you work in the paint department of Lowe’s, you better get good at breaking down cardboard after you take the product out of those boxes and put it up on the shelves for quick purchase or really high up on the shelves for stocking.
Thrown in a heap.
So I was in good practice when we got ourselves a pretty good collection during our moving process from The Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood to A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville.
There were the things that we brought to us in a few cardboard boxes – that which wasn’t in those vinyl storage bins used to squirrel away stuff in our new full basement – and the products we discovered we needed to purchase right away.
Sunday morning I got out there and broke the pile down like the former Lowe’s paint department guy that I am. Even without my store-issued red exacto knife, I made it fast work. Step on the box. Tear. Fold.
Everything in order.
In the store, I’d through the broken-down boxes into the big cardboard-crushing unit.
At A Bitty Better, it’s fit into a blue bin for pickup at the curb Monday, alongside the regular garbage.
How do you go about getting your boxes ready for recycling? How often does it get picked up? Do you have to be neat for your garbage collection or can it go out any which way?
Mark Bialczak 
Moved so many times, so many boxes! Have always favored liquor boxes to move my books, for their size and durability. Just last month I unpacked the last of the books, over a year after the move, and a neighbor who is moving happily took every box. We seriously recycle at our home, but our recycling center struggles financially as the price they can sell materials for has plummeted. 🍁
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It is a good thing to “recycle” by need for use, JoHanna.
Congratulations on settling in at the new digs. I think it will take us a year here, too. Me, at least. 😉
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We break ours down and recycle them at the landfill when we take our truckload of trash there. It’s much cheaper to use the dump for trash than city services.
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Things are different in the mountains, AFB. 🙂
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We have two hard-and-fast rules for our upcoming house hunt: the new house has to have a garage and a basement. We have a basement now, and I wouldn’t want to be without one. Plus, hubby worries about a broken washer hose flooding the entire first floor of a no-basement ranch. I guess I can see his point, although a first-floor washer/dryer would be easier on the knees.
In any event, here the empty boxes need to be broken down, but they don’t all need to fit into the recycling bin. We’re allowed to lay them flat on the ground, either under or next to the bin itself. Of course, our neighbors just throw the boxes whole onto the berm and half the time the boxes find their way into the middle of the street so that cars can try to go around them early on a dark, rainy morning. But you can’t expect much else from my neighbors.
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You so need to get away from those neighbors, CM. That box-dodging of which you speak is good reason to but the darn boxes in the bin.
Yes, first-floor washers are easier on our aging knees, I agree. But basements and sump pumps do seem safer all around. Knock on wood. Good luck on that upcoming house hunt, my friend.
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I’m also an expert at breaking boxes down little brother. I order stuff on a regular basis from Amazon and even the smallest item comes in a huge box, so I use my Xacto knife for the job, load the boxes in a shopping cart and wait until a friend comes by to take them out for me.
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The Xacto knife was my go-to tool at Lowe’s, sis Angie. I’m glad you keep one around your place. Smart!
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I’ve used the Xacto for years, bro Mark. I’m just glad they don’t keep trying to improve them by changing the design, so I can keep getting the refill blades for my 1960 knife. I did get a second one a few years ago when I misplaced the first one. Naturally I found the first one as soon as I bought the new one home and opened it up.
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i have my grandies use them for play and then have them jump on them and smash them. p.s. i am jealous of your basement, i don’t have one. )
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That is a great way to crush the cardboard, Beth. Ha!
And the step up to a basement from the crawl space in the Little Bitty is a huge benefit, for sure. ❤
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We have “one and done” recycling: just throw it all in one bin and put it out there! I don’t know why everybody has to be so lazy, but there it is. Oh, I cop to being that lazy myself. I just don’t know why I have to be. I hope you’re enjoying your new digs.
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We can do the one-and-done as well, Cynthia, as long as it goes in the bins or is tied in a bundle. I had to stack it all neatly this time to fit in our blue bins. Yes, we are enjoying our new digs, for sure, thank you. Now are an easy stop for you and Steven when you visit your Liverpool-living sister!
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True dat. No visits currently planned, but it is just a matter of time.
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