What to Do With Packaging Materials After the Move

For better or worse, your household items have just been delivered to your new home. Standing among the piles of cardboard boxes, you now realize that the most difficult and stressful stage of your residential move may be over, but there are still many essential tasks to be crossed as completed before you get that long-awaited sense of satisfaction and achievement.

And just like pre-move packing ruled over your personal moving calendar, you know perfectly well that unpacking will be the new Kind of all post move tasks that lie ahead of you. In many aspects unpacking after a move is easier than its predecessor, but this time you’ll have to find a solution to a brand new issue – how to avoid cluttering your new home with packaging materials.

Cluttering is often viewed as a side effect of unpacking after a house move. This is why you should react quickly and introduce structured order into the unmistakable chaos created by empty cardboard boxes, packing paper, newspapers, packing peanuts, sheets of bubble wrap and all types of other packing supplies.

But while it’s a bad idea to keep useless packaging materials in your home, it’s an even worse strategy to just throw away anything unwanted without thinking about how your actions will impact the environment. Remember that proper disposal of your post move packing supplies is a must.

Learn how to dispose of packaging materials after moving to a new home.

What to do with packing boxes after the move

Decide what to do with each cardboard box the minute you have emptied it. Whatever your immediate decision is, you should take into account the overall condition of the packing box whose fate is obviously in your own hands.

Generally speaking, you have a few good options here:

Keep your packing boxes

If a moving container is still in good condition and you think it will have no particular problems surviving another household move, then you should keep it for now and get back to it after you’re done with unpacking and arranging the freshly delivered items around your new home.

Sooner or later, the time comes for you to weigh in your options concerning the moving boxes you have decided to keep.

• Reuse for relocation. Why should you throw away cardboard boxes in good condition when you can simply take advantage of their excellent storage and protection features again? If you’ve just moved to your new home as a temporary solution to an emergency situation, you may expect to be relocating again in the near future. In which case, all of the convenient containers that survived the move unscathed will come in very handy indeed. Store them in a clean and dry place until the time comes to resort to their undisputed practicality once more.

• Reuse for storage. Even if you don’t plan to move house soon, you shouldn’t just discard packaging materials that can be put into good use. Remember that cardboard boxes excel as storage containers. So, you’re just a few steps away from boxing any household items you don’t currently use and store them safely in an appropriate storage area, such as a garage, basement or attic. Make sure you label correctly the re-purposed boxes too to avoid confusion later on.

• Give them away. Well, it would be a shame to discard perfectly usable cardboard boxes just because you have reached the conclusion that you don’t really need them at the moment. So, instead of throwing them away, give them away. Let your friends know that you have moving containers you’re ready to part with in exchange for nothing more than a Thank you. If none of your pals is interested in the offer, then do consider helping a stranger or two in need by posting the packing containers on the best free-ads website in your city.

• Try to sell them. If you really don’t think you will need your good packing boxes in the foreseeable future and nobody you know wants them, then you may choose to pocket some cash by attempting to sell them. If you think it’ll be worth the lost time and effort, then why don’t you post an ad online or in the local newspaper and see what happens?

• Repurpose them. If you don’t have time to lose in trying to make profit from your no longer needed packing boxes, you’re more than welcome to try something a little different this time. In addition to being a great option for organized storage, your corrugated cardboard boxes have other highly practical purposes which you may not see right away. For example, as long as your sturdy boxes happen to be of the right size, they can be excellent shipment containers as well. Also, if you have small children, you can get really creative and help them build cardboard castles, forts, mazes, and even puzzles. Most kids love playing around with moving boxes as the latter let them express their innate creativity by providing a perfectly safe environment for them to engage in fun activities.

Recycle your moving boxes

On the other hand, if you find a moving box to be torn, stained, or broken, then the logical option before you is to simply flatten it out and prepare it for recycling. After all, the great thing about cardboard containers is that they are fairly inexpensive, and can often be obtained even for free.

How to recycle moving boxes? The recycling steps you are required to take to properly dispose of moving boxes after moving house will depend primarily on the town or city you live in.

• Step 1: Separate your trash. You may be expected to separate your ordinary daily trash from the recyclable cardboard trash before you take it out and leave it on designated places to be picked up by the municipal waste management services.

• Step 2: Bundle your recyclables. It’s possible that you are required to flatten out, stack and tie up the moving boxes you’ve decided to recycle.

• Step 3: Use the correct disposal container. Be careful to throw away your broken cardboard boxes in the trash receptacle for paper waste products.

• Step 4: Check the recycling regulations. If the place you live in does not offer curbside pick-up of household waste, then you may have to leave the prepared bundles of cardboard boxes at a nearby recycling centre. In any case, make sure you investigate what your legal cardboard recycling options are before you act.

What to do with packing paper and newsprint after the move

Once you have taken the necessary steps to reuse, repurpose or recycle your packing boxes, it’s time to decide what to do with rest of the packing supplies.

Not surprisingly, you will find out that only a tiny fraction of the quantities of packing paper you have used to protect your belongings during the transportation can actually be used again. This fact comes as a direct result of the fragile nature of soft packing paper which can be easily torn up unless you are very careful while unpacking each and every item wrapped in it.

In any case, you are recommended to hold on to any sheets of clean packing paper that have survived the cross country move with the purpose of reusing them when the right time comes. Even if you don’t plan on having another household move anytime soon, you can surely take advantage of the protection qualities of packing paper whenever you need to wrap something fragile either as a gift or to keep it safe in storage.

It goes without saying that you should clearly dispose of any torn up and already unusable sheets of packing paper by following the cardboard recycling steps above. Also, get rid of any newspapers you may have used as additional padding and filling materials inside the moving boxes. After all, due to the insignificant price and the presence of stainable ink, all of the newsprint you have used up during the packing process should be recycled with no delay.

What to do with bubble wrap after the move

Let’s just say upfront: don’t be quick to throw away your sheets of bubble wrap unless they are badly torn up and thus, no longer usable. The plastic material with the famous air-filled bubbles offers the best overall protection for fragile and breakable items during a house move.

But besides being the winner of the prize “Ultimate protection material when packing for a move”, bubble wrap can be successfully re-purposed and will continue to serve you well long after the last moving box has been unpacked.

• Excellent insulator. You can use appropriately sized sheets of bubble wrap to insulate the windows (if the glazing units are not very good) or doors of your new home. Everybody knows that good insulation of homes prevents heat loss, which in turn will save you money on your future energy bills.

• Water-proof helper. One of the great things about bubble wrap is that it is water-proof. That quality alone can be used for numerous applications like keeping plant roots and stems wet during or right after the move, or serving as a temporary shelter against rain.

• Stress reliever. You’ve just guessed it, right? The act of popping up bubble wrap is not only pure fun, but it can be therapeutic as well! Whenever you feel like your nerves have reached their healthy limits, take a sheet of polyethylene and start popping up some air bubbles to calm down before it’s too late.

• Fun initiator. When was the last time you drew a bubble wrap painting? Well, you should absolutely do it as it’s super easy and a lot of fun. Simply paint the bubbles in vivid watercolours and then press them on a white sheet of paper to create unique colour patterns.

It’s definitely worth keeping whatever good sheets of the durable plastic material you have left after the house move. However, there’s no point in holding on to any pieces of bubble wrap if they appear to be already damaged. If that is the case, recycle them in accordance with your local household waste disposal regulations.

What to do with packing peanuts after the move

How to dispose of packing peanuts?

Packing peanuts are not degradable (unless they are starch-based), so the only option ahead of you is to recycle them in the safest and most appropriate way possible. But before you decide to contact your recycle centre and see if they will accept your polystyrene-based foam peanuts, see if you can use their proven protection for other purposes around the house.

Besides being excellent insulators, the small and lightweight packaging and cushioning pieces can be successfully used to form a drainage system when placed strategically in the base of a flower pot. Additionally, Styrofoam peanuts can be used for various fun projects to create hanging decorations (Christmas tree garlands, holiday wreaths, etc.) or push the creative boundaries of the human mind (wall designs with painted packing peanuts, for example).

What to do with custom packaging after the move

If you happen to have used expensive and high quality custom made packaging such as special wooden crates or durable (understand reusable) plastic containers, then you should definitely keep them. You must have ordered them to protect a specific item of extreme monetary or sentimental value, so it would be a big mistake if you decided to throw away any custom made containers, and thus leave the corresponding possessions unprotected in case of another house move.

Important: If you’re not sure what to do with your packaging materials after moving to a new home, or if you have trouble deciding exactly how to recycle the packaging materials, then it’s better to contact your local removal company for advice and assistance than to do the wrong thing and maybe even get fined for improper recycling methods.

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