Check out these many great uses for recycling empty tissue boxes. They are versatile and reusing them can save you money and help you keep organized.
Recycling Tissue Boxes
- Save your empty tissue boxes. If your family is suffering from bad colds or allergies, rubber band a full and an empty tissue box together. This way you can use the empty box to dispose of your used tissues and not have a pile of dirty tissues laying next to the sick person or scattered all over. This works best with the flat rectangle shaped boxes of tissues.
- I like to use the tall tissue boxes to store my plastic grocery bags after a shopping trip. I paint or paper it to match my my kitchen and can easily store it on the counter where I will be using them the most.
- The tall Kleenex boxes work well as trash cans in the car.
- Cut the tops off of tissue boxes and use them for drawer organizers or to store any number of items in different areas of the house.
- Keep Kleenex boxes in the bathroom for people to throw small trash items like Q-tips, cotton balls and small bits of trash.
- They are also nice to have by your chair or sewing machine for scraps if you like to sew.
- Use them to make toys for kids. Tie them together to make a train or use them and empty oatmeal boxes for building blocks. They make great beds for small dolls.
These are good tips. I’ve actually used the empty as a tissue trash can not too long ago. Someone showed me some years back to use the tall ones again with your own “tissues”. The “tissues” are simply a roll of toilet paper that you have taken the core out of so that is unrolls from the inside. Just tape the box with clear tape and just pull only what you need. I think it is cheaper, but not 100% sure. To get the core out, simply push one side of the end toward its center and then on the other. Do the same at each end. You’re kind of folding it on itself, then pulling it out.
I haven’t bought tissues since they were on the teachers’ lists when my girls were small. I have reused other small cardboard containers though. Great ideas!
My mom always used the tall ones, with tops cut off, in her drawer to store pantyhose. I use one in the laundry room to tuck in dryer lint. I use the dryer lint as part of making firestarters for winter.
I’ve been using the empty boxes for a while now.Using the rectangular boxes as they stack very neatly on closet shelves. I carefully remove the plastic around the hole on the top. Then they get used for pens & pencils,stationary supplies,plastic bags separated for different uses,candles and matches for emergency,excess personal supplies not in use right now. Tubes of toothpaste,tooth flossers,cotton balls etc.
I just open the closet door and all these neat and tidy containers with a stick-on label (dollar store) listing contents. no more stuff rolling around,shoved behind other things, half full bags of cotton balls,floss sticks,ear swabs getting mixed up.
Also great for my sewing supplies,have lots. Instead of all the plastic bins in all different sizes($$$) I can easily find what I need stacked neatly. Great for all types of craft supplies. I could go on and on about these.
It allows me to keep out only what I am currently using,restock easily, and tidy up quickly. I’ve used for small extension cords,special light bulbs,detachable appliance cords,collections misc hardware for house repairs(picture hangers screws,wires,nails)all size screwdrivers in one place.
I have always had serious trouble finding a way to be organized to suit me and my lifestyle. Definitely not the throw it out if I don’t use immediately. Nor the criss crossed and double indexed type either. I liked the have a place for everything idea however finding the right containers,too big,too small,didn’t stack easily,too costly,not easy to access easily,where do all these containers go?
Don’t know how this idea arrived but when it did put the word out for the boxes citing reason as craft boxes for a preschool.(Tired of comments when I try something and cheap shots from family.) So I started going thru cupboards and drawers etc and collecting “like” things in one spot. Passed on duplicates(lots because you buy another when you can’t find yours). It was fun though took a while,found treasures,junk,you name it and was totally worth it. Anything on the small side, not used daily, floppy(not easily stacked) went into a labelled box. Went on top of closet shelf easy to access. Kept the boxes roughly categorized for access reasons. Bath,kitchen,stationary etc.
Not perfect but so much more effective for my brain style (if I can’t see it I don’t have it). So easy to put things away now. Don’t need a degree to find what I organized.I don’t combine things in the box. Great side effect is that when I go to refill a container from a box it gives me lots of time to look for a good buy as you know when stock running low.
I keep a box of tightly rolled up plastic grocery bags in the car for grocery shopping and errands. Tidy and easy to access under the seat. When a box starts getting ratty it goes to the car as a mini garb can like you mentioned.
Also when doing paperwork, anything with private info that is no longer required gets shoved into a tissue box and used to start the wood stove.
Once you start to look around the possibilites are endless. This works best in a climate that is not excessively humid. And I don’t store them on a floor. The top shelf in a closet works best for me as it’s not a really good space to store much else without it falling over. The same with the top shelves in a storage area.
This went a little long and could keep going easily with more uses. However this forum is not to tell people what to do, it’s to trigger people into thinking for themselves. So if anyone has any other good “triggers” out there please advice. Need more organizing ideas that are not the usual stuff spouted everywhere. Something more unusual(crazy??) to try would be great. Missing the more unusual ideas from the older columns. Take care and keep up the good work everyone.
Erika,
I love your ideas. My family (especially my daughter) is always giving me a hard time about my storage containers – I work for Xerox and get to use the Xerox paper boxes for lots of things. But putting all like things in the tissue boxes seems like a good idea. However, I have one very small problem. My house is 100 years old and doesn’t have any shelves in the closets because they are built under the slanted roof of the house and there is no room for a shelf. We don’t even have a linen closet – just a chest of drawers in the hall.
I did take some paper boxes and taped 3 together (stacked on one another) and covered them with contact paper that looked like wood and used that for a mini-bookcase for my son when he was small. It was the perfect height for him and cost me nothing except the contact paper. It lasted nearly 10 years until his books got too heavy for the cardboard. So, I’m with you. Use the things that you can and don’t tell anyone what you are using them for. Then, when they see how organized you are, they will be surprised.
Love those Xerox boxes too Maggie. I spray painted the lids and used some left over wall paper and wrapped around the bottom of the box on mine to use in my sewing room. There are so many different ways to decorate them and like you say they cost nothing. I remember before plastic totes became the in thing and we would all almost kill to get our hands on Xerox boxes. :)
I love those boxes, but they’re nearly impossible for me to get because everyone else loves them too. The closest thing I’ve been able to get lately was a box that a case of bottled beer came in. I love boxes and reuse all kinds of different ones. I use the tall Kleenex boxes and use them to store grocery bags (1 in the car, 1 in the kitchen, and 1 in the bathroom), to store my cloth napkins (currently cut-up t-shirts), and to store cleaning rags in the kitchen and bath. I use them for tons of other things, too, but most have already been mentioned. I use cereal boxes for magazine holders, notebooks and notebook papers and all of my printer papers. They’re also great for storing coloring books. I have never purchased any organizing containers because I always find a box that will do the trick (and usually don’t have the money anyway). I will sometimes get baskets or something at the thrift store or flea market, but I started over from scratch a few years ago and haven’t replaced any such things yet. Boxes are my weak point. If I’m not careful I will accumulate too many, so my rule now is if I don’t have an immediate use for it, and it’s something I get regularly (like Kleenex), out it goes.
I know what you mean Free, I have to watch not to save too many boxes myself. I have a shelf in the gargage where I store different things. When the shelf is full I toss the rest out. It helps keep things under control.
Very good tips, I liked them all, and will tell them to my friends here in Rio de Janeiro.
nice idea….^-^