Things to make with cardboard boxes

Consider the blood, sweat, and tears of moving furniture up and down stairs. The prospect is daunting enough to make you reconsider purchasing that heavy new wooden dresser. Fortunately, there’s a low-hassle and unexpectedly stylish alternative: making your own storage piece, for next to no money, with cardboard and duct tape!

2. BUILD A LAPTOP STAND

If hunching over the keyboard leaves you with poor posture and a strained neck, then here’s a DIY cardboard project your chiropractor would approve of—a laptop stand. Making one from cardboard is even easier than using ! All it takes is a cut here and a snip there, plus a little bit of glue and adhesive tape.

3. DESIGN A LAMPSHADE

When you craft a shade out of cardboard, the design possibilities are endless, but the required tools are few. With nothing more than adhesive (tape or glue) and a pair of scissors, you can light up your life with a low-cost, fully customized pendant or chandelier similar to this one, for sale from Graypants in Seattle.

4. MAKE A MAILBOX

This DIY cardboard project may not be the most practical one in the group, but it proves beyond doubt the range and versatility of this commonly available, too often underutilized material. To make your own mailbox like this, you don’t need training as a blacksmith, only some contents from your paper recycling bin.

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• Making things with cardboard boxes
• Things to make out of cardboard boxes