So the other day I was staring at yet another box from Amazon. I was feeling sad about the trees, you know, and wondering about how green online shopping can really be when you end up throwing away so much cardboard. Not to mention when they send you a calculator battery in a shoe box and you question the wisdom of that — padded envelopes, Amazon?

Anyway, that was my state of mind. Using mind in the widest sense, of course. So I decided to cover the box in something nice and use it for toy storage or something.

It only took ten minutes, used things I had anyway, and made me feel all smug and self-satisfied. Here’s how I did it:

1. Take box and fold flaps inside. I guess I could have cut them off, but this made the box sturdier and reduced the risk of my slicing off a finger, which is always a danger.

2. Cut a strip of fabric just a little wider than one side of the box, and long enough to wrap around it.

3. Glue the long sides inside the box. Using a hot glue gun, burn your fingers and jump about a bit, swearing.

4. Glue the sides and make it tidy. Burn your fingers again, swear more fervently.

5. Cut another strip the width of the bare part of the remaining two sides, and wrap and glue that too.

7. Admire finished box, fill it with crap, end of story.

And there you have it, a prettier box, a re-used box, a recycled piece of fabric, and four burned fingertips later…

Abbi

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