Getting Rid of the Moving Boxes - Goofy Question

I would break them down because you don't know how soon someone will answer and boxes all over the place would drive me nuts.

I would break it down. Not necessarily to be nice to whoever receives it, but because it is a space waster. It will only take a few minutes with a knife to slit the packing tape bottoms and unfold them down to flat. Then you can lean them neatly against a wall (or in the garage against a wall). It WILL make it nicer for whoever gets them, but it will be nicer for YOU while you store them in the meantime.

AND, when they go from taking up an entire room, down to a one foot deep area leaned against the wall, you will feel FANTASTIC about the progress you are making unpacking! Sometimes it is hard to realize how much you have cleared away (unpacked and put where it goes) while you still have the empty boxes piled around. :)

I did that, our boxes were gone in a day!
I did break them down while we were unpacking for two reasons: more space to move around in the house as you unpack your boxes and also because I HATE having the garage full of empty boxes... spiders and other insects get into them and it is just annoying.
It also is helpful if you do a driveway pickup: just stack them flat and put a heavy object on top and they won't be blown all over the street while waiting outside to be picked up.

I think it's up to you. You're offering free stuff. Just say they're not folded. In fact, I would rather not have to rebuild boxes.

Our local Freecycle posts packing materials all the time and nobody ever says the boxes are folded.

It's freecycle.org

Get it right or pay the price, Cheryl ;)

We used freecycle to get rid of our packing stuff, and we just piled all the open boxes. We didn't bother to break them own, and the person still took them.

I would break them down and either put them free on Craigslist or Freecycle..

One time I put out a bunch of packing stuff on our curb in front of our house, came inside, listed it and by the time, I walked out to put the FREE sign on it, It was already gone!

We live on a major street, so I guess that helped.

FREECYCLE.com (thanks Bug...I'm tired).

sign up and list them on freecycle and they will be gone before you know it.

I had boxes that I needed to clear out of my garage...listed them on freecycle and they were gone within 2 hours of listing them...I left them as boxes and set them in my driveway and VIOLA!! GONE!!! ANd someone else used them...didn't have to spend a lot of money (any on freecycle) and who knows how many times they will be used!! YAHOO!

Boy, do I agree with Jo! I can't stand boxes all over the place!

Dawn

Interstack them as well as you can, and put them in the garage, then list on CL saying they need to be picked up by a certain time/date. That's what I did and they were claimed in minutes. People came within an hour to pick up. I hate building boxes even more than I do than breaking them down. (p.s., I know it's obvious, but I still have to remind anyone/everyone to not list your address on the ad!)

Flatten them -- but do consider keeping some! Every single school year, some teacher puts out a request to parents for moving boxes of all sizes to help the teacher pack up the classroom at the end of the year. It's nice to be able to help out with some boxes. Also, you never know when you might need a box or three yourself later on -- to clear something out, to store something, to take a huge project to school, to take to church or wherever for something there....Once they are flattened they can be stored up on their edges and tucked away behind something or against the back wall of a closet. Sure, get rid of most of them, but keep some. If you can't freecycle them at least be sure to recycle them through a cardboard recycling program!

Put them on your curb and afix a sign that says 'take' or 'free'. They will be gone within two hours.

Definitely flatten them out because they take up so much less room that way. They are super simple to tape back up.

When my sister moved, I found moving boxes for her on Craig's list and the person giving them away ended up just living a block from her. They were both very happy!!

Best wishes!

It doesn't take long to break a box down - less than a minute. It would be so much easier to have them that way until somebody comes - unless he/she comes tomorrow. You'll be happy if you do it.

We have - well, not a really useful attic, but an attic space that has to be reached by ladder through a place in the garage roof. I haven't been up there (ladders are not my friends) but for years my husband stuck stuff up there that didn't have anyplace else to go. A couple of years ago he started cleaning it out - and 90% was empty boxes! Either he or I would think, "Oh, that box is too good to throw out - we'll use it later." *Thirty years later,* there were all those filthy, unusable boxes! (Most of the other things he found up there were old baby things which shouldn't have been stored in that hot space and are now worthless.) I wish there had been a craigslist or a freecycle back then!

Grab a box cutter and break them down. You will feel better for the diminished pile. It won't take as long as you think. :-) Good luck.

There is freecycle.org also. I'm sure whoever wants the boxes will not care