Box makeover Posted by: Deserbrat Date: 16 Mar 2007 19:20:37

Years ago, Carol Duvall showed how to turn a box, inside out, so you have a "new" box to use for mailing. I never tried it, but I stored it at the back of my memory cells. Wayyyy back. Then, awhile back, a lady on a list I'm on, told about re-using a box from the U.S. post office. One of those white boxes with the red and blue on it, saying, "Priority Mail." The postal clerk told her that she couldn't re-use it. The post office doesn't allow it. She was stunned. So, she went back home, and found another box to use. I thought about that lady and what the postal clerk had said, when I was looking for a box, yesterday to mail a swap gift in. And the ONLY box I had in the house that was the right size, was ... you guessed it. A used white, priority-mail box from the post office. Then I thought of that segment about turning boxes "inside-out" on the Carol Duvall tv show, and I took that white "Priority-Mail" postal box with all the blue and red on it, turned it "inside out" and used it!!

Now, I think about all the great boxes I've thrown away through the years ... thrown away because they had so much writing and so much advertisement on them, it would have taken a whole BOX of black marker pens to mark it all out. See the StoveTop dressing box in the photo? Nice and sturdy. And a convenient size. But, look at all the wording that would have to be marked out.

But that box can be made to look like a brand new, unused box. The Carol Duvall way! Until Carol Duvall pointed it out, I had never noticed that boxes ... almost all boxes ... have only ONE corner on the inside, glued-down. See the white arrows in the photo? That is the only seam that is glued down inside the box.

But first ... I carefully loosened the bottom with an old, very strong, letter opener.

Secondly, I loosened that glued seam inside the box and when I did ... the box fell completely open.

If the box is not going to hold anything really heavy, you could just tape it back together. But to make it stronger, glue that same seam back into place. See the photo? I put glue where I've marked with the line of white dash marks in the photo. And also where the two red arrows are pointing. I let the glue dry, for a couple of minutes before joining the glued edges together.

When I placed the 2 glued edges together, I held them in place for another minute or two. Then I used clear packing tape to hold it even better. In the photo, looking into the "new" inside of the box, the white arrows are pointing to the glued place. The tape doesn't show up in the photo, though. (Take a tip from me ... work with short pieces of tape to do this. I found out the hard way, that long pieces are DIFFICULT to get into place, using one hand ... while still holding the box together with the other hand.) (:

In the next photo, you CAN see the clear tape, holding the glued seam together.

Tape the bottom of the box and also tape all the way around the box for strength. You now have a "new", unmarked box. Can't tell it is actually a bright red StoveTop dressing box. :) Adele