What should you do with your old moving boxes after you have moved? Unfortunately many simply send these boxes to landfill to be destroyed and never be used again. Did you know there are better uses for your used moving box that could be of use to many in your local community? It is easy, the most convenient ways to get rid of your boxes are to simply give them away. This isn’t as hard or intimidating as you may first believe. The internet and several useful apps make this quite easy and you’ll have earned the satisfaction that you have done a good deed for others in your community.
Hardly any work is required, everything is done online via websites or apps. The interested parties simply come to you and take them off of your hands. Just the same way you can pick up moving boxes for free online, you could give them away the same way.
Otherwise your second best option is selling them online to earn some money. The hassle free solution is to simply recycle them locally so the materials can be put to better use.
Read on to learn the many ways you can get rid of your moving boxes with ease.
Join a Local Sharing Community
Hire Someone to Take Them Away for You
Conclusions – How Do I Get Rid of Moving Boxes
1) Giveaway Online – Get Rid of Moving Boxes
Online giveaways are the easiest and also probably fastest way to get rid of your used moving boxes. You can access huge number of people you would otherwise not be able to make contact with. Best of all you access only the people who are already interested in picking up the moving boxes. You simply have to create the ad to generate some interest, and wait for contact from others. No other effort needs to be made to reach people, they’ll come to you! There are many sites you can chose to do this on. Here are our top 2 recommendations:
Craigslist Free Section
Craigslist is a classified ads website, the online version of the newspaper classifieds section. It allows people to post up ads for their services and goods, open job positions, or events local to that area.
You can post ads local to your area only, as when opening the site it allows you to filter by location to view only ads in that particular area. After that you can set filters for the category, such as home or pets for example, that allows people to find topics about goods and services that are of interest to them.
Posting up ads in the free section is a means of giving away items you have no use for, that you are willing to part ways with for free. Posting ads here is totally free, so its of no cost to you to do so. All the ads users will see are based on their location, so you should see huge interest once your ad has been up for a few days and be able to get rid of your moving boxes relatively quickly.
Facebook Marketplace
Just like the Craigslist website, Facebook Marketplace allows you to put up classified ads online for almost any item you can think of. Using Facebook adds an extra layer of convenience in that most people already use Facebook and have access to it via apps on their phone. This avoids the need to go to another platform to set up an ad. In addition, most users have also been verified as being who they say they are. You can post ads up for your moving boxes, and get instant notifications on your phone from interested parties once they send you a message. Again, by default the ads are location dependant so those in the local area only are able to see your ads, unless they specifically widen their search range if they are willing to travel.
Put an ad up with pictures of the boxes you currently have, be honest about what their current condition is. The buyer should expect to have to pick them up themselves in the same condition as photographed. Either with the boxes folded flat or already constructed and held together with tape.
2) Sell Them Online – Get Rid of Moving Boxes
People are always looking for the next bargain deal. Selling boxes well below the market rate of brand new boxes will likely attract many budget minded buyers very quickly. Even more so if the boxes are in an almost new condition. Instead of giving your used moving boxes away for free, you could instead make some decent money while also getting them off your hands for good. The buyer will likely be ecstatic, as they’ll be saving themselves huge sums of cash compared to buying them brand new. Cash that they can then put towards other more useful costs for their upcoming move. Budget minded buyers looking for empty cardboard boxes can save huge amounts on used or bulk goods.
Just as above the easiest way to do this is with popular classified ad sites such as Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. If you’re in Canada you could try Kijiji, or if you’re in the UK use Gumtree.
3) Join a Local Sharing Community
Use your need to giveaway your boxes to join a charitable community unit. These sites are more communitarian than online marketplace free sections such as Craigslist and Facebook. See it as a great way to give back and contribute to your local community. See it as a chance to join something bigger and be part of the sharing economy that aims to reduce overall waste, and avoid needless overspend on consumable items that could be reused.
NextDoor App
Nextdoor is the app that connects you with neighbourhoods that helps communities develop a sense of belonging. One of the sections on Nextdoor is called For Sale & Free. Here it allows for users to buy and sell items, or give them away for free. 1/4 of all items posted in this section is free.
Nextdoor vets the ID of all its users. This way you can ensure that it really is a neighbour in your community coming to pick the items up. To get rid of moving boxes simply post an ad here for free and you’ll receive messages from any interested locals.
Listia
Listia is an online marketplace where you can win free stuff using points instead of money. When you join Listia you receive free points that you can use to bid and win other peoples stuff. You earn more every time you list an item and other users bid for it.
Give away your moving boxes on Listia to earn some points. You can then use them in addition with the points you earned from joining to bid for other items on their platform that your interested in. Its a fun alternative to selling items for cash and you’ll be rewarded for your generosity with more points to bid on whatever you want.
TrashNothing
The trash nothing app allows users to giveaway and receive free items listed in their local communities. The app makes it easy to giveaway your reusable but unwanted items. Everything is always free with no strings attached.
Simply list up your items on the app, then users will make contact with you showing their interest in your items. Once collected simply delist your items from the app.
Other Free Sharing Neighbour Apps Include:
- Peerbuy
- Buy Nothing Project
These apps and sites all follow the same concept as Nextdoor, Listia, and TrashNothing. If you don’t have luck with those, give these 2 apps a try. Local communities may be more active on one app than another, so it is well worth trying multiple to increase your chance of success.
4) Locally Recycle Your Moving Boxes
Breaking Down and Placing In Recyclables
Recycling in most states have two separate bins. Metal, glass, and cartons are usually place together. Most cartons are too large to place in the bin as it is. To make multiple cartons fit will require breaking then down to their flat structure and separating them from their glued seams to save space. This way, multiple broken down boxes can fit inside the bins. They can be further broken down by cutting the largest size boxes with a knife to ensure the pieces fit inside the recycling bin.
Once all this space saving work is done, they’ll be ready for the local recycling collectors to take away without hassle.
Break Them Down and Take To Recycling Center
If you have a huge amount of boxes to move that can’t fit in your recycling bin, you can pack them in your car or truck and drive to your local recycling center yourself. These centers take glass, household electrical appliances, garden waste, used car oil, and more. They’re usually free if you go to a center in your local community. Simply park your car near one of the large carton skips and dump your used boxes here. They’ll be taken away later for recycling by the center staff.
Of course this method will still cost you in terms of time an gas to get to the recycling center. Preferably you’ll place them in your recycling bin for collection outside of your home. If you can’t fit them all in the bin at one time, you could do so over several weeks at a time.
5) Hire a Van Service to Take Them to the Recycling Center For You
If all else fails and you simply don’t have the time or patience to list up your items for free collection on apps, or break them down to put out or take to recycling, or list for sale on an online marketplace, you could simply hire a van service to take your unwanted boxes away for you. This will of course cost you more than any other method listed above. Nevertheless if time is of the essence and you need to get rid of your boxes immediately, this may be your best option to do so. Your best bet is to search through classified ad pages in your local area to hire a legit local that can provide these services.
Conclusion – How Do I Get Rid of Moving Boxes
To get rid of your moving boxes is easy once you know how many options you really have. At the tip of your fingers via apps you can list your items using just a few photos that thousands of people in your local community can access.
1) You can give back to your community for free, giving moving boxes away using some of the following apps:
- Facebook Marketplace Free
- Craigslist Free
- Peerbuy
- Buy Nothing Project
- Trash Nothig
- Nextdoor App
2) You can make some money or earn ‘e-points’, that you can spend later by selling them on these apps:
- Listia
- Craigslist
- Facebook Marketplace
3) You can break them down for recycling collection
4) Take them yourself to your local recycling centre
5) If all else fails you can simply hire a local with a truck or van to take them away for you.
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