PaperPrincess

If you, or someone you know, shops at a warehouse store like Costco or Sam's Club, check out the free produce shipping boxes. They are very sturdy cardboard, and have these tabs on the top that interlock with the box on top so the stack really nicely. They also have a larger size but I get the smaller ones, which are about 13 X 15 X 4. The height is variable, depending on the item shipped. they seem to be standardized so boxes from different growers still match. these are big enough for all your fabric for a bed quilt, and you can lay a 12.5X12.5 unfinished block in it so they don't get wrinkled.

sweetpea

Use the tomto box for my ribbons that I have roll on E.tolet paper rolls. you can stack as many use you need. the small one are great the UOF just stack and stack and stack.[I'm working on the stacks this summer have got two empty] OOh no that means I came can started something elas.

DogHouseMom

Semnantics - they are made from corrugated, not "cardboard". Cardboard is flat (like a cereal or Kleenix box), corrugated has a fluted center.

Good idea but a few words of caution. I worked in the corrugated industry for over 20 years.

1) They are NOT acid free.

2) If the box was made for produce they were probably either wax impregnated, or wax coated. You may not feel it, but it's there. The wax by itself isn't harmful to fabric but if left next to a heating vent it could melt - not to mention the fire hazard. Box plants that are geared to make wax coated/impregnated boxes (I toured one) have very strick standards/regulations for long term storage/warehousing because of the additional fire hazard.

3) Produce boxes are made to work in the field - they bring a flat bed truck full of boxes to the field, assemble the box, pick the lettuce (or whatever), pack the lettuce in a box, and the box full of lettuce is then placed on another flat bed truck and brought to market (or a rail yard for x-country shipping). These boxes could therefore be contaminated by: dirt, agricultural chemicals including pesticide and herbacide, not to mention bugs.

4) Corrugated is made from 3 (or more) sheets of paper. The one in the middle - the "medium" - is fluted. Those flutes are made under extreme heat and pressure and a LOT of very nasty starch. Starch is "food" for bugs. Bugs like corrugated because it has lots of hidey places for them to crawl into, eat, and make baby bugs.

hobo2000

I have to Agee with doghouse mom, I run a small sign shop and we get rid of all corrugated boxes as soon as they come it. We must be very careful of bugs in the shop. They also start smelling of chemicals when it gets warm in the shop. The fire department will write us a violation slip if we have more than 3 or 4 empties.

Painiacs

Thanks for the info!!

QuiltnLady1

Agreed -- when I started I used the corregated boxes for storage but attracted some unwanted guests as well as some smells that I did not want. The only thing I use them for now is lay my pieces that need to have adhesive sprayed on them. However, I do not store the boxes in my sewing room.

PaperPrincess

Hmmm thanks for the info. I've been using them for about 10 years without a problem, probably lucky. I will say that I don't use them for long term storage (like stash), just a few weeks as I work on a project.