[There must be a clever title for this but I can't think of one.]
A lot of people move houses often, and the accepted way to go about it involves putting everything you own in sturdy cardboard boxes. Unfortunately, sturdy cardboard boxes have little use in a home that's staying put for a few years. You can try to use them as ersatz furniture, but they're not very comfortable. You can flatten them and shove them in the basement, where they'll get damp and mildew. Or you can recycle them, even though they're still quite usable. Until now.
Just truck your boxes (and large rolls of bubble wrap, matress bags, etc.) down to Box Depot, where, for a nominal fee, you can drop them off. They will be sorted appropriately by size and type, and dumped in the nice dry warehouse.
Next time you move, come back. Your boxes will be long gone, of course - someone came by a week later and took them to Kalamazoo with their heirloom china inside. But for a somewhat larger fee, you can pick out appropriate boxes from the nice dry warehouse for your somewhat expanded stuff collection, haul them home, and get packing.
Saves time, space, and the environment, all in one.-- gisho, Feb 19 2007 You can rent moving boxes-- http://www.movingboxrentals.com/and it looks like they take the used ones back, too. [xandram, Feb 19 2007] Having moved several times i can say that those images on TV and in movies of people sitting in their new house with a pile of neat un-smushed, un-scribbled, un tapified boxes is a complete and utter falicy. Most boxes are severely beaten, over taped and marked to kingdom come. I suspect most boxes would not be suitable for reuse after most moves. Perhaps a store hoes for good strong boxes from other sources would be a better approach.-- jhomrighaus, Feb 19 2007 Really? In my experience boxes after a move do have some tape on, the odd sticker, maybe a dented corner, but you can go on to use them four or five times more.
I guess you got the bad crop of movers.-- gisho, Feb 19 2007 Our house moving boxes (50 or 60 of them) were supplied by the moving company, and we paid a deposit for them which we got back when we returned the boxes - collapsed flat - in good condition. So, more or less baked.-- hippo, Feb 19 2007 Well I suppose if you have hpaid a mover to move you it may be different, I've never been able to afford that. We reused a set of boxes once but they were the very heavy duty reusable type used by retail clothing stores for internal storage and transport.-- jhomrighaus, Feb 19 2007 You can rent moving boxes and they must take them back also, because they have some called *gently used*. [see link]-- xandram, Feb 19 2007 The title made me burst into laughter, I didn't even need to read the rest! It might also have something to do with the JD&coke I'm drinking though. [+]-- quantum_flux, Feb 20 2007 When my office moved, the moving company rented us nice plastic boxes that stack and come with wheels. That way they can use them over and over. I think this is the way all moving should be done.
But your idea is better than the way most people do it, so +.-- Worldgineer, Feb 20 2007 random, halfbakery