What’s the one thing you have to have when you move? Some might say a moving truck, some might say patience, but the number one thing you have to have when you move is moving boxes. Moving can be extremely wasteful, especially since a lot of people will just throw away their cardboard boxes after using them once. You can always reuse them or recycle them, but often people feel like it is “easier” to just throw them out. To avoid being wasteful and even to help with some home space issues, we compiled a list of some great Do It Yourself projects to put those cardboard boxes to good use, and keep them out of the landfill.

Brought to you by wikiHow, this article helps you learn how to create a fantastic Cardboard Box Storage System. All you need is boxes, tape, scissors and a Sharpie for labeling.

For those who have a love for playing games, how about a Faux Wood Checkers Box? It’s light weight, saves money and is easy to make!

And the daddy of them all, how about 101 things to do with your used cardboard boxes? Well that list exists and it is good! You’ll find anything from hot wheels racetrack to a robot to a toolbox and most importantly, because you never know, a homeless shelter.

Hope these DIY projects were helpful and sparked your creative and crafty side. If you do decide to create anything from the lists we included, please send us your photos, we’d love to see your handy work!

Here at Exodus we are all about finding ways of treading lightly on the planet as a moving company. We use durable bins when moving customers, wooden shelves on wheels for office moves instead of boxes, and we offer recycled boxes giving them a second life and reducing our resources. When we came across an article explaining what designers Diogo Aguiar and Teresa Ott did with their used storage boxes, we had to feature it on our blog.

What do you get when you put 420 IKEA boxes, LED lights and a metal base together? How about a 15-foot-high bar that has funk, character and uniqueness. The appropriately named structure; Temporary Bar, was constructed for a competition organised by the architecture faculty at the Universidade do Porto in Portugal. Finished in just one week with the help of students, this bar stands tall and proud in Parque da Cidade, Porto, Portugal.

Next time you move, think about the endless possibilities you could do to reuse those boxes instead of throwing them in a land fill. Moving somewhere dry and need to get rid of your umbrella(s)? Bars are not only made out of recycled boxes, but can also make a bar too, like the Bucky Bar in Rotterdam. Talk about creativity and reusing! This project references the famed geodesic domes of the late American architect Buckminster Fuller and attracted 300 visitors before the police intervened at 2 am on February 19^th, 2010.

Morale of the story, whether you are moving or not, look around your house and before you throw anything out, see if you can reuse it for something else, or donate it to someone else that could put it to good use.