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How To Get Boxes For Your Back-To-School Move

College move-in is just a few weeks away and I’m literally counting down the days (there are 10 left for me). During this time of anticipation, excitement, and listening to The Ultimate Showdown, I can’t help but to think back to my days as an incoming freshman. Ah, those were the days… knowing absolutely nothing, getting all my stuff together, trying to figure out just how the hell I was going to move it all…

Ok, so one of the hardest things anyone – not just students – has to deal with while moving is finding boxes. Boxes are one of those things you always have at the wrong time. The entire year, you buy tons and tons of useless crap that comes in boxes of all shapes and sizes. Immediately after opening your new bouncy castle, USB desk fridge, or slingshot monkey, you promptly throw away the box (or, if you’re some sort of hippie, you recycle it. Dork.) Now that move-in is looming, you’re probably wishing you still had those boxes. Well, you don’t. Deal with it, bro. Your boxes are probably being used to give away rabid kittens on someone’s porch in Georgia.

Never fear, though! There are ways of getting free, or at least cheap, boxes that don’t involve violent coercion of your neighbors or using up your last favor with the don. They’re just thick pieces of paper, for Pete’s sake. It’s actually not that hard.

Convince Your Parents to Buy a New Fridge

Yeah, man – bet you didn’t think of this one. If you’re in need of a big box to move all your Pokemon plush toys and Yu-gi-oh cards (you did remember to put those on your packing list,right?), then you might ask your parents to coordinate any large item purchases they were already planning on making.

Heck, you can take this a step further; ask your neighbors and other family members to do the same. Odds are that at least a few people were already planning on buying a new TV or a large piece of modern art. Coordinate and ninja yourself some boxes!

Raid Stores

Grocery and department stores go through a lot of boxes every day, and most of them recycle those boxes after they’re used. This presents a perfect opportunity for you; you just need to get there when the boxes are empty, but not yet disposed of. For me, this meant going to my local grocery store around 2 a.m. the night before I moved. The night staff there was really cool and let me take all the boxes I wanted.

Don’t waste your time trying this at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart uses so many boxes that they’ve become a large expense, so the company actually reuses every box. Because of this, the employees won’t let your poor college ass take any. So much for helping the community, Wal-mart.

Hit Up Craigslist

Craigslist is a great place to get used cars, sofas people died on, and “casual encounters”. It’s also occasionally a great place to find moving boxes. Just go to the site’s “Free Stuff” section and do a search for boxes. Often there will be someone who’s just moved themselves and is now looking to get rid of their own boxes.

Become SUPERBUM, the Great Dumpster Diver of the West

Yep, dumpsters are also a great place to get your hands on boxes. More often than not, you’ll find boxes in a separate dumpster from all the real trash, so contracting super-herpes from a discarded needle isn’t a prerequisite for this method of getting them.

One very good place to look for boxes in dumpsters is a school; schools serve lunch every day, so you’re likely to find tons of discarded pizza and chicken nugget boxes out back.

Buy Them, If You Have To

If your parents are super-rich and snack on caviar like I snack on Wheat Thins, then you could theoretically skip the dumpster diving and just buy some moving boxes. Here are some cheap ones – though I didn’t look very hard; you may be able to find a cheaper back elsewhere.

Boxes are like water – you can buy them, but they’re just as easy to get for free. Good luck, and have fun moving.