Thursday, May 11, 2017

Begging for Boxes



We have a tag sale on Saturday, and of course the weatherman is tossing around predictions of four straight days of rain beginning guess when.

Still, this isn’t my first rodeo, so I’ve started collecting boxes to encourage any buyers worried about how they’ll transport their loot.
When I was a child, before today’s ubiquitous plastic bins, my mother’s packing advice was always the liquor store. Yes, sorting and packing our belongings can often drive all of us there, but her suggestion was all about the boxes to be found there. 
I grew up in a family with a lot of books. We spent summers at my grandparents in Tulsa and books were everywhere, likely due in large part to the fact that my Uncle Sam had spent so much time at home with polio as a child. I remember the thrill of opening the storage closet in his bedroom and finding an entire set of Pogo, and I read Andersonville and Gone With The Wind at 10 or 11.
We had bookcases full at home, too, and my mother always advised that if you had to move books, liquor store boxes were the way to go since they were usually sturdier than those namby pamby grocery store ones.
I had a small setback when I drove to my usual source. They always had a haphazard wall of cardboard piled up at the front, but instead I found an empty store. However, turned out they’d been bought out by a larger chain and so I drove a bit farther to find a shiny new liquor store, so clean that I despaired of finding what I needed, what with the twenty-foot expanse of gleaming floor before you reached the bottles of wine.
 I’d been hoping for a quick in and out, having left Mamie in the car, and wondered if I’d be forced to buy something before they’d relinquish what I really wanted. But a manager, probably as new and shiny as his floor, directed me to a tasteful stack of maybe fifteen boxes neatly stacked in a corner.
We all won. He reduced his pile, I came away with arms full of cardboard, and Mamie re-learned for the umpteenth time that she wasn’t being abandoned forever.  

14 comments:

  1. We always get our packing boxes from liquor stores too. Looks liked a load of alcoholics are packing up.

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  2. Just finished work at our plant sale where boxes are always at a premium.

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  3. yes, I took Minnie to the library with me, just returning books so a quick in and out, and her cries and barks as I walked toward the entrance...mom! mom! where are you going? take me with you! but I do agree about liquor store boxes. I always ask for a box instead of a bag. I have very many uses for boxes.

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  4. We stop off at our recycling centre and help ourselves to boxes. And yes, liquor boxes are excellent.
    Tag sale? More information please - it isn't a term I know.

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    1. Tag sale = yard sale or garage sale. Basically, stuff you've hauled out of the basement and plonked onto the front yard. Total strangers stop by, paw through your belongings and give you 1/32nd of their value.

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  5. I forgot about liquor boxes. Great things.

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  6. I agree fully with the benefits of a liquor store box! No packing tape along the bottom required and often with cut outs for handles. (can you tell that we women love our storage?) -Jenn

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  7. I've always heard that too. Liquor store boxes are the best.

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  8. A few more excursions and Mamie will begin to feel comfortable with you getting out of the car without her.
    I've never thought about liquor store boxes for moving, of course they would have to be sturdy and strong. I'll keep that in mind in case I ever move again.

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  9. I never thought about it before, but you're right: those would be the perfect boxes. When we moved here a decade ago, we purchased lots of boxes and they live in the storage bin until needed. But if I'm ever in need of a good box, now I know where to go! :-)

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  10. I used to move with liquor store boxes too, though I've graduated to buying them from the moving company (probably at a ridiculous markup, but I don't have much stuff).

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  11. P.S. -- "Tag sale" is such a Yankee expression. In Florida, they're "yard sales." :)

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    1. Funny thing is, when I picked up a sign to point people to my house, it said "garage sale", a term never used here in Massachusetts. Wonder where it was manufactured?

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  12. We call them rummage sales or garage sale...and liquor store boxes are great! :)

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