Moving Boxes

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Where to get moving boxes???  Money is a bit tight at the moment, so hubby and I have decided on principle that we could spend money elsewhere instead of on moving boxes.

So where do we get boxes that are free? 

When we moved into this house 5 years ago, there was a removal company that offered free moving boxes, as long as they were returned within three days of the move in the same condition - and you didn't need to use them to move.  This same company offers similar service but you now have to use them for removals - they are not very cheap.

Here is my list of cheap/free boxes.
1. Freecycle.  This is a world wide website but you join up within your community.  People offer up goods they no longer want or need for free.

2 Friends. Ask around friends/neighbours/family/etc who have recently moved.  They may be happy to loan you some boxes or even give them to you.

3 Work/businesses.  Obviously depending on where you work, but many places of employment have various boxes that are just thrown out.  I utilised the local hardware store and the hospital where I work.  From the hospital, I got 30+ boxes all the same size (which is great for stacking and packing the truck), and although small, they were very sturdy and held our breakables and books.  The hardware store had some good quality bigger boxes.

4. Ebay or other secondhand sites. ok they may not be free, but they are cheaper than from the shops, and you can look for purpose built moving boxes.

We have one week to go.  Most of the packing is underway, and we have boxes coming out our ears!

Any other ideas of where to get free/cheap boxes from?

Lounge Cabinet

We have two more weeks before we move, I am now less stressed and more excited.  The house is looking fantastic, and we have a tenant lined up to move in when we move out (at a higher rent than we expected).  I think it is because of all the work I/we have done over the last six months.

Its funny that I have lived in this house for 5 years, and not really liked it.  Now we are moving we have the house looking great.  Its also amazing what a lick of paint can do to a room.

 Anyhoo, I promised I would show you one of my improvements to a cabinet.

 Below is the finished project.  Love it

 And here is the same area before.  Hate it...

There are literally a thousand tutorials on how to paint furniture, so I am not going to show you that.  However, this cabinet was goint to be painted white.

The only problem was, the drawers had chunks out of the bottom corners, not so noticable when brown, (definately noticable in person).  But if painted white, the missing chunks would have stood out.

Wandering the aisles of my local hardware store, I was thinking that wood putty or some sort of filler would do the job.  But then I came across this little beauty...

It is really easy to use (make sure you use rubber gloves) basically you cut off the amount you need, knead it until the colour is uniform and then mould it to shape.  I found it attached really easily and I was able to shape it in place.  And then it was dry in about 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes I was able to sand it smooth and shape it into a better corner shape

Apparently you can nail into it and drill it etc.  I didn't need to do anything further, other than paint the cabinet.  We then installed the tv, attatching the tie down strap from the tv to the cabinet.  I was paranoid the kids will pull the tv onto themselves, but that baby is not going anywhere.

Somehow, I got lucky and there is a solid piece of wood that I screwed the tie down strap into, not just the plywood backing :-)

Here is the finished project.  And a gold star goes out to the person who can spot the patched up drawers.  Heres a tip - I don't even know unless I look at the back unpainted side.

The before...

...and after

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