Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Safeguarding wedding gifts

The towering stack of gift boxes caught my eye.

New brides may be tempted to consolidate items and toss the original packaging. But there will come a time when all those lovely gifts must be moved to the apartment, the first home, the slightly bigger home with children, etc.

The best way to safeguard those goblets is to slip them back in the boxes designed to ship them.

Where else will you get a box that just fits a lovely crystal bowl? My boxes are still going strong after our fifth move, with not a stem broken along the way.

I *did* toss some of my boxes before recognizing my mistake. Luckily I found a huge pile of ANOTHER bride's curbside throwaways. C'mon--who wouldn't brake for Tiffany boxes?

7 comments:

amelia said...

Great reminder! I kept the boxes and packaging for my dishes for quite a long time. They were a life saver when it came to our 1200 mile move! Not a single crack or chip to be found.

Rae said...

I recognized the signature blue ;) I love this idea. I'm not a bride yet, but I will be in 2007.. and this tip is going to help me out bunches! Thanks so much for sharing =)

Anonymous said...

I also keep the boxes of special toys that will either be keepsakes or future Ebay fodder. But space really is a luxury and the Mikasa placesetting boxes hit the trash last year! They were taking up a LOT of room. Now I'm thinking I should have kept them : (

Meredith: Would you consider a post about the 'Bulging Warranty File' you wrote about this week? I'd love to see your system, i'm sure it's efficient AND pretty. I've lost quite a bit of opportunity there! thanks,

Debbie

With His Grace said...

I had to laugh when I read your blog but for a variety of reasons. When my husband and I first got married I saved EVERY single box everything came in for the same reason. Shortly after we were married we moved, they came in handy, we settled into our new place, and then we moved again less than a year later, this time I thought "who needs these boxes" and chunked half of them and did it myself. My husband always gripped about how many small boxes we had to begin with. Well wouldn't you know it we moved again, and then this last time to where we live now (if you are counting that would be five moves in less than four years. My last and hopefully final move for at least a few years most things were moved in trash bags. SERIOUSLY TRASH BAGS! The cheap black kind, there was no pretty packing, no let me worry about dishes, I was like oh well if it breaks it breaks I can't worry anymore about that. We had dear friends come to help us who all thought I was kidding when I said I was moving in trash bags, and when they showed up and saw trash bags (each labeled with a Sharpie) they knew I meant business. Now before there is scouffing my fine china, and Mikasa wear was laid on towells in the back of my car with all of the rows folded down. Glasswear was done the same way (took two LONG slow trips). All these moves I have yet to break one thing, and when we move from here I may not even use trash bags I may just throw everything in and go!! HAHAHA

Someone Beautiful said...

Those beautiful blue boxes did catch my eye right away. I'd never thought to look for them on the side of the road! :) Good idea! I haven't saved most of my boxes either. So I ended up wrapping the breakables in the linens for our only move. :)

Anonymous said...

i just remembered my mom once wrapped some fine china in (unused) disposable diapers. It arrived in perfect condition, and then we donated the diapers to a ministry ASAP (having no one in our home needing them at the time) just a thought...

Anonymous said...

I've never been able to muster up the courage to walk into the signature store and ask how much for just the box, but I've always wanted one.