How long do you keep packaging?

[ceptimus]

So when I buy something relatively expensive, like a new computer monitor or such, I sometimes put the packaging to one side in the garage or the loft. The idea is to keep the packaging for a few weeks so that if the item turns out to be faulty, I can pack it up in its original packing and send/take it back to be replaced.

But sometimes I find I still have old packaging - long after the item is out of guarantee, and occasionally even after the item has been thrown away.

How long do you keep your packaging? What's the oldest piece you have right now?

[curses]

We keep the packaging for ridiculously long periods of time here. My closets are overrun with boxes from monitors, keyboards, mixers, and the like. Most of them are over 2 years old. The oldest one we have is just under 4 years old, it's a box for the old Toshiba laptop that no longer works.

[wildernesse]

When we moved, I had the original boxes for most of my small kitchen appliances. They were six years old. We have lots of computer parts boxes as well, which I am sure have similar ages.

After our move, I realized that it was silly to keep boxes around just to use them every 5 years or so. I believe most of them were recycled, although I have kept all my china place setting boxes because I feel as if they are the safest for moving. :doh: They are over five years old now, so I'm betting those are the oldest things we have.

I'm working on decluttering, and it is coming along ok. I really don't want to have a dumpster's worth of trash the next time we move like we did last time. Empty boxes and packaging were a big part of that nastiness.

[seebs]

There's boxes of boxes in the attic of the old house that we moved in with us ten years ago.

I keep a very small amount of packing material much longer because of actual sentiment, but not much. That said, I got about $40 extra reselling some old gameboy games once because I had the packaging!

[viscousmemories]

I could've written the OP.

[Zatarra]

I keep most of my boxes for a long time in case I need them for moving.

[Pinecone]

Christmas decoration boxes are definitely the oldest things I have because I keep taking them out of the same boxes and then putting them back in the same boxes over and over and over again. I'll bet some of them are 30 years old!

[Corona688]

I keep packaging for large fragile stuff like monitors and computers for when I move. I'll keep it as long as I have to. Smaller things, I don't care, I can improvise stuff for it.

[Julie]

Christmas ornaments are the only things I keep the boxes of. Other than that things get tossed within a few days.

[Kyuss Apollo]

I still have an old Freakies cereal box from the 1970's.

[freemonkey]

We save the packaging for electronics stuff, it comes in handy for when you move, give it away or sell it. I have been known to keep boxes for small, cheap items too, but after I trip over it or move it around a couple times, out it goes.

[Shelli]

I'm a regular pack rat. The only time I throw anything out is when it gets so out of hand that something has to done about it. :boxedin: :giggle:

[biochemgirl]

Don't go in our machine shed. It seems to be the place where old boxes go to die. I know we have all the boxes from when we moved and probably all the boxes from the time before this also. Why we kept them I don't know.

[Leesifer]

I'm the total opposite. Once it's unpacked - the packing goes in the recycle bag and it's bye-bye.

However, if I do need to send it back I steal borrow some boxes and bubble-wrap from work. Which is usually better than the original packing anyway.

I hoard other stupid stuff - but that's a whole 'nother thread.

[godfry n. glad]

Way too long.

My wife was an inveterate catalog shopper, so she saved packing peanuts in one large-sized trash bag, bubble wrap is two large-sized trash bags and a selection of boxes which various items came in.

Thanks to the suggestion of using cardboard as a weed barrier...in one of the gardening threads...I've been culling out the collection of cardboard boxes for sub-mulch temporary barriers.

[Dingfod]

I've still got the Gateway computer boxes from 2000.

[chick]

I'm the total opposite. Once it's unpacked - the packing goes in the recycle bag and it's bye-bye.
Same here. I might save the packaging for one or two days at most, but on Recycle Day, out it goes.

[inland wave]

To damn long.

[Blake]

I try to keep packaging for whatever electronics/appliances we retain basically forever. However, eventually my consenting adult catches up with me and makes me throw it out/recycle it. I'm acquiescing more and more readily as time goes by; I admit I have a problem.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

Apple software always arrives in a state of such simple elegance, I tend to hang onto it for...well...ever. Limited edition computer and console game packaging can last up to 6 months.

Everything else is pretty much gone within a week.