Pictured here is a plaid suitcase made by covering a family size Bisquick carton, complete with Velcro closure and faux leather handle. This is another frugal but effective storage solution.

The directions for making this suitcase are thus:

1. Start with a cardboard food carton with one end shut and one end open.
2. Cut a piece of paper or fabric to the dimensions you would use to gift wrap this box.
3. Cover the box using either white glue, wallpaper paste, or decoupage medium. Cover each flap of the open end.
4. When glue is dried, use either Velcro, a button, string or ribbon to keep the open end closed.
5. Attach a handle of your choice with hot glue. Some possible handles are folded paper or fabric, pieces from old purses and backpacks, sections of dog collars and leashes, old jewelry.

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When you purchase food, you are paying not only for the part of the product you intend to eat but also for the packaging, the bags, wrappers, and boxes which usually go straight in the trash. While plastic wrap and bags have little use beyond stuffing them full of trash, cardboard food cartons have a great deal of potential. And since you have bought it, you may as well use it. Here are a few examples of the many uses of cardboard cartons which you purchase along with cereal, crackers, cake mix, pizza, etc.

• Disposable trash receptacles. Food cartons stand up nicely and are good for catching bits of trash while you are cooking, saving you the cost of trash bags. The foil-lined and plastic bags inside these cartons are often sturdier and more leak-resistant than trash bags proper and are ideal for holding food scraps and bones.
• Throw-away cat litter boxes. Very few people relish the task of dumping out cat litter, lifting liners full of sopping litter, or scrubbing the gray-brown clumps from the bottom and sides of cat litter boxes. You can avoid this age-old task by cutting a rectangle from of the side of a cardboard carton instead of opening the top, filling this homemade commode with litter, and throwing the entire litter box away once a day. These litter boxes can be set on newspapers or other floor protectors if you have large cats.
• Cheap homemade notebooks. Use flat cartons as book covers, using one narrow edge as the spine. Paper can be stitched or stapled in folded sections or simply stacked. To be efficient, cut the box to fit the size of the paper rather than cutting the paper to fit the box. I made an exception with the sample pictured here because the idea of a notebook in a Jello box was too good to resist. Affix the pages to the spine with hot glue. If you want a bookmark, glue a piece of ribbon or string to the spine before gluing the pages. These are good for address books, shopping lists, anything. They can be covered with pretty paper or fabrics for a fancier look.
  
  

  

  

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