It really is amazing how many styles of boxes there are and how they end up piling up at our home. It is 2020 and we are just passed our state lockdown laws. Work has mostly gone back to normal but it is still stressful to out and shop. There are many rules and regulations that have happened and that are still in place. This means that with it being so crazy outside we are buying more through online retailers. E-commerce is becoming our main shopping center and it has caused some extra areas of stress that we didn’t have before.
The first thing that has happened is that if we are not home lots of packages are getting delivered to the door. This means that our goods are sitting outside in the heat and weather and even open to people simply walking up and taking them. This leaves me and my wife with lots of stress. It is hard to think about 300 dollars of items getting delivered and sitting unsafe outside our home for hours on end. Really it does bother me and causes me a large amount of anxiety which makes working harder. It is the little things like this that really make the whole situation simply awful. I don’t like the regulations or being forced to purchase online. It has also left us with another big issue that we never saw coming.
What surprised us the most is the excess of cardboard boxes that we now have. The purchasing habits that we now have are really unfortunate. It costs extra in our neighborhood to recycle. This is because our trash is private and not government-run. The cost to recycle means extra money per month and also I have to purchase a 200 dollar trashcan or rent one. Either way, it costs a lot of extra money and I simply do not want to pay it. With the economy the way it is I am simply unable to pay for it. So now our garage is filled with cardboard boxes because I am only allowed to use so many trash bags per month. So they keep stacking up.
The solution has been time-consuming as well. Now I have to take extra time each week to go and break down the boxes. It is partially unsafe because I am not able to do it by hand. Some of them are very hard and simply I don’t want to strain myself. This has led me to use knives in order to break them down and make them small enough to fit them into the bags. I first used scissors but they dulled quickly and left blisters on my hand. This was not a long term solution and so I started using my fishing knives to break them down. I had to be careful due to the safety issues involved and I didn’t want to slice myself at all.
It is unfortunate that I am forced into these measures and the fact that I am not recycling also hurts me. I know it is simply a waste to trash all these paper products and I am contributing to the waste our society is so well known for. I hope the regulations in our State end soon because they seem to be just making the whole situation worse.