Abigail Berry
If you use cardboard tubes for packing and shipping items like posters and paperwork, then you might be wondering what you can do with any extras you have lying around. It's a shame to throw away cardboard tubes that are the wrong size or have suffered a little damage. Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can use your extra cardboard tubes.
1. Keep Cords Straight
If you have trouble with tangled cords around the office (and who doesn't?), try using the extra cardboard tubes to keep your cords straight. You can just pass the cord through the tube at the point where it usually tangles. You can even put multiple tubes on the same cord, if needed, in order to keep it straight. If you need to kick a cord out of the way, it is easier to move the tube than a bare cord. Also, try taping the tube to the wall as a way of keeping the cord out of the way.
2. Shape Your Shoes
Take some cardboard tubes home from the office, and use them to shape your boots and shoes. All you need to do is use a utility knife to cut the tube to the length of the foot bed of your shoe. Shove it down inside, and it will keep your shoe expanded so it does not develop creases when it's not being worn. For boots, you can use two lengths of tube, one in the footbed and another in the upper part of the boot to keep it from collapsing.
3. Store Posters and Paperwork
Tubes may be meant for shipping, but if you have extra posters and paperwork around the office, you can easily use the tubes to store these items. Write directly on the tube to indicate what is inside it. You can stand all of your tubes upright in a tote to store them, which looks a lot more tidy than letting piles of paperwork and posters accumulate all over the office. Of course, you can also take a few tubes home and use them to store personal paperwork and posters, too.
If you still have extra tubes sitting around after having used them for the purposes on this list, contact the company you purchased the tubes from. If they are in good shape, the company may buy them back, and if they are slightly damaged, they can tell you where to recycle them. For more information, go to a site such as https://www.mailing-tube.com.
I'm Tom Doberstein. I have to make a confession: I am absolutely addicted to social media. And that has been an excellent thing for me because this addiction has helped me become an expert in social media marketing. I never meant to become an expert in this subject, but I just couldn't help but strike up conversations with some of my favorite brands. Some of the conversations I have had with my favorite brands through social media have been very entertaining and have made me develop an interest in the ways that businesses can use social media and other Internet tools to promote their businesses.