Cardboard boxes.

[OneEyeJack]

I'm cleaning out a large garage with cardboard boxes everywhere. Many are industrial strength boxes that are either very thick or multiple layers.

After struggling with various knives and even a machete I got frustrated and tried my Harbor Freight reciprocating saw with a brush blade. It worked. No I can cut through a box about as fast as I can move the saw. With one or two people holding and moving the boxes we were able to fly through the boxes in no time at all and bundle them together and tie them in neat stacks to give to our homeless guy that recycles them. We ended up with 25 stacks about 3'x3'x3'.

So, have I discovered something I should have known all along?

 

[eljefino]

Your knives are dull. Machetes are meant for whacking grass; they have a blunt edge.

 

[E150GT]

well I would think a sawzall would do the trick but I've never been in such a situation to discover that

 

[Kira]

I'd love to see a "homeless guy" move 25 cubic yards of cardboard.

The discovery of cutting thick cardboard with an overkill tool for the first time in ones life isn't quite breakthrough material on a world scale but hey, it got the job done and that's what your brain and tools (extensions of your brain) are for.

 

[Linctex]

Why not just sell them on craigslist?

 

[Nyogtha]

Or Nextdoor? Here there's folks always looking for boxes suitable to use as moving boxes, especially right before summer begins & again before summer ends. We saw the moving boxes we gave away passed slong at least once more afterwards on Nextdoor after we moved last year.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Originally Posted By: Linctex
Why not just sell them on craigslist?


A lot of the boxes were really big and odd sizes.

This got the homeless guy a hot meal, a room and a shower with soap and warm water. It was cardboard boxes and aluminum cans and plastic bottles.

It turns out that he was raiding the dumpsters for recycle stuff but also cleaning up trash around the dumpsters, too. After we cleaned out the big garage the landlord hired him to be the night watchman. That got him some new clothes and a place to sleep that's safe, dry and warm.

This was a much better deal than craigslist.

 

[Nyogtha]

What a great set of details for "the rest of the story"!

 

[tomcat27]

chainsaw next time

 

[bvance554]

How much is cardboard going for these days? Or was he building a fort?

 

[OneEyeJack]

If you want the ins and outs of recycling talk to a homeless person late at night as they search through trash cans and dumpsters. Most of them are experts and they make good money some nights.