Fast, Simple Instructions for Assembling Any Cardboard Box

Pick-Plank in use. (Courtesy: Unex)
(Courtesy: Unex)

Cardboard boxes are everywhere. They are widely used in industry, commercial businesses, and even in most homes.

The benefits of cardboard boxes are that they are sturdy, inexpensive, and when not in use can be stored conveniently folded. A stack of a hundred cardboard boxes will take up only a small amount of space in your factory or warehouse.

Cardboard Box Assembly

Most cardboard boxes are exactly the same, differing only in their size and the density of the cardboard. They feature four walls, four flaps on the bottom, and four flaps on the top.

That means that the same process can be used to assemble practically any type of cardboard box, whether it is a tiny box for carrying loose nuts, bolts, and screws, or a wax-covered cardboard box for transporting fresh produce, or a large cardboard box for packing up items in your home while moving.

You don’t need any specialized equipment to assemble a cardboard box. All you really need is some packing tape and enough space to store the assembled boxes once you put them together, and that’s it!

Six Simple Steps

So here’s all you need to do to assemble just about any cardboard box.

1. Look to see where the folds are on the cardboard box. These are usually quite evident.

2. Pull the box open and turn it upside down, so that there are four sides and an opening in the middle.

3. Fold in the two shortest flaps opposite each other. Then fold in the remaining two flaps.

4. Straighten the joining edges and seal with the packing tape. It’s a good idea to go a little behind the edges with the tape so that it can be folded up and over the side to provide a little more stability and strength.

5. Turn the box right side up and load it with whatever you need to pack in it.

6. Fold in the top flaps in exactly the same sequence as the bottom flaps and then secure the folds with more packing tape.

And that’s it.

Practice Makes Perfect

Assembling a standard cardboard box isn’t difficult and most people can master it in just a few minutes. But like anything else, the more you do it, the better and faster you will be at it.

If you are assembling a lot of cardboard boxes, you probably will want to invest in a tape gun to speed up the process of applying the tape.