1. Seedling Starters

This is one of the most interesting and most creative uses for cardboard! Cardboard egg cartons are a perfect container for potting seeds. Just add rich clean soil to each egg cup along with some seeds. Water them and then, simply sit back and watch your plants grow. Or you could cut the carton up and plant it in the soil without disturbing the seedlings, because the cardboard will break down as the plants grow.

2. Compost Material

This is another great use for cardboard when it comes to gardening. Cardboard is a great layering material for compost to balance out the composition of greens and browns and it’s best to be used when you need to up the carbon content of your compost.

3. Plant Guards

Cardboard tubes can be amazing plant guards, especially since young plants are vulnerable to all sorts of things like slugs and insects and even wind. You could use a cardboard tube to offer the plant some protection.

4. Playhouses

Even though children now days have a lot of toys and gadgets to play with, a simple cardboard box can ignite a firestorm of imaginative play. Just allow them to be creative and help them build a cardboard playhouse. You could add as many windows or doors as you like and you can even use as many colors as you want when you pain it.

5. Makeshift Sled

Sometimes a little bit of cardboard is all it takes to enjoy a snowy day. Instead of buying an expensive designer snow sled, you can enjoy a ride down a snowy hill inside a big cardboard box. If you have lots of cardboard and you’re very creative, you can even make a beautiful cardboard sled which you can decorate the way you want.

6. Surface Protector

What better way to use those extra cardboard boxes you have lying around the house than as a surface protector during painting or furniture staining projects? Its texture will keep water and other substances from leaking through.

7. Weed Control

Since weed barriers are very expensive and cardboard is pretty much free, you can use this amazing material as a weed control mechanism. You could simply put down a few layers in your garden around problematic areas and the weeds will struggle to get through. Also, the cardboard itself will mulch back into the soil over time and it will enrich it.

There are a lot of very creative ways to use cardboard. I just mentioned a few but I’m sure that there are many more I could add to this list. Do you know any other interesting uses for cardboard? Please tell us about them in the comments section!

Sources:
mnn.com
networx.com
lifestyle.howstuffworks.com