Juice Box Storage

Necessityis the mother of invention, well back in 1991 I needed a storage system to store loads of screws, fastening etc after I started to buy stuff in bulk. I looked around for a system which was readily available, cheap, durable, strong and water proof. Could not find a suitable system so looked for a way to make such boxes out of any thing I could find.

I noticed Juice Boxes which stored fresh juice on sale in supermarkets, so set about designing and making small storage boxes out of them. Since then I have never really needed to purchase any small storage system, the boxes themselves have lasted well, very durable, strong, water & oil proof and above all FREE. The real break though came using "jigs" to make the boxes with speed, I reckon about 1 minute per box once you have made the Jig

The box

I find they are best storing screws, nuts bolts etc, since they are FREE I not bothered about standing on them, leaving them out, breaking them etc. They are also oil resistance, so some articles such as drills etc can be stored in oil. The other advantage is almost water proof so you don't get soggy cardboard if you leave them out in the rain. I've found a few empty left out all winter still in good condition, also if you store oily or dirty stuff then sometimes quicker to chuck away than clean.

But the best advantage is that they can be stored in the trays they came in, either open or closed, this making a system, the trick is to design the box and make so the lid is the same size as the depth.

The open boxes are very handy when taking things apart , anything which has lots of different nuts and bolts such as car restoration projects, this you do not lose any small parts. By the way the same box is used in both systems, the lid just folded back in the tray on the right.

Keep all 12 in a tray and they can take quite a weight, plus keeps storage space down, very handy when you want to sort bottom of tool kits out and find lots of odd screws, nuts etc.

Also used in the house as drawer dividers, especially batteries which if they leak the whole box can be thrown away, for kids rooms ideal for small collections such a toy soldiers, coin collections, model making.

By storage in trays they lend themselves to stacking, thus taking up little space

In order to make them quick use a Jig like below, that I'll leave that for you to construct, the trick is to make it slightly deeper than required and add cardboard to the bottom and using trial an error find the correct depth, remember the lid must equal the depth, then you will find the the boxes can be used in the open system as well as the closed.

Completed box ready for use

See the other post on how to make the box, note for primary school teachers you do NOT need a knife, just a pen and some scissors, once you have made a jig.