Originally Posted by PaperPrincess
If you, or someone you know, shops at a warehouse store like Costco or Sam's Club, check out the free produce shipping boxes. They are very sturdy cardboard, and have these tabs on the top that interlock with the box on top so the stack really nicely. They also have a larger size but I get the smaller ones, which are about 13 X 15 X 4. The height is variable, depending on the item shipped. they seem to be standardized so boxes from different growers still match. these are big enough for all your fabric for a bed quilt, and you can lay a 12.5X12.5 unfinished block in it so they don't get wrinkled.
Semnantics - they are made from corrugated, not "cardboard". Cardboard is flat (like a cereal or Kleenix box), corrugated has a fluted center.
Good idea but a few words of caution. I worked in the corrugated industry for over 20 years.
1) They are NOT acid free.
2) If the box was made for produce they were probably either wax impregnated, or wax coated. You may not feel it, but it's there. The wax by itself isn't harmful to fabric but if left next to a heating vent it could melt - not to mention the fire hazard. Box plants that are geared to make wax coated/impregnated boxes (I toured one) have very strick standards/regulations for long term storage/warehousing because of the additional fire hazard.
3) Produce boxes are made to work in the field - they bring a flat bed truck full of boxes to the field, assemble the box, pick the lettuce (or whatever), pack the lettuce in a box, and the box full of lettuce is then placed on another flat bed truck and brought to market (or a rail yard for x-country shipping). These boxes could therefore be contaminated by: dirt, agricultural chemicals including pesticide and herbacide, not to mention bugs.
4) Corrugated is made from 3 (or more) sheets of paper. The one in the middle - the "medium" - is fluted. Those flutes are made under extreme heat and pressure and a LOT of very nasty starch. Starch is "food" for bugs. Bugs like corrugated because it has lots of hidey places for them to crawl into, eat, and make baby bugs.