How to Make a Cardboard Carrier for Packing Teacups
- 1). Measure your cups. Most are 2 1/2 to 4 inches across. Let's say your cups are 3 inches across and 4 inches high, for example. Count how many cups you'll need space to pack, then hunt down some discarded packing boxes. Check the loading dock area of the nearest strip mall for more than you can carry. Choose a heavyweight carton no bigger than 24 by 24 inches. It doesn't need to be very tall--anything over 5 inches will do.
- 2). Use packing tape to seal up the flaps well on both ends of the box. Mark a line at half the height of the teacups plus 1/2 inch all the way around the box at both top and bottom ends. Use the utility knife to cut the box along both lines. You now have two cardboard trays half the height of your teacups.
- 3). Use the remaining cardboard, or pieces from another carton, to cut strips of cardboard the inside height of both trays combined (in this case, approximately 1 3/4 inches times two, or 3 1/2 inches). Cut enough strips to cross the box every 3 1/2 inches in both directions (12 strips for a 24-by-24 box) Cut half the strips the same as the width of your trays and half the same as the length of your trays. (For a square 24 by 24 inches, cut all strips to 24 inches.)
- 4). Lay the strips out with one long edge facing you. Make a straight line from top to bottom of each strip every 3 1/2 inches (adjust this dimension for your teacup size plus 1/2 inch for newspaper). Cut notches halfway down from the top of the strip (1 3/4 inches from long edge) at each mark. Make the notches wide enough to accommodate the thickness of another strip inside it (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch).
- 5). Stand half of your strips in the bottom of one tray with their notches facing up. Take one of the other half of your strips with notches facing down and fit it perpendicular to the standing strips. Each notch should slide down over the strip in the box, with the notches allowing the pieces to fit together at a right angle. Add the rest of your strips. You will now have a grid with squares exactly the right size to store your cups.
- 6). Wrap cups in newspaper and nest each in a square. Set the second tray on top, open end down and tape along the seam in the middle of the new carton. Stack two or three inside a larger carton surrounded by wadded paper or packing peanuts.
