How to Make a Snack Holder From an Empty Milk or Juice Carton

If you buy drinks in those waxed, paper cartons, I have a fun "little thing" for you.  I repurpose those cartons into snack holders and I'm going to show you how I do it.

If you’re not crafty, don’t sweat.  It’s easy.  If you are crafty, you’ll probably be surprised you’ve never tried this before now.  It’s that easy, so here goes...

First you cut off the top the carton.  If it’s kind of jagged or even crooked, let your Type A personality rest for a moment.  We'll take care of it later.

Then you cut down along the seams.  How far down you cut the sides of the carton will be determined by how tall you want your snack holder to be. Try to make your cuts the same depth. 

Here’s where you get to clean up the top.  Using your scissors, round off the corners.  I tried leaving out this step once but I didn't like being poked by the corners every time I grabbed get some trail mix.

Fold in opposite sides to make a top.  I usually have the cutest side on top.  Seriously, a picture of oranges is much nicer to look at than the Nutrition Facts! 

People often ask me if I have a new orange snack when I use these.  Funny, huh?

Here’s where you can get creative.  I usually close these snack holders with stickers because we seem to receive a lot in the mail even after I’ve tried to stop getting mail.  These “found” stickers usually work well though.  Plus, if you like to change up the look of your box, you get to use different stickers next time.  One time I did this, I had some old Velcro so I used that to secure the top.  I actually used that same little piece of Velcro on two or three of these before the sticky part on the back quit working.  (Talk about reusing!)  You could probably even close it with some pretty string or a rubber band, if you wanted.

These are simple to clean so they can be used a few times before becoming too mangled to use again.  When it's fulfilled it's second life, you can either recycle it, if that’s an option where you live, or at least feel better that the packaging was reused for a while before it had to be trashed.

Since the box is waxed, it works well with sticky foods like dried fruits.

What do you think about this little thing?  I’ve been making these for a couple years and people are always intrigued when I use them.  Let me know how people react to yours. 

Peace, 

Stacey

I'm linking up for the first time so head on over and check out My Repurposed Life and The Shabby Nest and Nature's Nurture.  If you came from there, welcome.  I hope you come back often.