What To Do with Clementine Boxes

We've been picking up clementines at the market lately, and they generally come in handy wooden boxes. While we've seen Maxwell's neat idea for repurposing the clementine peel, we haven't talked much on reusing the boxes...

Above the jump: A very pretty container garden that will have to wait 'til spring.

We've kept one at home and we keep onions and potatoes in it. One of the markets we frequent pours the clementines out of the box and into your shopping bag and keeps (reuses?) the boxes. We've found plenty of other ideas on the web, too. Here are a few below:

Plant wheatgrass.

Make a clementine box creche in time for the holidays.

Danny Seo repurposes one as a gift box mimosa kit.

If you have children, you may be interested in the sweet little doll bed repurposed by Recovergirl.

Here's a cardboard version reused as a kitchen drawer organizer.

Plant a container garden in an old clementine box. Photo © Kerry Michaels at About.com.

Have you kept and reused a clementine box in your home? To what (re)use did you put yours?

Photo up top from: Bellwood Gardens

Comments (8)

I have two of them stacked up that I keep bathroom stuff in on a shelf. The corners make for very easy stacking and I love the graphic appeal of them.

posted by Sassyladie on November 17th 2008 at 3:13pm
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i have a few in my kitchen cabinets corralling like food items. i'll definitely going to plant this year's - so cute!

posted by bebklyn on November 17th 2008 at 3:35pm
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mine's in the kitchen next to the stove and holds stuff like olive oil (which can leave a greasy mess), salt, pepper, and other handy items for cooking.

posted by peaceyall on November 17th 2008 at 4:22pm
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I'm fortunate enough to have them straight from the tree. Very eco that way. As I'm not sure this year's crop will be good, though, I'll remember this.

posted by whytephoenix on November 17th 2008 at 5:12pm
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ooh! but where does on go to get clementine boxes in the first place? i'm always on the lookout for wooden boxes with fun detailing and have been stalking wine shops for crates for years now.

posted by curvatura on November 17th 2008 at 6:27pm
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I am totally going to plant pet grass in one for the cat.

@ curvatura: I've seen them at Trader Joe's.

posted by islandchild on November 17th 2008 at 7:46pm
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Strange though I did make a creche once out of a clementine box, but it was pretty tacky. Joseph was Superman, Smurfette and Jiminy Cricket were there, and the animals were from various Red Rose tea series (not necessarily native to greater Nazareth) and other little figures of animals I happened to have.

Ordinarily, I'm not big on quaint old fruit crates as decorative elements in my own home, but I guess they're useful.

posted by K T G on November 17th 2008 at 10:24pm
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I love the idea of planting cat grass/flowers/herbs but won't the water decompose the box? Or did you line it?

I turned mine into a place to store tea lights since IKEA doesn't sell them in bags anymore and they end up all over the place. You can see a pic here: http://kitkadesigntoronto.com/?p=741

posted by kitkadesigntoronto on February 7th 2009 at 4:17pm
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