These boxes are cheap and that's what's so great about them. I have moved so many times, including two cross-country moves in a single year. These boxes are fantastic for moving, especially if you don't have a nearby liquor store you can dumpster dive for free boxes. They're cheaper than plastic storage tubs and cheaper than moving boxes. They stack really well and I know for a fact we've stacked them higher than they should have been, without totally collapsing the boxes. Some boxes of books on the bottom were a bit squished, but that's why the breakables weren't in the bottom boxes. Since these boxes are so square, they are easier to organize in a room than a series of randomly-sized boxes. And I'll let you in on a secret: Because a wall of them looks like everything is perfectly organized, it doesn't matter what the contents actually are. Seriously, we bought several packs of these for our move last summer. We started by carefully packing everything, organized by room/type. Neat stacks of books, craft supplies, electronics, all organized and labeled. But as the moving deadline approached, we got less and less meticulous with the packing. We stuck empty boxes in every room and just tossed stuff in there that we wanted to take and slapped a vaguely descriptive label on it ("Crap," "More Books," "I Dunno, Cables?," "Binders or Whatever," "Leftover Kitchen Whatsits" were some of them). It was a haphazard mess in those last days. But it didn't matter because all those perfectly square file boxes lined up made it look like we knew what we were doing and were organizing masters. I'm sure the whole neighborhood would have marveled at this visual feat if everyone wasn't staying inside because of the pandemic. But seriously, it really made dealing with the last bits of random stuff a whole lot easier. I used to use storage tubs for the leftover whatsits, but those got heavy fast because heavy stuff somehow attracts more heavy stuff. We could just toss stuff in the file boxes at random without worrying about overloading them. Not having overly heavy boxes was definitely a necessity for us. I long ago learned not to put all my hardback books or CDs into large storage tubs and file boxes are the absolute perfect vessel to hold audiovisual and textual materials. No matter what I put in there, nothing is too heavy that most adults can't lift one. No more throwing my back out because I decided to fill a while box with medical manuals and antique encyclopedias. Granted, they do have a weight limit. I definitely would not put a stack of lead ingots in there. The handles are fine for most uses, but if you fill one with reams of copy paper, the handles are going to start giving out after a few times schlepping the box from one place to another. Fortunately, the handles hold up long enough to haul to a moving truck and then into a new home. Since these boxes are so cheap, it's not a big deal if any get ruined in a move. I've had storage tubs get crushed and shattered in moves and it sucks to pay ten bucks for a big tub that has to be tossed after one use. After each move, we'd usually have to recycle a quarter to a third of these file boxes because they were too beat up or had gotten stained. But the rest survived to be used as storage boxes until we had to move again. A few survived multiple moves until they got too beat up. Usually, the boxes that contained heavier items were the ones that lasted the shortest amount of time. Once they get too beat up, they make good containers to hold recyclables until it's time for them to join their brethren in the great cardboard dumpster in the sky. Look, don't expect great things out of these boxes. I've had banker's boxes that survived a lot longer than these, but those are also more expensive and every time a banker's box has to be recycled, I get cranky. The banker's boxes are much better at holding heavier items than these Amazon Basics file boxes, but when you need to box a lot of stuff up fast and cheap without worrying about ruining good boxes, you can't go wrong with these.
