Girl Scout Cookie Season is over. What a relief. Now – what to do with all those leftovers?

I’m not talking about those straggler boxes of Thin Mints (as if you’d have those!), Samoas or Trefoil cookies. Those are the easy part. If you can’t find a home, consider having a cooking night using leftover Girl Scout cookies, or donating them to your local police or fire stations, EMS, homeless shelters or food pantries.

Today, I’m talking about a more pressing matter: Those stacks of flattened cookie cases that are taunting you in the garage. What do you do with all those cookie cases when the cookies are sold?

I know not everyone is blessed with a cardboard recycling collection close to their house. And I’ll admit (from experience) while the cookie cases are just the right size for interofficing stacks of brochures, flyers or bulky materials, it truly does disappoint the recipient when he or she actually finds work inside! 🙂

Today, I’m sharing ideas for cookie parents and leaders who are dealing with the leftovers of cookie season. Here are ideas for the crafty and non-crafty on what to do with all those empty cookie cases:

For the Crafty

• Convert the cookie boxes into cat scratchers for animal shelters. Though I can tell you first-hand that the cats sometimes just want to park in the box as is!
• Make Peeps dioramas.
• Create cookie box holders for next year’s cookie booths.
• Create art portfolios or art easels for girls working on their legacy artist badges.
• Create clipboards for cookie sales or other projects.
• Table covering for those truly messy projects.
• Upcycle into notebooks or scrapbooks for Cadette Bookbinding badge.
• Turn it into a basket.

For the Not-So-Crafty

• Use in the Think Like an Engineer journey.
• Upcycle them for Buddy Burners.
• Use them for birthday boxes or blessing boxes for your local homeless shelter or food pantry.
• Use as part of your fire starting arsenal.
• Donate to your school or after-school program for use as canvases.
• Donate them to your food pantry for sending donations home with families.
• Use the cardboard to cover and kill grass before laying down bark for a trail.

For Other Uses at Home

• Moving boxes for a friend. Cookie cases are great for loading books as they don’t get too heavy for the average person to move!
• Use the boxes to ship off donations using Give Back Box.
• Pack holiday decorations away for storage.
• Use to hold your file folders in a pinch.
• Organize your Girl Scout supplies!

What are your favorite uses for cookie cases once the Girl Scout cookies are sold? Share your ideas!