Sony Is Right, Please Throw Away All Your Useless Cardboard Boxes

Make some much needed room in your life.

You collect a lot of rubbish in this line of work. Since I started writing about video games as a side gig back in college, my parent's house and the various apartments I’ve moved through over the years have been steadily filled up with press kits, console boxes, and other bits of packaging that I just don't have enough room for. But I hold onto them for no good reason.

Giant cardboard demons for my various consoles and similar products awkwardly dotted between shelves and cupboards, or thrown under my bed. Part of my brain tells me that, one day, I’ll need this cardboard box emblazoned with Yakuza: Like A Dragon key art that blasts the theme song whenever I open it. I also have one for Sonic Origins that does the same thing. The time has come to throw them all out and gain a new lease on life.

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At first though, daring to part ways with boxes that once housed some of my most expensive belongings was quite terrifying. What if one day I decided to sell them? Or needed to move? Or throwing away the packaging would somehow depreciate their value if I ever fancied the idea of making a cheeky profit? While all of these reasons are valid, and there are plenty of additional excuses for hardcore collectors to keep such things around, for average gamers, they are just taking up space in rented apartments that cost way too much already.

Sony recently shared a tongue-in-cheek reminder on social media that you should throw away the cardboard boxes your PlayStation came in, a sentiment that, when asked, it said extends to any and all consoles you own. While these boxes might look pretty and offer a lingering sense of worth gathering dust in the loft, you just don't need them, and would be better off yeeting everything in the recycling anyway. Don't be a coward and listen to Sony.

If you’re like me, you grew up with parents of a certain generation who loved to complain about you playing video games all the time and how you’d be better off outside with your friends. My mum kept saying this even after moving us to a farmhouse in Wales where, unless you had a car, the nearest town was a three-mile hike away. Nice one, mother - you’re the reason video games won in the first place. But as I got older and remained invested in this medium, even making a career out of it, she’d constantly label me as a collector, like I was some form of uncontrollable gremlin desperate to hoover up every single gaming-related piece of paraphernalia that crossed my path. She wasn't right, but she wasn't wrong either.

I developed a habit of keeping meaningless boxes and similar things around as if they held some form of emotional attachment. Excuses were made up to prevent my family cleaning up after me, which in retrospect is a quirk I carried with me into adulthood. Yes, it might just be a cardboard box, but it's covered in sick logos and once housed something that meant a lot to me. Keeping that in tip-top condition feels like the least I can do, when in reality my life would be significantly lighter if I pulled them apart and left them behind. So I have, and right now I don't even have boxes for my latest PlayStation and Xbox, let alone generations going further back. Dumping them was a load off my mind, and made room for more important bits of my life alongside extra morsels of storage space I sorely needed. Do as I did, it's worth it.

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Jade King is Lead Features Editor for TheGamer. Previously Gaming Editor over at Trusted Reviews, she can be found talking about games, anime and retweeting Catradora fanart @KonaYMA6.