Raking leaves is arguably one of the worst parts of the fall season, but one TikToker revealed a hack that will cut your yard work time in half.
The magic tool? A cardboard box.
How it works
TikToker, Virginia Lane (@virginiahlane) posts hacks for moms on her page — one of which is the perfect time-saver for anyone in your house who does yardwork.
Instead of using a noisy leaf blower or labor-intensive rake to clean up her leaves, Lane simply takes a large cardboard box and uses it as a shovel, pushing large piles of leaves at a time into a pile.
"Next time you need to rake those leaves, grab a cardboard box and clear your yard in seconds!" she says in the video.
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How it's helping
Lane's hack is perfect for busy parents taking kids to school and sports practices, or even anyone who doesn't want to spend time raking the leaves. It's even perfect for the kids who want to jump in leaf piles — the piles can't put themselves back together after each cannonball.
This also leaves more time for the best fall activities: apple picking, enjoying the foliage, fall gardening, and spending time outside with friends and family before it gets cold.
Plus, if you're going to clear the leaves from your yard, using a biodegradable cardboard box is a better option than a plastic or metal rake that would take a long time to decompose in a landfill.
It's also better than using a leaf blower, which can give off harmful and planet-warming gases — specifically nitrous oxide — which is more harmful than other planet-warming gases. Leaf blowers are also made from a variety of materials, making them difficult to recycle.
Not only that, but the cardboard and your piled-up leaves can come in handy later if you own a raised garden bed. They're great to pack in underneath your soil. If you don't have a raised garden bed, the cardboard and the leaves can still be composted for your flowers or other plants.
What everyone's saying
Commenters were excited to give the hack a try. "Love this idea!" said one user, while another wrote, "This is brilliant!"
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