Under $25 Scores: I’ve opened thousands of boxes with this handy little $10 tool
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There’s no routine activity quite as exciting as receiving mail. As children, I’m sure we all experienced the wonderment of opening a letter addressed especially to you, but in adulthood, mail loses its luster — it’s pretty much all bills these days. Getting a package, though, remains just as delightful as getting a gift, even if it’s just the toothpaste you ordered on Amazon.
As a commerce editor, I get a lot of packages — products to review, new releases from brands, etc. — and therefore, I open a lot of packages. That’s where the Slice Mini Box Cutter comes in. It’s small, light, safe to use and overall the ideal way to cut into some cardboard.
Slice Mini Box Cutter
The ideal compact tool for opening a box, the Slice Mini Box Cutter features a retractable ceramic blade that the brand claims will last 11 times longer than a traditional metal box cutter.
How I found the Slice Mini Box Cutter
Before the Slice Mini, I used scissors for opening boxes. The issue here is that (as you surely are already aware) this is not the intended use for scissors. Scissors were made for cutting paper, and cutting paper is what they are best at. Opening up a pair of scissors, wrapping your fingers around the blade and digging into some packing tape is a risk that no one should take.
Sometimes, out of sheer laziness, I’d forgo the scissors and use my house keys to open a box, since when I enter my apartment with a package, I’m usually already holding my keys. Too dull and uncomfortable to tightly grip, they’re not quite up to the task, either.
Ironically, I find that a proper box cutter — heavy, incredibly sharp — feels too intense for the simple task of opening a box (I recall that my mom wouldn’t even let me touch the box cutter in our junk drawer growing up for fear that I’d slice open my hand somehow).
In my quest for the perfect non-box cutter box opener, I opened up amazon.com and searched “box cutter,” in the hopes that the algorithmic gods would deliver a solution. And did they ever.
Why it’s a score
The Slice Mini Box Cutter doesn’t look like other box cutters. Essentially a 3-inch long oval, it’s small enough and light enough to be held between your thumb and forefinger.
Like a box cutter, however, it does have a retractable blade for safety. This is important to me as I (like my mom before me) store it in a junk drawer, and I often shove my hand into said junk drawer looking absentmindedly for some junk. I rather not be stabbed in the hand when I do this.
Speaking of the blade, it’s ceramic, which is plenty sharp (I actually have a ceramic knife that I love for chopping carrots and potatoes) but decidedly less intimidating than its rusty metal counterpart. In fact, because the blade is so sharp, only slight pressure is required to cut.
Even better than using it to open boxes, I especially love the Slice Mini Box Cutter for breaking them down. I live in an apartment building and am required to break down all boxes before putting them in the dumpster. The Slice Mini makes this generally annoying task a total breeze, and it’s compact enough that I’ll often bring it downstairs to break down a box as I’m heading out for an errand, then toss it in my purse until I can return it to its place in the junk drawer after I return home.
I’ve had the Slice Mini Box Cutter for five years now, and it’s a gadget that I truly use almost every day. Who knew that opening a package could be almost as satisfying as the package itself? Now, you do.
Note: The prices above reflect the retailers' listed price at the time of publication.
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