What do you do with boxes after you've unpacked them so that they do not take up too much space, but are still reusable?

Throw them in a barrel and set them on fire.

If you bought them from a place like U-Haul,
you probably can just sell back the remaining ones.
If you didn't, then recycle them.

Is this a trick question?

You unfold them so they're flat and then toss them up in the loft.

I have acquired 2 bedside tables that I’m going to paint and do up :)

One has a chip on the top surface and is a looks like it’s a little bit swollen from a bit of water damage, is there anything I can do to fix that? I feel like sanding it down would make it worse.

Try evaporating the water with a blow torch.

If something pokes up, break off or sand down so it's removed. You now have a hole or dent which you put filler in. You let that sit until it's dried, which will make the filler shrink a little so you now have a new dent. Put more filler in, don't mind so much if you get the tiniest of bumps. Let dry.

Get some fine sand paper and roughen the texture of the table a little so the paint will stick. If the filler bumps up, sand that down too while you're at it so table surface is even.

Paint with a small roller. Let dry, coarsen with fine sand paper, remove paint dust and then paint a second layer. Possibly also a third time. You're done!

Edit:

It doesn't matter much since you'll paint it, but you can get fillers that have the hue and colour of various types of wood. Typically, they're used to fix holes in wooden floors.

I refinished this one last summer, but the top was veneer with some water damage and there wasn't really much I could do, so I just sanded what I could with a palm sander. The final touch was going to be a urethane resin to coat the graphic and smooth out the bumps but I haven't gotten to that yet.

https://i.imgur.com/O0cfW6q.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/MSwExFq.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/H2rwOmX.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/4iiYTu4.jpg?1

You can see the pressboard poking through the veneer where it was bubbled:

https://i.imgur.com/5MR9E0b.jpg?1

I'd imagine some wood putty on the gouges/chips like Guy said and then some sanding and primer would be a good base, then paint and then a urethane resin finish to coat the top and smooth it all out.

I used some JB Weld KwickWood for a few places on mine. Worked out great.

Not sure what you mean by swollen though. Swollen as in warped?

How did you apply the graphics, was it a decal or painted on?

The white wheels would have a better chance of lasting longer then those (office chair) black wheels which can split apart.

Printed on thick stock from OfficeMax, then glued on with spray adhesive. Hence the need for the resin coating to smooth out the heavy edges on the stock paper. Right now it has about 6 coats of polyurethane spray coating applied, so it has a bit of a protective shell to it.

*casters

I am well aware of this, thank you very much. I just liked the look and they're fairly sturdy. They're also removable so i can replace them if needed.