What is the Standard Tissue Box Size? (Answered)

Tissues are one of the most important things to have on hand. You’ll need to take a sheet to blow your nose and wipe away fluids from your desk. But have you ever wondered what the dimensions of a tissue box are?

From 4 of the most popular tissue brands, the average size of a rectangular box is 11.44 × 4.38 × 2.79 inches. As for cubed tissue boxes, their average dimensions are 4.43 × 4.36 × 5.06 inches.

It’s important to note that the exact size of a tissue box may vary between brands. In today’s guide, I’ll explain the most common tissue box dimensions, how a tissue box works, and what you can do with empty tissue boxes.

Standard Tissue Box Size

Most people think of Kleenex when they think about facial tissues. In 2017, Kleenex dominated the facial tissue game with a total market share of 31.5%, but in 2021, Puffs came from behind and made nearly 3 times more in sales compared to Kleenex.

When it comes to tissue box sizes, there are 2 shapes to consider—rectangular (flag) and cube (upright). The exact dimensions of a tissue box by brand and shape are as follows.

Typical Flat Tissue Box Sizes

Typical Upright Tissue Box Sizes

How Many Tissues Per Box?

The number of tissues will affect the tissue box’s overall size and vice versa. From the products listed above, their tissue-per-box counts are as follows:

How Do Tissue Boxes Work?

Believe it or not, a ton of work has gone into designing tissue boxes to make them as fantastic as they are. One thing you might not have been curious about is how tissue boxes work—i.e., how do fresh tissues pop out of the box when you take one out?

funsciencedemos on YouTube provides the perfect answer. The answer lies in the way the individual tissues are folded.

When you remove the tissues from a box, you’ll find that the tissues appear to be one giant sheet. What’s really going on is that half of the topmost tissue overlaps with half of the subsequent sheet. So, when the tissues are inside the box, how do they come out in individual sheets?

The answer can be found in the plastic sheet glued to the underside of the top panel. The plastic sheet allows a single tissue sheet to come through but produces friction to prevent the subsequent sheet from coming out in a single pull. Without it, you would have to separate the tissue into individual sheets, which would be incredibly annoying.

Knowing this, you can turn any container you like into a tissue box. The guys at funsciencedemos demonstrated how you can turn a Pringles can into a tissue box by cutting a thin slit on the side.

What Can I Do with an Empty Tissue Box?

If your tissue box runs out of tissues, you can always toss the empty box into the recycling bin. Tissue boxes are made of cardboard, so they will undergo the same recycling process as cardboard boxes. However, the tissue paper inside the boxes is not recyclable! That includes used and fresh tissues.

For the environmentally conscious, you should know that the slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” should be done in that order. So, to reduce your carbon footprint, you should reduce how many facial tissues you use, reuse the box, and recycle the box if you have no need for it.

So, what can you reuse an old tissue box for? Try giving these awesome crafts a try.

Towel Holder—Cut the top off of a flat tissue box and line it with fabric. The lidless, empty tissue box should hold up to 6 rolled towels at the same time.

Piñata—Want a fun way to celebrate your child’s birthday? Take a bunch of empty tissue boxes, fill them with candy, then use gift wrap tissue paper to decorate your homemade piñata.

Plastic Bag Dispenser—If you’re like me, you have more empty plastic bags than you know what to do with. Instead of rolling the bags up and stuffing them inside a kitchen drawer, place the plastic bags inside an empty tissue box. You can pull a bag out of the tissue box whenever you need to throw something away.

Yarn Separator—You can never have too much yarn, but disorganization is a huge problem in the knitting community. What you can do is fill a single ball of yarn inside an empty tissue box and tug on the yarn whenever you need it.

Centerpieces—It might sound insane, but you can give your dining table a festive touch by decorating empty tissue boxes. Use empty upright boxes and wrap them like you would a Christmas gift. Now, place them in the middle of a dining table to wow your holiday guests.

Wall Organizer—The great thing about tissue boxes is that they’re quite durable. That means you can fill them up with several lightweight supplies—e.g., makeup, stationery, etc.—and hang the box on your wall. If you don’t mind getting glue on your bedroom wall, this is a great way to reuse old tissue boxes.

Oversized Dice—Are you tired of using regular dice for your D&D sessions? If so, then why not be a little creative and fashion upright tissue boxes into oversized dice? All you need to do is paint the dots on all 6 sides of the cube, and voila!