DIY Laptop Stands that Cost Nothing

I’ve never been too fond of laptops, but when my employer handed me a ThinkPad T60, I didn’t say no either. Soon enough I started experiencing the very problems that had always kept me off laptops till now; working on laptops can cause your neck to hurt like hell. This is because one has to bend the neck slightly to be able to view the screen. So unless I could find a way to to raise the laptop to a level somewhere close to my line of sight, constant pain was going to become the order of the day.

Initially, I tried to overlook this problem by not thinking about it too much. But soon, this pain became the only thing on my mind. The problem became even more pronounced while working from the office because there I don’t have a desktop which would let me connect to the laptop via remote desktop, or using a KVM switch.
Buying a laptop stand did cross my mind initially, but a price of Rs. 7000 (about 174 USD) plus shipping seemed to be a bit too much, so either I could live with the pain or find a solution that was as effective but a hell lot cheaper.
What I came up with is actually very simple yet as effective as any laptop stand available in the market. I wen to the office warehouse and got myself the cardboard box for my ThinkPad Backpack Carrying Case, and set it on my desk and placed my laptop on it. Sure it doesn’t look as classy as the ones talked about here, but then again it doesn’t look that ugly either (picture to follow).
Greedy as I am, I decided to make another custom laptop stand, this time for my wife’s HP Notebook. But unfortunately her notebook’s carrying case didn’t come in a cardboard box, we would have to make one ourselves. I got my dad to cut 5-6 rectangular pieces from our washing machine’s cardboard packaging, and join them on top of each other using scotch tape. Result one cheap yet effective laptop stand.
Again, this one doesn’t look pretty either, but considering that it cost me nothing, meets the requirements, and also doubles up as a stand for our pop-up toaster; I can make do with the looks, or rather the lack thereof!