Cheap furniture and cabinetry becomes unusable when screw holes strip and enlarge in particleboard

DIY enthusiasts and homeowners repeatedly encounter stripped screw holes in melamine and chipboard furniture, rendering expensive pieces unusable after minor repairs or reassembly. Standard screwing techniques fail because the soft, low-density material compresses and tears around fasteners. Current solutions (toothpicks, epoxy, larger screws) are temporary workarounds that don't reliably fix the problem, forcing people to either discard furniture or live with broken items.