THINKING INSIDE THE BOX: Packing materials

You item has sold, now you have to pack it for mailing. Do you plan to just toss it in the box? Unless it is something unbreakable like clothing, this will not sit too well with your buyer.

So here are some ideas on thinking inside the box. What to use to get your item safely to its new owner.

• Newspaper: Newspaper, because of the newsprint is messy. And since it is made of wood if you use enough of it, it can add considerably to the weight of your parcel. But say you are sending something in one of those flat rate priority boxes and you don't want to spend a lot on packaging materials - then newspaper may be the way to go. To keep newsprint off the item you are mailing, put the crumbled paper inside a clean used plastic bag. Both of these materials are free and that is a plus.

• Plastic bags: Cheap to use, lighter than newsprint . Great for overwrapping your item to keep it clean in the event that something disastrous happens to the box (falling in a puddle for example). The downside to using plastic bags is that you need an awful lot of them to fill up the same amount of space that crumbled newspaper would. The temptation may be there if you run out of bags is to underpack and have the buyer receive a broken item.

• Styrofoam peanuts: An old standby, static cling not withstanding. :) Light, relatively cheap. Downside: They are a pain to store and get everywhere for both you and the customer.

• Bubblewrap: Comes in various sizes of bubbles from 1/16 of an inch up to an inch and more. Not the cheapest way to pack but one of the best. TIP : Always place the bubbles on the outside rather than against the item, especially china pieces. They seem to pick up the imprint of each bubble and it is hard to get rid of these marks.

• Corrugated adhesive cardboard by the roll: This packaging material is great for books. Used with bubblewrap it is the perfect way to ship books. The bubblewrap goes on the inside- bubbles away from the book. The corners of the book are reinforced with bits of cardboard taped to the bubblewrap and the corrugated cardboard is then placed around the book with the adhesive side down. The advantage of this for packing books is you don't have to hunt for a box of the right size for the book and you don't have to fill the extra space in a box that doesn't quite fit. Downside: To save on the cost of corrugated adhesive cardboard you need to buy a big roll of it and then find a place to store it. I have one hung up in the garage across the beams.

• Box within a box system: This is the one I use the most for our bakery. A box within a box is the perfect way for us to ship fragile items such as cookies. Of course you need to add packing material around the box inside the box so that it has a snug fit. Anything rattling around inside a shipping box is in danger of being damaged. So take the time to add enough packaging and then give your package a shake to see if anything rattles. If anything sounds like it is shifting around - add more packing material.

• Other packaging materials: There are new products coming on the market all the time. It's best to check the convenience of the packaging material against its cost vs the cost of other ways packing for shipping. For example, as a bakery we never put anything but new, food approved materials against our products. The boxes that hold our items inside the postal priority boxes are specially ordered from a bakery supply house. Our bubble wrap is not recycled for shipping food items. But it could be reused to ship other items as long as they are not edibles. There certainly is nothing wrong with using recyled packing supplies for items such as books, clothing and so on. I just don't do it for food. :)

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