GIFT BOX PACKAGING   GIFT BOX PACKAGING   GIFT BOX PACKAGING...

    
  

Wrapping the Wrapper for Mailing

  
Just a few tips that might be helpful, even allay concerns about your gift box packaging obligations...
  

For the container:

  • My old-time favorite outer packaging material is opened-up brown paper grocery bags. Inside out, they can be used (patched together, if necessary) to cover up a really messy outside of a reused cardboard box. (And sometimes messiness isn’t the issue - the U.S. Post Office doesn’t want you to send a Priority Mail box and not pay Priority Mail rates for it, for instance! And suddenly, they’ve taken to not allowing liquor boxes to be sent through the mail... unless covered up.)
      
  • And if you just can’t come up with a box to fit all the oddly-shaped packages that you have to send to one household? Well, obviously, you can send two... But sometimes I don’t even have one container that will work for that one out-sized gift. ...You might also consider grafting a bit of another box (or just a customized sturdy cardboard shape) onto the one big one. (Just be sure to leave enough time to rethink and redo if the mailing service you use objects to your creativity! But I’ve sent some strange-looking boxes via the U.S. Postal Service from time to time... And I imagine they’ve seen stranger things than mine, too.)   
      

Now onto "thinking inside the box":

  • A supermarket berry basket makes a great bow-saver! - keep your lovingly-decorated doodads from being crushed in the mailing carton.
  • Styrofoam-type "popcorn" is probably the best all-purpose packing. material - it truly takes an incredible amount of pressure to crush it... and whatever’s inside of it.
  • Real popcorn is useful too - but it weighs more and is slightly crushable.
      
  • Plastic bubble wrap is excellent as an inner wrap - or as the only wrap if the item isn’t fragile and fits fairly snugly into the outer packaging (e.g., a book; a folded garment that can stand up well to being pressed along its folds).
  • Crumpled newspaper does work fairly well... But it does crush if it isn’t packed fairly tightly - and when it’s packed tightly, it weighs rather a lot.
      
  • Of course, you might have shredded paper around that you need to get rid of, if you're so modern as to shred your bills and whatnot - and it's pretty good protection (if a little on the heavy side, as above).
  • Those little "pillows" of air-filled plastic are a great invention, where saving weight is critical and the gift inside isn’t too heavy (or sharp!).
  • Anything sturdy that you put inside of a surrounding layer of protecting "stuff" can be of further use in protecting a fragile gift item... another cardboard box, a bank checks box, a mailing tube, etc. Even something as flimsy as a facial tissue box can provide a barrier against which to pack something around the object inside it. (For example, you could pack heavier cotton wadding around a fragile object inside, and lighter "popcorn" on the outside.)
      
  • Egg cartons, or pieces thereof, make good difficult-to-crush protectors for truly tiny gifts. (I’ve even mailed many fragile eggshells in them! - with just a layer of something like tissue paper filling the interstices between the shell and the carton... and all surrounded by styrofoam "popcorn", of course.)
      
  • Even bags of marshmallows can cushion a fragile something that's lightweight (and kids always like to receive marshmallows...).
      
  • You can even go so far as to get creative with "double entendre cushioning", so that even the wadding is part of the gift's ambience (or part of the gift itself)...  Use crumpled sheet music if it's a music-related gift. Nestle a small box into a bed of individually wrapped hard candies. Tuck several presents amongst fresh evergreen boughs that can be used by the recipient to decorate the house!
        

One final tip...  If after all your care you’re still unsure about your package's durability... insure it! (Not much comfort if it’s something you’ve spent days making, perhaps - but unlike those boxes marked "fragile", I’ve been led to believe that the Post Office does tend to handle insured boxes more carefully. And at least you’d get paid for all that work if it came to grief!)

  

 

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