| 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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