The holiday season upon us once again, and although this time of the year means holiday dinners and precious memories with friends and family are around the corner, it can also bring about disaster when it comes to packing and shipping gifts for loved ones.
If you’re not properly prepared, you could wind up in a tangle of unruly tape, packing peanuts, and bubble wrap, or worse–with a gift that arrives damaged.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you get that laptop to your nephew, the dollhouse to your cousin, or the toolset gift to your uncle all in one piece.
Pick the Right Box
Picking the right box is the first and most important part of the entire process, choose the wrong box and you could have a broken gift on your hands. When looking for boxes, look for sturdy corrugated cardboard boxes that are big enough to hold your gift with some room to spare for packing materials.
Use the Right Packing Materials
When packing a gift, especially a fragile gift, it’s best to invest in packing materials that will ensure its safety. Although many people use newspaper, the ink can come off the pages throughout the shipping process and stain your gift. Purchase some packing peanuts or bubble wrap to protect your gift. Also make sure to buy sturdy, heavy duty tape.
Use the H-Tape Method
The H-Tape method is the best way to seal boxes to ensure that they don’t come undone while it’s being shipped. Apply your packing tape along the seams on the box, this will create an H-shape on the box. Reinforce the H-shape by putting on two layers of packing tape.
Nest Boxes
If you have something extremely fragile to ship, getting two boxes and nesting them inside one another might be the best way to make sure your gift makes it to its recipient safely. In order to do this effectively, you have to make sure that you not only cushion the inside box but also significantly cushion the areas inside the larger box to make sure it doesn’t rattle around inside and break.
Know How to Pack High-Value Items and Food
High-value items like jewelry, sunglasses, and other valuables should always be shipped in a next-day shipping box to ensure that they get there safely and to minimize the chances of them getting lost in the mail.
If you wanna ship things like cookies, pound cakes, or brownies as gifts you have to package them in tin containers to keep them fresh. Use insulating material like bubble wrap or packing peanuts to keep your baked goods snug and in one piece.
So from all of us here at Sorensen Moving & Storage, we’d like to wish you and your loved ones a very safe, joyful holiday season, and a merry Christmas!
