The holidays are especially busy for John Wainwright, owner of The Great Frame Up in Vernon Hills. That`s when he`s bombarded with family portraits in fractured frames, oil paintings hidden beneath smashed glass and other please- fix-this-fast requests from customers whose gifts have been delivered to their doorsteps in more than one piece.
”I get things all the time during the holidays that have been damaged because they weren`t packaged right,” Wainwright says. ”What are supposed to be wonderful presents need a good fixup. It`s a real shame.”
Indeed, selecting the perfect gift can be tough enough. And with friends and family living all across the country, packaging theirpresents and getting them from here to there often becomes a Herculean task.
But by planning ahead and following some simple packaging tips, you can get your presents to their destinations on time and rest assured they will arrive intact.
The best way to ensure a package will get there is to use common sense.
”Make sure whatever is inside can`t rattle around,” says Richard Pfeiffer, superintendent for delivery for the Arlington Heights Post Office.
”Always overpack,” says Bruce Allison, owner of Mail Boxes Etc. USA in Vernon Hills, one of the San Diego-based chain`s 1,700 franchises nationwide. The most frequent error made in packaging is that the contents are not properly protected inside the parcel.
”Never hope for the best,” he says.
Words from the wise
Here are more tips to ensure your holiday gifts arrive at their destination undamaged:
– Box it up. Use corrugated cartons in good, rigid condition that are large enough to allow for adequate cushioning material on all sides of the present, says Allison. ”You`ve got to be able to turn the package upside down and have its contents stay intact.” It`s also best to place the wrapped gift inside a larger box, available at most post offices and specialty mail centers.
– Protect it. Common, readily available materials make good cushioning for most items, says Pat Rauth, owner of Pak-Mail Centers of America in Arlington Heights, a nationwide franchise based in Aurora, Colo. These include shredded paper, plastic foam peanuts and bubble wrap, all available at most packaging stores.
– Save the earth too. A bonus to your gift giving is to make it environmentally safe. A new brand of recyclable packaging peanuts made of cornstarch was introduced on the market recently. One caveat: It`s water soluble and will dissolve if the package gets wet. It is also three times as expensive as the conventional plastic foam peanuts. Packaging experts such as Rauth recommend reusing cartons but being careful to erase or obliterate old labeling.
Homemade popcorn is also a safe bet, as long as it`s wrapped securely in plastic. ”It attracts bugs and rodents,” Rauth warns.
What`s more, an increasing number of packaging centers offer a $1 discount to customers who drop off used plastic foam packaging peanuts.
There`s more
– Wrap it up. To close the package securely, it must be fastened in reinforced nylon, plastic or paper tape, not masking or cellophane tape, string or twine. ”These aren`t strong enough and could get caught in the mailing conveyer belts and machines,” says Pfeiffer, of the Arlington Heights Post Office.
– Label it. Clearly mark the parcel with address, including ZIP or ZIP plus 4 Code, of both sender and receiver. Writing should be in indelible ink or typed. It`s also a good idea to include a list of contents and both addresses inside the package.
– Way to go. The earlier the better is the guiding rule in holiday package sending, experts agree. Mid-December should be the final cutoff for domestic package sending, with the exception of overnight delivery. For example, packages sent from Chicago to California by the United Parcel Service average four to five days during the year, usually several more the nearer you get to Christmas, says George Chiopelas, manager for Pack & Mail in Hoffman Estates. Costs average $5 to $15 for UPS package delivery and an additional $10 to $15 for overnight delivery services, he says.
Packaging costs at service centers start at $1.50; the U.S. Post Office does not include packaging in its service.
”But we`re happy to give advice,” Pfeiffer says, ”and we`ll usually assist an elderly or disabled person or someone in distress who has packaged the gift wrong.”
The guiding word is to pack and overpack. Chiopelas of Pack & Mail says he recently received dentures at his store that had fallen out of the box they had been sent in and then gotten tossed about for a year with no way to identify the sender. ”My best advice is to send it as early as possible and overpack as much as possible.”
