Let me tell you about packing materials and how we get ours. To start out, there is a difference between packing materials, or packing supplies, and the BOX. Basically a BOX holds the item you sold and wish to ship. The packing supplies are what goes into the BOX with the item to make sure it arrives safe and sound at its destination.
The Best Packing Supplies Are Free
If there’s one thing I am certain of, there is a better way of getting packing supplies for your shipping than paying for it. The few times we have had to pay for packing supplies, I felt as though I was stuffing money into the box to make the contents safe and secure.
And let’s face it, no matter how much ecommerce business you are doing, you like to save money on packing and shipping. Free packing supplies are by far the best packing supplies.
So please let me now discuss what we use to package our shipments. We’ll cover what to use and how to acquire it, preferable at little or no cost.
We mostly use three kinds of packing:
- Packing Peanuts
- Bubble Wrap
- Kraft Paper (a.k.a. Butcher Paper)
There is one thing we think of when obtaining all the above. Can we get plenty of it for our needs for FREE. The answer is almost always “YES”. This is how and where.
Packing Peanuts
We reuse and recycle packing peanuts. If we get something shipped to us with packing peanuts, any variety, it goes in a big plastic bag for use later. There have been times we had many, many bags on hand waiting to disgorge their contents into a box containing some fragile item. Also – we use Networking to get more – we tell all our friends, family and business associates to save and give us any packing peanuts they have, we will pick up.
Bubble Wrap
Same as above. We haven’t paid for bubble wrap in like forever. We ask everyone we know to save any bubble wrap they get for us – we will make worth their effort. An invitation to one of our backyard BBQ’s, heartfelt expression of gratitude or whatever comes to mind when we pick it up. Generally we Network with our friends family and business associates to get all we need, never buy the stuff.
Kraft Paper
We use a lot of Kraft Paper or Butcher Paper, white or brown, crumpled up and it makes great packing. As above, you guessed it, we Network among our friends, family and business acquaintances letting them know what we want. And we save what we get in packages delivered to us for future use if it is already “crumpled”. We do buy a bit of kraft paper to use in a pinch. Lately we have needed to buy a roll, sometimes two, at the dollar store each month (300”x15’ each roll). That’s it.
But what If I Sell More Stuff Than I Have Friends And Relatives?
Great question. That can either be a good thing or a bad thing. Think about it. However don’t despair, when you sell more than you have FAR’s, you should be making buckets of money. Then you can buy wholesale. And you don’t even have to have a friend who has a relative in the business who can get you a deal.
So when shipping what you sell, use as much packing materials needed to get your shipment to the customer in one piece. And as Mr. Packing Peanut always says…
Happy Packing and Happy Saving !
