Proper Packing Materials: Prevent Damage to Your Holiday Gifts

To avoid breakage and damage to your holiday gifts, it’s important to use the right packing materials. There are some very effective materials that may surprise you, and some you may have around your house. Others are easily purchased at an office supply store or post office.

Here are some tips and ideas for proper packaging materials to prevent damage to your gifts this season.

1. Plastic Bags

When you go grocery shopping, do you save your plastic bags? Many people do, and recycle them around the house or at a local facility. You can also recycle them as packing material. Wadded up and placed in the bottom of your shipping box, they make a great cushion. Then you can fill the rest of the box with more plastic bags until the item is snug and cushioned.

2. Foam

Solid pieces of foam can be cut or wrapped, depending on which form you use.

Hard foam – the sort of stuff you see in the box when you open up a new appliance or electronic device – is lightweight and sturdy. You can use a box cutter to cut such foam into shapes that fit around your item and wedge firmly against the side of the box. (You can fill in extra space between the item and the foam shapes with newspaper or plastic bags.)

Soft foam is often used to ship produce and delicate foods. You can wrap this kind of foam, which often has an “egg carton” texture, around your item before placing it in the box. You will probably still need something else to fill in the empty spaces.

3. Packing Peanuts

Beloved by children everywhere, packages filled with foam packing peanuts can be as much fun to receive as the gift itself! Peanuts are lightweight and provide a lot of cushioning, but they do tend to settle during shipment, which means your item might end up jostled around more than it did when you first packaged it.

4. Newspaper

Old-fashioned but pretty effective, newspaper helps absorb shocks. In addition to wrapping your item in newspaper, you can wad it up and fill in all the spaces tightly. Make sure you have extra newspaper on the bottom of the box before placing your wrapped item in there so the bottom is cushioned too.

5. Bubble Wrap

This is also a packaging material that children love. It comes in small or large “bubbles” or sealed air pockets. It’s not suggested for heavy items, but is great for lightweight things. It’s a good idea to use multiple layers.
UPS recommends wrapping each item separately if you’re mailing multiple items, and leave space for several layers of bubble wrap between each item so they don’t knock into each other.