My Dad died in the spring and my Mom is selling the family home to move into an apartment near one of my sisters. So all of us kids are converging next week to clean out the house and take anything that’s of sentimental value to us.
My Mom spent 40 years collecting hand-blown Christmas tree ornaments. Every year she’d buy one or two new ones so at this point there are quite a few of them. We’ve all agreed that I’m going to take them.
The problem is, how to get them from Tulsa to Los Angeles?
Right now they’re stored in a cardboard box about the size of a standard moving box. They’re individually wrapped in tissue paper, and packed together firmly, but gently.
I’m flying there and back. The box is too big to carry on the plane and there’s no way I’d check it. I’m already planning to ship some other boxes back to myself, but I’m concerned about how the ornaments would fare with normal shipping from UPS or FedEx.
Basically, what I’m asking is if there’s some super-secure method for shipping extremely fragile objects long distances. What’s the best way to make sure these ornaments arrive safely? (Short of me personally spending a week driving from California to Oklahoma and back again … .)
I ship a lot of stuff for ebay.
Here’s what I would do: get a lot of small cardboard boxes. Pack each ornament in it’s own box, using bubblewrap or foam peanuts to be sure it is packed gently but firmly. Then pack the small boxes in a big box, putting bubblewrap between each layer of boxes. You might want to reinforce the sides of the big box with a layer of styrofoam. Make everything is very snug.
This should be able to be shipped by USPS or UPS, and survive.
Stores like Space Savers, or really any place that sells packaging materials, sell “egg crate” boxes made exactly for things like Christmas tree ornaments.
Whenever I’ve bought glass items, they have arrived safely when packed as Beowulff described. Lots of peanuts. Individual packages within the larger box. If they’re valuable enough to justify the expense, you could always drive the ornaments from Tulsa to L.A. personally. Things do break when shipped by UPS, FedEx and the rest on occasion - taking the two days and moving them yourself would be the closest thing to absolute certainty.
Bed Bath & Beyond sells Christmas ornament storage boxes, of hard plastic with cardboard dividers. You’d need to secure each ornament in its cubicle, but these can’t be crushed like a cardboard box could be. We stack them pretty high in our storage area, and have never had any break. It will weigh a bit more than cardboard, but it might be worth it.
Thanks for the responses, guys. Very helpful.
#1 insure the ornaments for a replacement value and be sure to fill out the forms saying what is in each box.
Here’s the problem. They beat the crap out of boxes sometimes and crush them. They get thrown into the trucks and off them. Marking the box fragile will help if the busy UPS driver doesn’t miss the markings and cares that day. You run a greater risk no matter what way you ship them, if you don’t haul them yourself. Working retail I’ve seen lots of glass items from the manufacturer smashed on delivery. Use many smaller boxes with lots of packing especially on the outside. One box lost or smashed will mean lss lost ornaments. Something easily carried will be less likely to get thrown too. Remember that items settle to the bottom of a box in shipping with packing like styrofoam peanuts. Using a foam wrapper taped around each ornament will be the best way to prevent breakage. Pack each foam wrapped bundle into a large box and just top it off with styrofoam peanuts or crumpled newspaper. Some crumpled newspaper on the bottom and sides will help too. Be sure to label the box fragile glass on it so it’s easily visible. Make sure all labels other than your label are removed and if the boxes say dish soap or something on the side that it is painted over to avoid confusion during handling.