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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Reusables that Travel

Sometimes, we have a lot of shipping boxes including priority mailing boxes from the USPS.

Often, there's an overflow of "bubble" envelopes as well.
Most of the non-postal boxes and bubble envelopes are from items ordered on-line, Amazon is our prime supplier of CDs, batteries, and some over-the-counter lotions that are not available locally. The Amazon prime membership ($79 annual fee) that's shared between Grenville and myself gives "free" 2-day shipping and it's been tax-free as well. BUT, as of Sept. 1, Amazon is collecting sales tax on orders of new items sent to our VA home. But, that doesn't seem true for used CDs, which I order often (and receive in — that's right, a bubble mailer).

We don't save EVERY box, but some smaller or "odd" sized ones are broken down and stored in a back closet.True, the post office gives some boxes free when using flat rate priority mailing, but sometimes it's difficult to find just the "right" size to avoid paying more for a larger box. Some of our re-used boxes have traveled cross-country. Today, one came from California and was re-purposed for mailing something to Florida.

Bubble envelopes in good condition are always saved. These come in handy for mailing books to friends. Only problem is that mailing a book (even at media rates) always costs more than its original thrift store cost.

But, at least the re-used envelope didn't cost much.

7 comments:

The Odd Essay said...

We've recycled for years... living in a small motorhome has made recycling a challenge. Our Kindles have reduced the amount of books we carry around - and mail to various folks when we're finished, and we often find places to take plastic, but we no longer have a compost pile and places to drop other items. On the other hand, we no longer generate as much to recycle as we just don't buy as much living this lifestyle.

MadSnapper said...

you are great candidates for that prime 79 dollar thing. i don't order enough to make it worth while for me. i do love Amazon and do order from them when i need something

Anonymous said...

I used to save all bubble envelopes in good condition too but they just became too many in the end. I can't recycle them because it's not allowed to recycle them, not even if I take out the bubbles, the glue is the problem. It sort of messes up the machines when they try to recycle them. So now I toss them in the garbage which most likely is wrong too :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

L. D. said...

I have janitor friends who save me bubble wrap and I like to reuse or rebuild a box in order to ship my wife's artwork out to customers. It saves a lot of money and as I say to my wife, my labor is free.

Montanagirl said...

I order from Amazon all the time. I finally just recently signed up for Amazon Prime. I save a lot of their boxes as well.

Connie said...

I've thought about the Amazon prime membership, but I don't think we order enough to make it worth our while. Sounds like you make it work well for you!

Unknown said...

I save the bubble wrap too and reuse for other pkgs. Last week Jerry took a big box to UPS across the river, filled with the styrofoam popcorn...they take it in to reuse and we were saved trouble of taking it to the dump and paying. We did this once before so when the box came filled with the pnuts to protect the item inside, it was time to take it to UPS. They were glad for it too.