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Would you ship a comforter wrapped in a garbage bag? Assuming the bag is rated for not ripping easily, it is tightly wrapped/taped around the item, and the comforter is first bagged in its original plastic zip bag.
My thinking is to try to keep the weight down to keep the cost down – huge boxes tend to be pretty heavy, and since it’s a not a breakable item, maybe a garbage bag is just a huge polymailer?
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That’s a good point, Clarity, particularly since this is a Ralph Lauren comforter that I hope to get a lot for. 🙂
I am now wishing that either a) vacuum storage bags were cheap enough to use as the internal packaging for shipping (the cheapest I can find on amazon for a huge bag is about $5 each https://www.amazon.com/Storage-Army-Compressed-Organizer-protection/dp/B00JQP3L7Y) or b) there was a way to make any sturdy (cheap) plastic bag vacuumable.
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I use plastic periodically but I bought a roll at Home Depot that is 8 mils thick. The 8 mil is twice as thick as a garabage bag which clocks in around 4 mils or less. The plastic is in the painting deprtament. Painters use it to cover the whole floor of a room and then move ladders around and it holds up fine.
IHD only has milky clear or black. I use the block because it is opaque. It comes 12 ft. wide and 100 ft. in length. I bought one roll and it has lasted a long time. I also found the same size and thickness at a U-Haul moving place and it was light blue.
I also use it to do a total wrap over some boxes when I discover that the weight and oversize of an item would be better off than going Priority so I wrap and tape the box and ship by other methods [if you catch my drift].
8 mil is very durable, like a poly bag you mentioned, and if you tape it up good, no loose edges to snag on postal equipment and use extra tape. And if you ever do want to ship a blue or black plastic taped box by way of USPS Priority, all I do is place several of the USPS Priority decals on all corners of the box and Viola’ you convert any size box into a USPS Priority box as long as it’s small emough to keep it under the DIM Weight prices.
More food for thought,
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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I shipped my quilts in polymailers. In the beginning, I would use my largest size cut open on one side and slid onto one corner of the quilt, and overlapped that with another cut open and slid onto the opposite corner; then the whole taped securely closed. Then I purchased extra large polymailers and now just ship in that. Adds just ounces to the weight, so postage is low. No complaints yet!
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Update: with the help of a youtube video made by a 7-year old, I was able to successfully vacuum-compress this monster springy comforter into a garbage bag – yippee! I had tried it earlier with no success, but this time I realized that the two important things are a) as the boy showed, stick the vacuum nozzle inside/between the items in the bag, so it doesn’t suck in the bag directly, and b) my own realization that putting the vacuum on low will prevent anything else from getting sucked in and blocking the airflow. So thanks to Mike for telling me to Google it!
I’ve decided to store the comforter in its glorious full size so it doesn’t get permanent wrinkles, vacuum-compress just prior to shipping, and then wrap in a couple of large poly mailers as per Amatino. This brings the weight down below ten pounds and the cross-country shipping cost under $40, which is much more reasonable than the previous $80(!).
Thanks everyone for your help. Now just to get this thing sold!
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