Hi everyone!

I get so many requests on packing. Like my middle name is UPS and I invented cardboard.
How do I ship this?
How did YOU ship THAT?!
Shipping is so scary. But so expensive. Help.

But I get it. Unless you schlepped around packing and unpacking boxes and orders like I did for years in retail (amongst 500 other things I did in retail) it IS a scary, intimidating realm. So I’m throwing out my TOP TEN tips for being a packing master and loving a planet a little bit by reusing shipping material you receive in a cool, non-trash hoarder way. There’s a learning curve so just roll with it.

So let’s crack into it. If you don’t get this reference, you haven’t been listening to ATTWD yet. Shame.

TOP TEN PACKING + SHIPPING TIPS

INSURANCE. Top priority is for your items to arrive safely. So INSURE YOUR ARTWORK FOR THE ACTUAL VALUE. If you’re a master packer or not, get your local shipping store to package everything or not, I don’t think this is worth saving extra money on. NOT adding insurance is not where you should be cutting corners (buying extra shipping supplies is, hello, mother Earth. Or literally anywhere else in your business.)
Fun Fact: When you insure something at UPS, if it’s over $1,000 it is dubbed a HIGH VALUE item and gets special paper work. Then it lives in a totally separate part of the truck carrying it to reduce potential damage and gets the royal treatment from the UPS employees.
VS. NO INSURANCE. I know I’m confusing you guys. So my dear, dear friend who is crazy talented actually does not insure her work. Why? Because dealing with damage claims via your shipping provider takes WEEKS (three months in one case for me) and they aren’t very understanding of the arts. Which I get. There are bigger issues in the world. So she simply recreates the work in an event that there is damage upon arrival. Which has only happened a handful of times to her. She also does this because the time it takes her to recreate the piece is exponentially faster than dealing with the claims office. This won’t work for everyone’s process, style and timeline but it’s something to consider. Just don’t cut corners here to save on cash. Recreating work is stressful, never comes out the same is isn’t a fun task.
OVERPACK. When in doubt, if the question ‘is this enough bubble wrap?’ ever crosses your mind, the answer is NO. It’s not Karen. Get to adding more. There should be virtually no movement happening inside of the package once it’s sealed. However, PLEASE NOTE: You need to leave a small amount of wiggle room or your work will actually be more prone to breaking in transit due to stress. It will end up absorbing all of the shock vs. the heavy duty material surrounding it. I suggest anywhere from 0.25” - 1” around the edges of your work to meet the next packing piece.
MATERIALS. Bubble wrap (bigger the work, bigger the size of the actual bubbles on the wrap), flat sheets of cardboard, reused airpaks, eco-friendly packing peanuts (corn starch based), packing tape, box cutter, sharp scissors, corner protectors, recyclable tissue paper, thank you notes, FRAGILE stickers, flat mailers (for smaller work), reused sheets of bubble (in good condition.) and more!
BULK SUPPLIES. So there’s no right or wrong material to use for your packing. However, I highly recommend you order what you need, reuse what you can. You can REUSE the airpaks from what you are ordering in your supply shipment! ULINE is a great resource for bulk items. Hot Tip: Split a big order up with a friend if you don’t need 200 of something or simply can’t store it. ULINE will deliver to your home (must be there to sign-off on the delivery) or you can pick it up at the nearest warehouse for free. You can also rip out all of the pages from the massive catalogs they will proceed to send you and use it as cushion in your next package. (Am I kidding? Am I not? …don’t do this. Just recycle the catalog.)
GREEN PACKING. Ok, so I’m talking a lot about reusing materials. And some of you may not be really keen on this. But so many of us are lazy and just throw things away rather than properly recycle them. Or reuse them. In the end, ALL DISPOSABLE PACKAGING IS BAD. Cardboard (huge carbon footprint compared to plastic, surprisingly), airpaks, bubble wrap… it’s all no good. But by reusing what you receive, you will cut the environmental impact in half. If you’re worried about the customer experience when they open their box (first impression is very important!) then at the very least, use the same kinds of packing materials for that box. For example, all white paper, all reusable brown kraft paper, all green airpaks. You get the gist. Color coordinate what you can and don’t beat yourself up if you buy additional packing supplies. We are doing our best!
GLASS VS. CANVAS. So if you ship framed pieces, I am not your girl. I leave framing with glass up to my clients and frame shops! YouTube is your savior here.
CANVAS VS. WOOD PANEL. Once the painting gets up to a certain size or weight, I turn over the shipping to the pros. I’ll have a wood crate built (this is totally specific to region and resources. No recs for you but ask around or as always, GOOGLE IT) to get the large work safely to my collectors (in the rare event that I ship something large directly to a client.) This is another reason I give ALL of my work over 24x24” to the galleries I work with. They ship and I get to keep painting. Again, very rarely do I ship anything privately to a client that is above the 24x24” dimensions. And when I do, I shop around for the best price because ultimately the client will be paying said price for shipping. Sometimes using a courier is better than anything else. It eliminates packing altogether and gets there safely! Roadie is an awesome app to look into for this. Or ask your sister’s boyfriend if they want an extra $200 to drive something to Charlotte for you. Couldn’t hurt.
WORKS ON PAPER. Works on paper are pretty easy! But the larger they get, the trickier the shipping. Try to always ship your work flat if you can. And put everything in a plastic sleeve (Amazon has a ton of options for these. Self-sealed at the top.) I reinforce my small works on paper with a piece of cardboard that is at least 1” larger around the edges to prevent bending and sandwich two pieces together. Wrap in tissue. Add a note. Put in the flat mailer. Boom. Sometimes you’ll want to use a tube for larger paper work (or will you? Again, it’s all personal preference) but if there’s any risk that the medium you used will crack, peel, or be damaged from rolling and putting in said tube, find another way. This is another reason I typically only sell small works on paper through myself. Shipping is a scary thing folks. Don’t make it harder for yourself.
WHEN IN DOUBT, PAY SOMEONE ELSE TO PACK. Listen. You can build all the boxes you want to, buy all of the industrial bubble from Home Depot and even watch 50 hours worth of YouTube videos on how to pack the safest shipment. But at the end of the day, time is money. And if this is all over your head, pay someone else to do it! I’m a control freak and have had my fair share of horror stories with my shipping facilities. So I take a lot of these tasks on myself. But give your local shipping store a shot. Stick around while they’re packing so you can make sure that your art arrives safely. YOU HAVE THAT RIGHT. They are trained but… we all fall short sometimes. I’ve had things arrived damaged before because I was too nice and didn’t speak up. And then I was stressed all over again dealing with the claim and unhappy collector. Not worth it. Do your research, use the best, pay the extra money, do what feels right to you. We are professionals, after all!
Xx,. Allison