schedule the USPS to come to your DOOR

1. SAVE GAS MONEY & TIME. Don't drive to the post office, schedule the USPS to come to your DOOR (not leave it in your mailbox) daily. If you ship just one priority mail item a day, you can schedule a free carrier pick up for as many items as you want and tell them where to pick it up. If packages are left in the mailbox they often get damp or can get stolen I went to the post office and asked for the official mail crate below and leave that on my porch and ask for a new one when the postal carrier picks this one up. I used to schedule my pick up by 2AM the night before (the cut off time), but now that I am regular, I schedule 4 months at a time for the approx. amount of items to pick up. We live in a rural area and a few mail carriers wanted me to put the items in the mailbox but I went on-line and requested "porch pick up" and told them (side porch, inside door, mailbox.) I put for example, 1 priority mail, 2 ground packages daily. That way they will come every day and if I have a few more or less, its not a big deal. When I know I have 40 packages after a weekend, I go on-line and change that for that day, of course! I used to feel badly for the postman having to come up to my door daily, but then my brother in law who is a Postmaster explained that as long as you request a pick up ON-LINE (not just put them out without a pick up), the carrier gets extra time (pay) for coming to the door. Now I know why my carrier laughs and says he feels like Santa when he hauls 40 packages off my porch steps! 2. ORDER A COMPLETE VARIETY OF FREE SUPPLIES FROM THE USPS. If you ship priority mail, which most of us on ebay do, you can get all different size boxes. For example, I order the 1095, 1097 and 1092 side loading boxes (shown in photo) as they are different sizes. I sell mostly clothing and try to keep my items at 1 pound or less -- I packed it in one box and it was 1.1 pounds -- and would be charged for 2# (anything over the exact pound is charged the next higher weight). I pulled out the smallest side loading box and it was 2 ounces lighter - YES! Still could ship it for 1 pound rate which is now almost the same as the flat rate padded envelope. I also make sure to carry f lat rate priority and express mail, tyvek envelopes, padded envelopes, flat rate boxes, etc. However, if you ship things lighter than 3 pounds it is cheaper to weigh it than use a medium flat rate box. I seldom use express mail, but every now and then I will get an email requesting it and nothing is worse than having to make a trip to the PO for the right box, only to discover they are out of stock. Also order the rolls of priority mail and express mail stickers so you can put them on packages that are too large to have a free priority mail box to use. I put one sticker on each side of the package to be sure the post office knows it is not the slow parcel post but priority or express mail. So basically, here's the link, go on-line and order a few of every type of FREE packaging you think you can use (it has to be for shipping with the USPS, it is illegal to use them for anything else or try to turn them inside out and re-use). 3. TRIM THE EDGES OF THE BOXES TO MAKE THEM LIGHTER IF NEED BE. I have an outfit I want to ship in a box (it looks much better to ship it in a box then crumpled up in a tyvek envelope where the tags get damaged). I weigh it and it is 1lb.1.8 oz - so since its over 1 pound I will be charged the higher rate. If I am already using the smallest free priority mail box I have, I don't give up. I just start trimming off the extra parts of the box. I start by snipping the corners of the box top and bottom (If I have to re-open the bottom as I had already sealed it, I just use tape to close it after snipped.) I weight it again and now it is 1 pound EXACTLY - I still have to put on a label and I don't like to be exactly on one pound and risk having a customer get a "postage due" -- gets you off to a very bad start with that customer, I can attest to that! So I always try to be slightly UNDER the pound marks. Back to snipping again. This time I snip the non-sticky side of the top - sometimes I will do the top and bottom. Then I weight it again with the shipping label on -- 15.8 oz - yes! I have just saved around $2.00. It may sound like a lot of work, but snipping the boxes only takes a few seconds, and each add'l pound of shipping is usually $2-$3. At 100 packages a week, that is easily a $400 savings monthly on my priority mail packages (I ship many first class mail in boxes I purchase.) 4. PURCHASE BOXES FOR ITEMS 8 OZ AND LESS and ship first class mail. I used to ship anything "nice" that needed to be boxed priority mail -- until I discovered first class mail boxes you can purchase at stores like U-Line for 50 cents a box. 50 cents for the box - $3.23 if its the maximum shipping weight of 13 oz --- versus $5.50 - $6.50 if its 1 pound priority mail - that a savings of roughly $2-3 dollars per shipment. At 100 first class packages a month, that is at least a savings of $200 dollars. 5. FOR INEXPENSIVE ITEMS THAT AREN'T WORTH BUYING A BOX TO SHIP - I put the item INSIDE a manilla file folders INSIDE the tyvek or mailing envelope for lightweight protection to keep it from getting squished. Manilla envelopes are approx. 14 cents each plus shipping u-line sells poly shipping envelopes large like that one for about 40 cents each or less. Often my package shipping fee for something like an adult size t-shirt is $2.50 plus 50 cents for the manilla envelope and poly mailer - so about $3.00 instead of a priority mail fee of minimum of $5.35 - $6.50 - less if the item is lighter weight. 5. Re-USING OLD SHIPPING PACKAGING - This will depend on your clientele. I sell eco-friendly fair labor hemp & organic cotton tee shirts which are purchased by very earth conscious individuals, like my son who introduced me to hemp clothing. They often may be offended if you ship an earth-friendly shirt wrapped in tissue paper in new packaging. I save my decent old packaging for those items and write in magic marker on the package "recycled packaging - thank you for being earth friendly" so they know I am purposely re-using items, not that I'm too cheap to buy a box or shipping mailer. The majority of my clients expect brand new packaging and the items to look great, so I use new packing materials for them. When I could not afford to buy boxes when my business was smaller, I would cut up or re-use clean but obviously used packaging and write on it "we recycle - thank you for being earth friendly" or print on a slip of paper "we are a green store and recycle whenever possible - thank you for helping save our planet" or something similar so they know you are recycling because you believe recycling is good, not because you went through the dumpster and picked out old boxes to save money shipping to them.:) I have done both and received positive feedback with new or recycled. Its really in your outlook - our attitude shows in our listings, our packages, everything. If you are positive and believe in what you do, it will spread to others. BTW, the boxes I don't recycle in shipping I pay to recycle (in our rural community you have to pay to have your items recycled) so it doesn't end up in a landfill.