Stretch Film: It’s Time to Stock Up

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Alex Kava

So I think the theme of the week here is going to be its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it slash post apocalypse. It probably has a lot do do with the fact that I recently started watching the Walking Dead again, and I’m feeling a little jumpy. I’ve said before how I’m not much of a “what if” kind of person.

I feel pretty grounded in my life and in my beliefs, but there is just something about watching a zombie show that gets me. The over-active imagination doesn’t need much help when being stimulated by something convincingly real. I then begin to think about what would be a beneficial product to have on hand during such a turn of events, and I have to say that stretch film is definitely one of them.

It might be a bit heavy to try dragging around, but that didn’t stop people from carrying around machine guns back in the day either. In a world where bullets and firepower are going to run out quick fast and in a hurry, it would behoove us to be prepared with alternatives. I’m convinced that stretch film is the answer. For one, I have this vision in my head of industrial strength film wrap wrapped around and around a section of trees, to kind of create an enclosed space, many feet higher than the tallest person.

Has anyone ever tried to puncture through heavy-duty industrial grade stretch film? It’s basically impossible. You would pale at the thought of using a sword, because the blade would probably bounce right off and slice through your neck or arm or something horrible. You could shoot it, sure, but if you are a zombie you wouldn’t know how to operate a gun and most people wouldn’t have a gun anyway.

Certain people would have insane amounts, and the rest would pretty much be grossly unarmed. Seriously, while “passing through” making a stretch film fort is a genius idea. You can light a fire and more or less not have to worry about approaching hoards. You could even use it to spin between tree branches and create a sort of spider web for sleeping in.

Any and all of your supplies could be tightly secured in stretch film, making an easily carried bundle and also protecting everything from dirt, pests, and moisture. Surely you have been convinced. I’m telling you guys, it’s time for us to stock up on some stretch film. Like now.

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Bin Liners: It’s Time to Stock Up

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Alex Kava

If there were a zombie apocalypse, or a nuclear fallout, what items would you want to have on hand? At the top of my list would be bin liners, hands down. I’ll explain in a moment. Talking about this kind of stuff always makes me panic a little and begin to formulate a list of all this stuff I need to have on hand, including a bomb shelter.

I’m generally not a “what if” kind of person, and disaster preparedness is certainly at the bottom of my to-do list, but with all of the uber convincing sci-fi and graphic novels out there it’s become quite easy to imagine some insane realities. Granted, if there was a nuclear fallout all of the bottles of water and cans of baked beans would turn to dust, unless they were in said bomb shelter, which has to meet specifications in order to survive.

And a bomb shelter might lose its merit in a zombie apocalypse unless you are stocked up for like 18 months or something crazy like that and can just wait until they all deteriorate before reemerging and taking back the earth. Anyway, it’s easy to get carried away, but bin liners are a very practical item and that is what I would want to have on hand. It’s easy to find bins, right? Keeping something protected from dirt, pests, and water inside of them is a different story. Cleaning out an old trash bin is easy enough.

Without a bin liner you probably wouldn’t want to risk storing your stuff in there. Bin liners could also make amazing ponchos. They could be used to collect water. They could be used to line the roof of a shelter. They could be draped over a frame and used to make a little mini green house. Zombies don’t eat vegetables, so as long as you have secured the perimeter of your garden you shouldn’t have to worry about the produce getting ransacked- unless we’re talking about marauders, but that’s a whole different topic.

Which I guess still applies to bin liners because they could be used to wrap your stash of weaponry before you bury them, and then when you find yourself at war with human beings who are rotten at heart (and not just entirely) you can be assured that your arsenal is safe and ready to go. Bin liners: it’s time to stock up.

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Shipping Bags, Shopping Bags, and More

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Alex Kava

Until I started writing mini-articles about packaging and shipping supplies, I had no idea the different types of products that are out there, and the vast amount of products under those main categories. I mean, it can get really interesting and I’m not saying that because I’m paid to. It turns out that packaging and shipping supplies are also good items to use when organizing your home, or for your business, or even just to have on hand for everyday use.

Consider shipping bags. Shipping bags are also packaging bags, mailing bags, reclosable bags, poly bags, foam pouches, shrink bags, thank you bags, merchandise bags… I can really go on and on. And I think I will. Shipping bags can also be sandwich bags, trash bags, dunnage bags, static shielding bags, coffee bags, cellophane bags, bags with an adhesive backing … Am I done yet? No, I’m not! Newspaper bags, doorknob bags, garment bags, bread bags, bubble bags, paper bags, dunnage bags, packing list envelopes, bin liners, ice bags… Did I mention shipping bags yet? You see, all of these bags can be used to facilitate the packaging and shipping process. Obviously you aren’t going to package or ship coffee beans just in a cardboard box, or even in leftover bag you got from the last time you went shopping at Wal Mart. Coffee bags are what you will want to use when dealing with coffee.

You would never think that a website like PackagingSupplies.com would be able to supply just about any and all of your organizing needs for your small business. As you have just seen, you don’t have to be in the business of shipping products to become a patron of this company. You simply just need to have a business. You may be looking under ‘shipping bags’, but this is where you will find all manner of merchandise bags, and you don’t have to be planning on sending them off in the mail to benefit from them. Did I mention the wholesale prices?

At PackagingSupplies.com, not only are the supplies worth attracting your business, the prices should too. Just the other day I went online to buy some shipping bags, and I wound up also buying some trash bags (forgot those at Costco), and I bought some sandwich baggies (because I forgot those at the grocery store). And you know what? I might just keep buying them from PackagingSupplies.com…

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The Spirit of Shipping Boxes

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Alex Kava

Consider this scenario. It is the holiday season and, unfortunately, I found myself having to mail off an item that I was returning to Amazon. Of course if it was not a time sensitive item I would have waited a good two or three weeks until after the New Year, but such was not the case this time around. You can’t win ‘em all…

The part that really sucked was that I had to take my two toddlers with me. That’s right, my three-year-old and two-year-old (who was also sick, by the way), in line, at the post office, during the holiday season. This is truly the stuff of nightmares, people. Thankfully, I found the Spirit of Christmas smiled down upon me during this visit. But that is not the point of the story, although the Spirit of Christmas is always nice to give a nod to. The point of this story is shipping boxes. And what better place to have a story about shipping boxes than the United States Postal Service? It’s chock full of them! While the three of us were making our way into the building, we saw that the man walking ahead of us was holding a very beautifully wrapped Christmas present, complete with a green bow in the top left hand corner.
Shipping Boxes

It was your standard size clothing gift box, and he was obviously on the hunt for something to send it in. My son didn’t notice him searching through the shipping boxes, he was more interested in the actual gift. He looked at me with shining eyes, “A present, Mommy!” And then his dimple began showing, and his little jack-o-lantern teeth started gleaming: “Can I have that?” Thankfully he asked, and did not assume, and was able to laugh off his naivety. This man began going through some seriously huge boxes, and my eyes kept lighting on a choice that would have been much more logical.

I was hoping to send him a message through the airwaves, but the Spirit of Christmas was apparently too distracted with keeping my daughter from blowing her nose into my shoulder and my son from digging in the trash bin. When it comes to shipping boxes, the right size really is a crucial part of the decision making process.

Thankfully, at PackagingSupplies.com there are over one thousand sizes to choose from, in a variety of different styles. Wanna know the clincher of this whole scenario? Apparently the envelope I was trying to send off was not overweight afterall and only needed one stamp. Gimme a break…

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The Five Ws of Stretch Wrap Film

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Alex Kava

Ah yes, the five Ws. We’ve seen them before in the case of cheap cardboard boxes, and probably bin liners, and most certainly packaging tape. Now… now we see them in the case of stretch wrap film. What are the five Ws, you may ask? The who, what, when, where, and why of stretch wrap film, of course! Watch:

Who: In keeping with the times, stretch wrap film does not discriminate, and this means that it can be used by anyone and for anyone. Hand held rolls for the pallet wrapper (don’t forget the dispenser, which will make the job so very much easier, take my word for it), or machine grade size for the machine operator.

Polypropylene sheets that crinkle and twinkle for the gift basket maker. Saran wrap for the caterer or soup kitchen director or homemaker. Poly sheeting for the serial killer (I couldn’t help it. Dexter must have spent an absolute fortune on poly sheeting… and he still had to wind up going off to the woods and growing a beard…).
Stretch Wrap Film

What: Stretch wrap film is pretty self-explanatory, but I will humor the W in the name of what is going on here. Stretch wrap film is that flexible and clingy plastic that can be saran wrap when dealing with food and pallet wrap when dealing with industrial things. Also belonging to the family is shrink film; or poly tubing, which you can make your own size packaging bags from if you have the correct accessories (namely, the heat sealer).

When: At this point I may be kind of repeating myself, but stretch wrap film is used in simple everyday situations (like trying to preserve your leftovers) and in not so simple everyday situations (like trying to secure a pallet of boxes). It is better to have the option of those chicken strips for tomorrow, or to reduce the hazard of losing thousands of dollars of product and safety concerns, too, is what I always say.

Where: at PackagingSupplies.com you can find all of the products with which to satisfy your stretch wrap film needs, amongst a host of other things.

Why: Don’t you like to dress up those gift baskets you hand out every Christmas? Don’t you want to save money on expensive cloth drop cloths and just use a piece of clear poly sheeting instead? The why is pretty simple, people. Preservation of any and all kinds: food, products, people, gifts… The list is endless.

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Cheap Shipping Boxes and Beyond

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Alex Kava

What do you get when you put ‘cheap’ and ‘shipping boxes’ together? Why, cheap shipping boxes of course! And I’m not talking about crappy quality containers, I’m talking about affordable because cardboard should be affordable. It sucks when the storage or shipping item costs upwards of whatever it is holding. Like when you go to Bed Bath and Beyond and pick out something for someone’s wedding gift registry, and then you have to go out and drop eight dollars on the fancy shmancy bag to wrap it in! I mean, you have to use one of those twenty percent off coupons just for the packaging. It does make tend to make one a little sick. Which is why cheap shipping boxes are such a breath of fresh air.

PackagingSupplies.com is an online supplier for all packaging and shipping supplies or needs, and even beyond. They offer retail items at wholesale prices- and even industrial, commercial, specialty, you-name-it items at wholesale prices. This is where you can honest to goodness get cheap shipping boxes that are still good quality shipping boxes but also cheap at the same time. I know that it doesn’t sound like it should make sense, or even that it can make sense, but it turns out that there are still businesses out there who’s goal is to keep their customers by providing them a quality item at competitive prices with amazing service.

PackagingSupplies.com is exclusively an online company, which winds up working in the favor of the customer. When you visit the website you are assured that anyone involved in the business doesn’t have to be splitting their time between locations and all of the issues and responsibilities that go along with buildings, people, and paperwork.

If you are looking for more than cheap shipping boxes, look no further. Remember those stinking gift bags I was complaining about earlier? Well, you can even buy some versions of this at PackagingSupplies.com. And if you choose to not go with a bag, you can get all sorts of acceptable looking boxes to wrap your stuff in, too. Why bother putting spatulas and placemats in a ridiculous bag when you can just access your stash of gift boxes, choosing between kraft, white, black, red, gold, or silver?

There are sizes small enough for a ring, and large enough for something, well, much larger. Even if you aren’t looking for something else, there’s a good chance that when you go to buy some cheap shipping boxes you will wind up finding a bunch of other stuff that you’ve been needing, too.

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I Heart Bin Liners

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Alex Kava

My sister works at a cupcake factory. Those of us who go into such a place just see the finished product behind the glass, looking decadent and amazing. Or, like at my sister’s place of employment, you can see some of the employees mixing together batters and icings and whatnot in giant, industrial size mixers.

They pour ingredients in from enormous tubs. None of us ever know the behind-the-scenes, except for me, because I have the ‘inside’ scoop. It turns out that the manager is in charge of ordering supplies, and that there is no type of fairy who harvests cotton candy clouds and cooks them down to make sugar, which they then deliver to the backdoor of sweet shops all around the world.

Bin Liners

A lot of those supplies come in enormous cardboard boxes, the kind we all dreamed about as a kid. The kind we could have made an apartment building out of. In order to keep the contents fresh and clean, there are bin liners which line the bins (aka boxes). These boxes come stuffed to the brim with insane amounts of chocolate chunks, all of which get melted down on site to dip pretzels in, or gummy bears… The bin liners make it easy on everyone. The manufacturer’s job is easier, because they don’t have to worry about their product maintaining its quality. They can just line a bin, slide that baby under some type of dispensing system, and release extreme amounts of peanuts, or coconut flakes, or white chocolate chips (or however it works).

The delivery man’s job is easier, because it’s a lot easier to move cardboard instead of something much more heavy duty. The business owner’s job is easier because, thanks to the bin liners, they don’t have to worry about trying to find a different way to store their product when they get it in. They can just leave it all in the boxes, tie them up at night, and sleep without any worry or care about critters or varmints soiling the goods. It’s all so much easier so that we can walk into a cupcake factory and have an insane amount of flavors and goodnesses to choose from.

If it wasn’t easier, we would probably have just chocolate and vanilla still, instead of lavender pistachio and peanut butter with a chocolate ganache, and all those fancy words. But I’m sure that none of this matters, because I probably had you at, “My sister works at a cupcake factory…”

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Cardboard Boxes: A Few of My Favorite Things

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Alex Kava

It goes without saying that cardboard boxes are one of my favorite things. I say that it goes without saying because without cardboard boxes there would be a serious lack of certain amazing things in my life. For instance, anything off of Amazon. You wouldn’t think about it like that, but it’s totally true.

I couldn’t order awesome books at shockingly low prices and have them arrive at my doorstep a mere two days later if it wasn’t for the advances that have been made in the world of packaging supplies. So, what really goes without saying is that cardboard boxes are one of my favorite things because they [can] hold my actual favorite things. Boxes of books. Literally my favorite thing in the world. Unless it’s a box of snacks from Trader Joe’s that my best friend mailed to me because we don’t have Trader Joe’s on the east coast (or anywhere that I’ve ever lived. What is up with that?). And inside of that box of snacks are the individual cardboard boxes that hold the actual snacks: pumpkin seed and cranberry pita crisps, dark chocolate covered mint truffles, maple syrup and praline instant oatmeal. All of these things in cardboard boxes.

SINGLE WALL, 16/11/05, 6:04 pm, 8C, 2252x3002 (418+675), 80%, CENTREMARK, 1/10 s, R69.0, G68.0, B89.0

You see, cardboard boxes didn’t just revolutionize the packaging and shipping industries. They revolutionized all industries, including the domestic one. The option to package something in cardboard makes it cheaper to purchase and available to more people. Not to mention that pretty much anything can be ordered online now.  Not only that, after you’ve received an order, or what have you, you’ve got a free cardboard box!

So the pile of extension cords can get tucked away, labeled with the hasty scrawl of a permanent marker, and slid up on the top shelf in the basement storage closet. Or you can pick up all the junk your kids constantly leave lying around, stash it in said box, and label it ‘gardening supplies’, so that when they ask if you’ve seen their iPod anywhere, you can say, “Last time I checked it was with the gardening supplies”, and they will think you are being a sarcastic jerk, but one day they just might catch on.

Probably not, though. And then you can bring the box out one Christmas season after everyone has grown up and moved out and have their own kids, and everyone will laugh until they are crying…hopefully…

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Where Are Shipping Boxes Wholesale?

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Alex Kava

I recently did a whole bit about answering questions with a question, and I was really enjoying throwing out some rhetorical questions (i.e. a figure of speech in the form of a question in order to make a point). We’ve all been asked some rhetorical questions.

I’m sure that when I first mentioned it your mind immediately zipped back to a hidden place in your childhood, and this vision surfaces of your father’s face looking down at you, and you hear the echo of your question as it fades away, “But why can’t I trade my brother in?” And your dad goes, “What do you think?” Burn, Dad. Seriously, man.

shipping-boxes

I have to admit that even though rhetorical questions decorate a lot of a child’s memories, I often find myself using them on my son, hoping that they will reveal how foolish he sounds. “Stop chewing on the desk.” “Why?” “Why do you think?” “Think?” “Why do you think you should stop chewing on the desk?” “Desk…” In the end, I’m the one that always winds up looking like a fool, but I’m really hoping that one day it will work. But you get my point.

The question here is: Where are shipping boxes wholesale?

And I will answer that question with this question, “Have you ever been to PackagingSupplies.com?”

You hesitate, recognizing a sense of déjà vu about this whole scenario, but you take the bait anyway: “What is that?”

At which point, once again, I break the cycle to talk about PackagingSupplies.com, and how they sell packaging supplies, and how this is where you can find shipping boxes wholesale. Not only can you find shipping boxes wholesale, in literally hundreds of sizes, shapes, and styles, you can find just about any other obscure and awesome packaging or shipping supply that exists. Any kind of packaging tape (seventeen varieties!)… An absolutely insane amount of plastic bags, for anything from your workshop to your Etsy shop to your bookshop… It’s incredible.

Still skeptical, and still not really knowing if this is déjà vu or not, you say, “Are you sure that this is where I can find shipping boxes wholesale?” Perhaps you don’t believe that such an option really exists, for which I wouldn’t blame you. Finding a good price on any kind of box is really hard to come by. I mean, those suckers are expensive. So I can appreciate and understand your natural mistrust.

But then, grinning once again, I would reply with: “Is Bill Gates rich?”

Get it?

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If There Were No Cardboard Boxes for Sale

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Alex Kava

Take and a minute and try to imagine if no stores had cardboard boxes for sale. Actually, back up a minute. Take a minute and try to imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have access to cardboard boxes. How would we pack up our homes? How would we store things in the garage? If we didn’t have cardboard boxes we probably wouldn’t even have plastic totes because surely the former idea derived from the latter.

I imagine we would be using wooden crates for everything again. I wonder if we would even live lives as complicated as they are. If you really think about it, would we own as much as we do if there were no cardboard boxes? I imagine that online stores wouldn’t really be an option. After all, unless they could mail everything in a bag, surely they wouldn’t even exist?

I mean, all of that stuff comes in cardboard boxes, from the diapers to the books to the electronics. Online shopping would cease to exist! And if that was the reality, then Cyber Monday wouldn’t exist! Cyber Monday was just a couple days ago, and I got some seriously amazing deals. I got like six hundred dollars worth of tools for under two hundred (can I get a “woop woop”?). And this access to tools is a lot more serious than you might assume. We moved into our home, a real fixer upper, over three years ago, and this whole time we have been nickeling and diming our supplies, and struggling and making do.

A nail gun for twenty bucks? You’ve got to be kidding me! This would probably cut putting up trim by hours. All of those tools will be arriving in cardboard boxes. If I couldn’t have ordered them online for rock bottom prices, because they couldn’t be shipped to my home, we would continue to labor through the home remodeling process. I guess the patience and labor is all just part of not wanting to remodel off of credit, but cardboard boxes for sale, I’m realizing as I write this, have really opened up a lot of doors for us!

And if manufacturers didn’t have cardboard boxes for sale, then the place I buy my supplements from wouldn’t have access to them, and then they wouldn’t be able to send me the protein shakes and cellulite reducer to my house. And then I would have cellulite! I refuse to accept this as a way of life, and I’m so stinking glad that I don’t have to.

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