Category Archives: Stretch Wrap

Order Your Holiday Gifts Now Instead of Later

Now that we’re officially into the thick of holiday season, time starts to feel like it dilates a lot simply because there are so many holidays in such a short time span. Think about it: Halloween at the end of October; Thanksgiving at the end of November; Christmas at the end of December; and New Year’s also at the end of December. It’s quite the lineup of holidays in essentially 2 entire months (Oct 31st to Dec 31st).

But what makes it so entirely packed for me in particular, though, are birthdays. When my dad’s falls on at the end of October, mine falls mid November, my brother’s falls late November, and my mom falls in late December, well, you’ve suddenly just introduced 4 more important dates alongside the 4 I already named that are holidays.

Needless to say, around this time of year you can find quite a bit of shipping boxes sitting on our front porch thanks to online shopping. And while a lot of people mumble and grumble about how online shopping has ruined this era, I think they’re just resistant to any sort of change in the first place. In all reality, shopping online has helped unique stores sell their niche products to niche audiences, and retail companies have been forced to shift their thinking and practicality of selling products by also moving online. Without such a boom in Internet sales, malls would be overcrowded like they used to be and traffic would be worse around this time of year. At the very least, Black Friday may be less ridiculous than it used to be.

The thing is, procrastination still happens no matter what type of shopping you’re doing, so it’s important for us to stay on top of our holiday and birthday gifts early and often. In fact, we’re sitting down this weekend to order multiple items for our parents and family members to have it done here and now instead of waiting until December to have things shipped. As everyone knows, the longer you wait, the better chances that a few shipping boxes won’t arrive to your home on time for a certain holiday or birthday. And I’d rather not stress this year about holiday gifts like I did last year. It’s just not worth it and takes no time to do.

Overall, I’m stoked for the holidays this year simply because it seems like I’ve got everything planned out much farther in advance than I ever used to. It’s smooth sailing from here!

3 Packaging Supplies You Didn’t Know You Needed

When it comes to being the most prepared you can be for a move or even just for transporting new furniture and decor back into your home, there’s nothing better than having the right shipping supplies available to make transportation of certain materials and items much easier, safer, and efficient.

The thing is, there are a lot of shipping supplies out there that some of you may not be aware of. While moving boxes, bubble wrap, and packing tape may be quite familiar to you, would you be able to name off other products that movers use on a daily basis to make their job easier and more efficient? Probably not.

With that said, check out these three moving supplies to increase your knowledge on the wide variety of supplies out there for your own convenience.

Moving blankets.

These are some of the most handy things out there that have more than one use for your move. More than anything, moving blankets are like large, thick quilts used to protect bigger furniture from rips, tears, scratches, and more. Basically, they’re just cushioning and a material in between to help preserve the nature of your furniture and belongings so that nothing becomes damaged or broken. The last thing you want to happen when moving is add more to the stress of the move.

As another use, though, moving blankets are amazing for transporting heavy pieces of furniture without wheels across flooring that’s prone to scratching. Not only do the blankets protect your floor, they also make it a heck of a lot easier to move things around in tighter spaces.

Padded wrapping paper.

As an alternative to moving blankets, you can use padded wrapping paper instead. Basically, this looks like brown paper bags that have cushioning built in so that it can be wrapped around pieces of furniture to prevent any sort of scratching or tears. While this is more of a temporary, lighter weight material for moves compared to the permanent heavy duty nature of moving blankets, it can be quicker and easier to use in a pinch.

Stretch plastic wrap.

This kind of looks like Saran wrap and is available in different dimensions to fit your needs. They’re great for wrapping drawers so that they don’t come flying open in transit like you’re probably used to. This stuff is pretty great for protecting softer furniture from rips and tears, too. Heck, it prevents your furniture from getting dirty or wet, too.

Music & Tattoos

Last weekend I was in the mood to listen to my record player. So, I started going through some of my vinyl record collection, all housed in old shipping boxes, and I came across one of my favorite albums out there.

https://youtu.be/ybuy6iuvbRo

For me, being able to really digest an album in its entirety means a lot more than “listening to music” as most people do today. Songs are the moneymakers in today’s music industry, which has unfortunately driven a lot of artists away from the art that is making an entire album. While I may be generalizing some, pop music has taken off and stayed strong through the last few decades simply because those musicians are willing to sacrifice their art for far more money. You can’t even blame them, though, because who wouldn’t want to get paid more?

But some artists aren’t willing to sacrifice their artistic design and their own influence on a record. They know the process, the emotions, the creation, and the experience of it all is far too intertwined to compromise for fame and money. They’re the few who prefer to keep it to how it used to be. They want to make real music.

Sturgill Simpson is one of those artists, and he’s my favorite musician out there because of his take on the music industry. He’s too old school to care about fame and money and big lights. Instead, he forges his path through experimental country music. And if anyone ever fit the bill of against the grain, it’s Sturgill.

So as I listened to his second album on my record player, I got to thinking about life and expression and art, and I realized I finally came across the perfect image and idea for my first tattoo. You see, I’ve long been the guy to say “I want a tattoo, I just never can decide on something once and for all”. But that suddenly changed when I settled on a tattoo idea based off of one of Sturgill’s tracks on his second album.

Such introspection and deep thought (combined with my favorite artist’s classic voice) led me to a better realization of myself and being able to finally be decisive on a topic that I really do need to be absolutely certain about. If I had never dug through my shipping boxes to find a few records I wanted to listen to, I’m not sure I would’ve ever come to the decision that I know what I want for a tattoo now.

Picking Up Your Home Can Pick Up Your Mood

I get pretty stressed when the house is out of order, things are laying around in places they shouldn’t be, and for the most part, everything is just in a state of constant disarray.

Honestly, I’m probably like most people who find these things bothersome and stressful, and by the time you even want to do something about it, it’s too big to tackle all at once (which only adds to the stress even more).

The problem with handling this sort of recurring situation is getting to the root of it all: and that’s organization.

But organization is an intangible sort of thing, you know. It’s hard to nail down what it means to be organized and how to instill such a “skill” in yourself. The good thing is that a lot of it starts with the type of storage and supplies you have around your home. The more tools and containers you have to be organized, the more likely you are to be successful at keeping everything cleanly and in order.

So, that’s where I started recently with my girlfriend. We got a few containers meant for storage purposes and some other basic shipping supplies like packing tape and sharpies so that we could mark on the containers to show what goes where. The good thing about such tape, too, is that it can easily be peeled off and replaced if you happen to dedicate that container to other items.

Since we’ve taken the time to actually get things in order and have dedicated spaces for an assortment of items, things have been so amazing around our home. Nothing is ever scattered out and about anymore. And we’re so, so much better about keeping things picked up and in their right spots. It’s amazing how a few containers, some shipping supplies, and a will to do it all can completely transform the way you keep your home in order.

And even better than all of that is how happy and relaxed we are in our home as of late. The amount of stress that can build up within you when you’re surrounding by a state of disarray is criminally underrated. Only after getting everything cleaned up and constantly spotless did I realize how much less stressed I felt each evening after coming home from work. There’s no other way to put it than saying I’m just genuinely happier and healthier (mentally, especially) because of the changes we’ve made.

What Is “Too Many” Boxes?

I grew up in a household absolutely stocked with cardboard shipping boxes. While that may bring to mind a house stuffed full of different sizes and shapes of boxes in every room, that’s not exactly the case.

For a little bit of context, both of my parents have worked for the post office all of their lives. So, it’s really no surprise that we always had a gajillion cardboard boxes on hand for any given scenario.

Heck, Christmas time was always super easy considering there was always another box to use for wrapping gifts in. I never had to seek out bags or other containers to wrap any gifts in. I’d just go to the back room, grab a handful of boxes that fit the various items I wanted to wrap, and went to work. It was always super convenient around the holidays that we had so many boxes.

The funny thing, though, is that we never really got much use out of these abundant shipping boxes for the rest of the year. I mean, if we ever actually had to ship something, I’d know where to look for a box that fit whatever it was I’d be sending. But in regards to other uses for boxes, we didn’t find many.

It comes as no surprise that we’d have such an overabundance of cardboard boxes in our home, though. Considering that my parents basically lived at the post office, they happened to bring home a lot from time to time to keep our stash up to date and fully stocked.

When I look back on all the boxes we had, I can’t help but feel like we could’ve made more use of them throughout the year. Whether we wanted to do crafts, use them for practical things like kindling or storage, or even recycle half of the stock of boxes since we never used even that many, I feel as if we had far too many boxes.

In reality, though, my mind is probably imagining far more boxes than we actually had, especially because my most vivid memories of that back room were from my childhood. And when you’re a kid, everything is much bigger and grandiose than when you’re an adult and have a greater sense of perspective. Overall, the impressive collection of boxes never cost my family a penny, so I suppose that’s why we always had an “overstock” of boxes. Why not have more than you need if it’s not costing you anything, right?

Benefits of Stretch Wrap Machines

Stretch wrap is a big part of shipping products to stores on tall pallets. Pallets usually have to be wrapped up again after being worked at the store to stock shelves. This can be a time consuming and costly process since the employees have to do it by hand and may use more wrap than what they need to. This can lead to tired employees and possibly improperly wrapped pallets. What can be done about this? A stretch wrap machine may be the perfect answer.

The initial cost may be expensive, however the money saved can allow the machine to pay for itself over time. Ranging from 5k – 10k may seem like a lot of money to spend on a piece of equipment that does such a simple job but it can save money and energy. Workers can’t get the stretch wrap to reach it’s full potential and that can get costly since they are then using more than what is needed to wrap pallets. What a stretch wrap machine will do is use less of the wrap while still securing the stack of product securely. The machine will also wrap faster than what one can do by hand. This would save time for other tasks!

Allowing the machine to do the wrapping will also reduce product loss. An improperly wrapped stack of product can fall over or individual products may become lose and slip past the plastic. Quality plastics will also continue to stretch to max potential. If the wrap didn’t reach full potential while being secured initially, products may stretch out the plastic and cause product loss.

Worker energy and efficiency will also increase with having a stretch wrap machine. Wrapping a large pallet isn’t easy. It takes a lot of energy and a toll on the back. By investing in a wrap machine, this allows workers to complete other tasks while the machine wraps the pallet. Workers could also prepare the next pallet to get wrapped while the machine works on one itself. This could also reduce labor costs since more work will be getting completed faster!

Finally, tall pallets will be able to get wrapped as well. This will reduce the number of pallets that would need to get put away after stocking and reduce the cost of wrap since you could put more on one instead of multiple. The average person can not safely wrap a pallet over about 6 feet tall. The wrap machine would be able to safely wrap pallets that are taller than the person who would be doing the work otherwise.

If your business wraps many pallets a week and you have to spend a lot of time wrapping them back up after stocking, it may be very beneficial to invest in a stretch wrap machine. Of course, the initial cost isn’t great, but over time it will pay for itself. The machine will reduce product loss, employee cost, and cost of the wrap itself since you will be using less. Employees will be able to accomplish more work since they won’t be stuck wrapping pallets that they are done with. The option to build taller pallets will also reduce the cost of wrap because you will be wrapping less over all pallets! What’s better than saving money and accomplishing more tasks during the day? A stretch wrap machine may be a budgeting hero for your company!

Stretch Wrap Dispensers are a Must

If you deal with stretch wrap then odds are that you deal with the stretch wrap dispensers. If you don’t, let me give you a few reasons for why you should (just keep in mind that they aren’t listed in order of most to least important, because they are all equally important). And now, reasons why stretch wrap dispensers are a must:

There are many different sizes. Just because you use a certain kind of stretch wrap doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a dispenser. El contrare! There are actually stretch wrap dispensers for mini stretch wrap, the bigger ones are adjustable, and they even have a dispenser for bundling wrap. Also, there is an extended handle which allows for packaging and bundling taller loads, and it also eliminates the need to bend over when wrapping the bottom of the load.

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Using stretch wrap dispensers offers a tighter wrap, and that’s exactly what you want. When wrapping or bundling by hand you are susceptible to hand fatigue and just awkwardness in general. Those stretch wrap rolls are pretty stinking heavy, and they are either too big or too small to handle effectively.
By wrapping tighter, the chances of whatever you are shipping arriving in its intended state increases exponentially. Otherwise, all manner of obstacles and impediments could cause the load to shift and the product to be damaged, even beyond repair.
If you think that you are saving money by cutting the corner of using stretch wrap dispensers, I would stand to reason that you aren’t. Saving money, that is. Dealing with stretch wrap manually often results in a lot of waste since unrolling the wrap is harder to start and stop without the dispenser. Not to mention the wrap is not as tight as it could be, resulting in more stretch wrap being used than is necessary for the job.
If the actual stretch wrap dispensers seem like overkill to you and exceed your needs, there are other options. Consider the double handle wrapper. When using this, you don’t have to spend unnecessarily on extended cores; this rod goes through the regular core and allows you to hold onto both ends securely. Last but not least, if you absolutely refuse to invest in any type of dispenser, consider the handi-ring set. Quite simply, these are two plastic rings that fit into either end of the roll and makes for wrapping by hand quite a bit easier.

Stretch Film: The Solution to Your Project

On the one hand I’ve been talking a lot about the end of the world, and all of those wild speculations we insecure human beings come up with. In these different scenarios, stretch film appears to be a major solution to many problems. And, more than likely, its merits would go unnoticed, which leaves more for us.

On the other hand, I started watching Project Runway again (the final season of All Stars) and my creative juices have really begun flowing. I used to sew when I was a little girl, but I never considered sewing my own clothes. Apparently a lot of the designers on this show started designing and sewing their own clothes because they were poor or overweight or something like that. While I was not overweight, my wardrobe did consist primarily of hand-me-downs and thrift store sales.

It never occurred to me to try making my own outfits. I actually continued to shop at the thrift store even after I got old enough to start working, and I pretty much still go there a lot of the time. But that is neither here nor there… My favorite episode on Project Runway is always the unconventional materials challenge. I just watched the designers have to gather supplies from a construction site and use them to make some fabulous creations. I was thinking about how cool it would be if they had to go through a packaging and shipping supply store.

There would be some seriously awesome and equally unconventional stuff to choose from. I think I would go for the stretch film. I would probably wrap some cardboard in it, so that it would be nice and viscous looking and also easy to bend with a curve. A medium of this type would be moldable almost like clay, and since the stretch film would stick to itself, it would be easy to keep in place.

Or I could make some amazing bodysuit type thing. And then, at the end, during the clip of my interview about the win, where I would wave my hookah pen (which is apparently what cool people call their e-cigarettes), proudly sporting the tattoo around my neck that looks like a needle and thread sewing my head back on, I would say, “I don’t know what I would have done if there hadn’t been any stretch film, man. You know?”

Stretch Wrap Film and Related Topics

By now it’s no secret that my job is to talk about packaging and shipping supplies. I have to say I kind of love it because it means that, indirectly, I get to talk about every single topic under the sun I can think of. Because, somehow, packaging and shipping supplies touch every corner of the earth from every moment of time.

Like Christmas! Particularly at this time of year, which is the holiday season for all of you who may be reading this at a later day (or earlier, depending on how you look at it), I am seeing all of these ways that the things I talk about in my job relate to Christmas! I’ve talked about how Santa Claus must use bins and bin liners in his toy factory, and how cheap cardboard boxes come in really handle when you find yourself continuously mailing off gifts. But it turns out that stretch wrap film is where it’s at. I mean, no way could I have saved all those Thanksgiving leftovers without the stuff. I think I ate leftovers like three times on Black Friday. Have I mentioned Thanksgiving leftovers are my jam?

It’s going to be the same thing with Christmas: stretch wrap film, wrapping up all of that delicious honey-baked ham and roasted vegetables and… I just need to stop now before this turns into a piece on cooking or, more accurately, on eating food. I am not ashamed to admit that I like eating food a heck of a lot more than cooking it (excuse the expletive. Which reminds me of a really funny story but that would get me way further off topic, if that’s even possible.). If you think about it, though, the Grinch would have had a much easier job if he had been able to use stretch wrap film.

If he really hated Christmas that much, you would think that before he put together his horrible little suit he would have sat down and made an internet purchase: stretch wrap film and dispenser. Then, he would have been well equipped to steal Christmas.

Everything on top of that hideous sleigh could have been tightly wrapped up, and that sad little dog probably would have had a way easier time dragging the load it was more compact and stabilized. Who am I kidding? There is absolutely no way that dog could have made the trip. He couldn’t even have pulled the sleigh by itself. He probably could have barely handled pulling the reigns not attached to anything else…

Stretch Film Rolls, Part Two

Last time we talked about shrink wrap and food grade stretch film wrap. I mentioned that there were six categories under stretch film rolls at PackagingSupplies.com, so that leaves four more for us to go over.

Let’s see now…where were we?

Ah, yes. Poly sheeting. The scary stuff. I call it the scary stuff because it reminds me of that tv show about the serial killer who wrapped everything and everybody up in plastic, and this must have been the stuff he used. These are giant sheets of plastic. Like twelve feet wide and two hundred feet long. If you wouldn’t use them to protect your crime scene you would probably use them to protect your construction site. They even come in three different thicknesses, and in clear or black.

Moving on from the cold chills and heebie-jeebies, let’s enter the deliberately friendly world of gift basket film. This is still in the family of stretch film rolls because, even though it isn’t stretchy, it is still a film. It comes in nice crunchy sheets that you can use to wrap an entire gift basket up with, and tie with a nice big bow, or you can cut smaller pieces and use it to stuff the inside of gifts bags. You can go with clear, or colored (blue, lavender, or red).

Have you ever heard of poly tubing? This is my favorite member in the stretch film rolls family. It is what it sounds like: a tube of poly sheeting that comes on a roll. If you are doing a lot of sealing products but have varying sizes, you might want to consider poly tubing, because you can cut a length long enough for one t-shirt or you can cut a length long enough for twenty t-shirts. The standard poly tubing comes in multiple sizes and thickness, and you can even get the anti-static kind. If you are going to be working with poly tubing I would recommend not scrimping on the dispenser. You are much more likely to get a better seal and a cleaner look if you use it. PackagingSupplies.com provides these, and also the heat sealers.

Last, but certainly not least, is the most obvious type of stretch film rolls, which is the actual stretch film wrap. Machine grade, colored, small or large, the dispenser or the kind with the extended core to hold onto, there is no shortage of variety or option. Whatever you choose, don’t forget the stretch film cutter. Trying to cut this stuff with scissors is a giant pain in the batoot.