Another way to mail things that need protection is to use padded mailers. Padded mailers are great for mailing documents and other small bulky items such as books, videos, and small gifts as they have a padded wall on the inside of the envelope to protect items against damage. The padding is usually made of bubble wrap or a material that resembles shredded cotton or macerated newsprint. They typically look like regular yellow or manila envelopes on the outside but they are lined with bubble wrap or similar padding on the inside in order to protect the contents.
You can find padded mailers in a variety of sizes but are lighter and smaller than shipping boxes. They also come in a variety of colors such as red, green, blue, and purple. Padded mailers can be purchased pretty much anywhere you buy envelopes. They can also be purchased in bulk at most office supply stores and post offices. You can also make your own padded mailers simply by wrapping the items in bubble wrap and sealing them in a manila envelope. However, this typically isn’t as sturdy as padded mailers are made for this purpose.
Padded mailers are often used to ship CD’s and DVD and come in sizes made specifically for those items. Parents often find themselves sending home videos out to grandparents and other family members. Now that you can burn home videos and photograph collects to CD’s and DVD’s, it’s become a pretty common item to be shipped.
Often times, many small businesses use padded mailers to mail items such as jewelry. Jewelry is so small that sending it in a box runs the risk of breaking it as it gets bounced around or smashed during shipping. Many businesses will lay jewelry into a small gift box lined with cotton padding and then put the gift box into padded mailers to protect them from damage. This is also a more inexpensive way to send small items out as boxes typically way more and padded mailings are typically just bigger envelopes with lightweight padding.
Padded mailers are also an excellent way to send photographs through the mail as they help protect against scratches. The main problem with this is that they usually bend easily so the padded mailers should be reinforced by a light piece of cardboard when using them to send photographs. This will offer the best protection for your prized snapshots.
Keep in mind that while padded mailers do protect their contents, they aren’t intended for items such as glass and porcelain that break easily. They will help protect such items, but only to a certain extent. It’s probably best to ship the highly delicate items wrapped in bubble wrap and packed in boxes as this will allow for added layers of protection and help prevent the item from getting smashed.
Padded mailers are now being made more environmentally friendly as well. Manufacturer’s are using recycled content in order to offer convenient recyclability and natural resource conservation as they are being created using recycled newspaper as the inner protective lining while the outer envelope is made from 100% recycled content that does need to be dyed to have the golden color that most other mailers use.