The advent of trains, automobiles, and airplanes makes traveling incredibly easy. As a result, it’s more common nowadays to travel to places far and wide for a plethora of reasons. While traveling is all well and good, there are still some caveats to it when we must transport our personal belongings. You may worry a great deal over whether your items will remain intact and undamaged by the end of the trip.
The same sentiment remains if you have a business that requires you to ship items to your customers. It can become a huge headache when your products arrive damaged to your customers. Such a situation can lead to bad reviews and fewer customers, which you want to avoid. Whatever you’re doing, you want to make sure your items arrive at their destination in one piece. As such, you should learn some easy ways to safely ship delicate items with pool noodles.
The Stress of Packing
It doesn’t matter if you’ve moved once or a dozen times—packing everything up never gets easier. That’s also the case if you ship items out a lot for your business. There’s a constant stress hanging on your shoulders as to whether you’ll receive a call from customers about broken or damaged items. If you’re moving your own possessions, you don’t want to open your boxes during a move only to find a precious item didn’t make the trip in one piece.
With shipping being so common in our lives, you probably find yourself frustrated more often than not over situations like the above occurring or even just the thought of it. You might wish you had a method for packaging your items safely. That’s where you’re in luck, as there are several ways to ensure your items arrive at their destination without a scratch or crack. The best part is that all you need are some pool noodles.
Why Foam Noodles?
When you think about foam noodles, you immediately think about kids splashing in the pool, playing games, and having endless fun. You don’t tend to think about foam noodles in any other context. However, the uses of pool noodles extend much further than the pool.
That’s why we are so passionate about them here at FoamNoodles.com, as they are immensely useful in various ways. You can use foam noodles in crafting, construction, games, decoration, and even packing. The opportunities and fun never stop when you’re using foam noodles. Now, we’ll get into some of the best ways to safely ship delicate items with pool noodles.
Foam Noodle Peanuts
You might think that packing peanuts are an ideal option for storing your fragile items, but they can cause quite a lot of clutter and mess when packing and unpacking. That’s why you might want to try foam noodles peanuts instead. For this craft, you’ll require these things:
- Foam pool noodles
- A serrated knife
Start by cutting your foam noodle horizontally into three-inch discs. Then, take each disc and cut it into four pieces. Now you have foam noodle peanuts that you can also reuse. They’re firm enough that travel won’t flatten them or destroy them like packing peanuts. Keep in mind that you can also customize the size of your foam peanuts if you have a larger item you’re shipping that might require bigger packaging.
Clamp It On
Often, we have to package quite fragile and delicate items like ceramics that are incredibly easy to break even when packaging. If only you could transport your item without it touching anything that could break it. In some ways, when you use clamp-on foam noodles, you can achieve this goal.
For this packing tip, you will need clamp-on foam noodles. At Honor Trading Company, we have high-quality, dense noodles that provide premier padding and durability. If you have quite a lot of fragile items to package, we also have clamp-on foam noodles in bulk!
How To Do It
Once you have your clamp-on noodles, it's incredibly easy to package up your fragile items. However, you will need some supplies first. They include the following:
- A serrated knife
- Stretch wrap
Begin by slicing your clamp-on foam noodles in a horizontal fashion, about two to three inches thick. This is enough width to ensure your fragile item does not touch anything and that its corners and edges have adequate protection. Then, you’ll want to adhere your foam slices to your ceramic piece carefully. If you want added protection, you might consider wrapping your item in stretch wrap, as it helps keep your noodles adhered to your piece.
Don’t Forget the Bottom
When we’re packaging our items, we tend to forget about a spot that can be quite vulnerable to breaking. It’s the bottom of your items. As such, you might consider taping a foam noodle disc horizontally to the bottom of your belongings, such as plates. That way, they have an added layer of protection that can help you rest easy as your possessions travel far and wide.
Additional Items
Foam pool noodles provide immense benefits when it comes to packaging your fragile and delicate items. Before long, packaging your items will become a simple process with a surefire method that will decrease the likelihood of breakage or damage. However, you will require some tools that should be your staples during your packaging process. With foam noodles and these tools, you soon find that packaging becomes a cinch. Here are some essential tools you should always have on hand when packaging:
- Tape
- Stretch wrap
- Bubble wrap
- A serrated knife
- An X-Acto knife
Bubble wrap is useful when you’re packaging an item like a plate, as you can add a thin layer of wrap and use your clamp-on foam noodles to adhere everything together. A serrated knife makes cutting your foam noodles incredibly easy, as the serrations add more friction. Therefore, the noodles don't slip out of your hand. An X-Acto knife is ideal when you need to make minor alterations during your packing, such as when your piece requires you to make a unique shape in your foam noodle.
