The Best Mailers

Whether you’re needing to ship products for your home business or send gifts to family and friends, mailers make it easy to ship items and offer some advantages over boxes. These shipping materials don’t take up much space in your home and come in a variety of sizes and colors. Mailers can even save you money versus buying boxes and filling materials.

When it comes to materials, paper and poly mailers are common choices. These types of mailers differ in terms of pros, cons, appearance and ideal use.

Usually yellow or brown, paper mailers can be thicker and more protective than poly mailers. However, since they’re made of paper, they’re also easier to damage if they get wet or caught on something sharp.

Poly mailers have a shinier appearance, are water-resistant and are more flexible for items with an odd shape or sharp angles. Poly mailers can come in a wide range of colors and designs, and this allows for more customizability.

You can choose from mailers that come with or without padding, and the fragility of the contents shipped will play a role in your decision. Mailers with bubble wrap inside are thicker and work well when you plan to ship something that can easily get crushed in the postal machines. On the other hand, mailers without padding are thinner and can do a fine job for mailing flat, non-fragile items like papers.

Whether you go with a paper or poly mailer, you’ll need to take into account the size and shape of the item you’re shipping to choose a mailer with the right size. You’ll find smaller mailers suitable for sending items such as jewelry along with document-sized mailers that can hold larger gifts and papers. It helps to get a slightly larger mailer than you think you’ll need, especially if you’re shipping a thicker item and using a padded mailer.

• Consider checking the shipping service’s pricing and requirements first so you can meet your needs and minimize shipping costs. For example, mailers of a certain size limit, thickness and weight may be classified as envelopes and cost less to mail than packages. Slightly larger or heavier mailers may fall into the packages category with higher rates, so you’ll want to choose carefully.
• Mailers usually are self-sealing with an adhesive you expose by peeling off a protective strip, but you can always add some tape around the seal for extra security. You can also look for tamper-proof seals for peace of mind.
• If you’re wondering which size mailer you should purchase, first measure the height, width and length of the product you plan to ship. To decide on a minimum width for the mailer, add the product height and width plus 1/4 of an inch extra. You can add twice the height plus the length and an extra 1/4 of an inch to get the minimum length for the mailer.
• Whether you get a padded or unpadded mailer, you can still wrap your item in some bubble wrap to give it extra protection during shipping.
• If you plan to ship something heavy, large or fragile, you’ll likely want to skip the mailer and go with a box instead.