Mail: Flat Rate Boxes.

It's been awhile since I've told you something I think you should know. But I'm making up for it by giving you a great tutorial on something I have come to know well:

US Post Office FLAT RATE boxes.

Mailing doesn't sound exciting, you say. Well fine... go spend more money than you should when you ship your Grandma's birthday gift. Smart people, yes, smart people will listen up.

Here's all I've learned about shipping using the flat rate boxes.

First, you pick up the boxes at your post office, no charge. There should be a red kiosk with all the different sizes at your local PO. I believe these days they only have Ready Post mailers that you have to pay for and these... but to be safe, make sure they say Flat Rate Box under the Priority Mail logo.

Again, no charge. You could walk in there and grab every single box they have and walk out. You would also look a little crazy doing that. And remember, using these boxes for non-postal use is fraud. Or something bad like that. It's a no-no.

Let's talk size. There are four sizes of boxes (large, two medium, small). They also have envelopes but those are boring so I'm skipping them in this post.

Large Flat Rate Box | 12" x 12" x 5-1/2"
First Medium Flat Rate Box | 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8"
Second Medium Flat Rate Box 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2"
Small Flat Rate Box | 8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8"

There is a DVD in the Small Flat Rate Box and one sitting in front of the second Medium Box, just to help you visualize size. Oh, and Eli is in the large box. There is a BIG difference in size from the Mediums to the Small. The Small is just a tease, really. You can see the DVD inside there barely fits the width. Still not convinced?

"Please know that this box is small!"

Trust me, it won't fit much without some serious finagling on your part.

Now the most important part - cost. No matter where you send it in the domestic US:

Large Flat Rate Box $14.95
Medium Flat Rate Boxes $10.95
Small Flat Rate Box $5.20

This is the cost NO MATTER HOW HEAVY the box is! It can be up to 70 pounds! I'd like to see you try that!

Because it can be ubber heavy, the real challenge here is to FIT whatever you can in the smallest possible box. I'm a big fan of the first medium box. It's long and tall and comes with it's own sticky-strip adhesive on both sides so you don't even have to use your own tape (the others don't have that feature). Make sure your contents don't alter the shape but that doesn't mean you can't stuff and tape that baby FULL.

Get your box ready and then you have two ways to pay for it. First, the traditional: get in your vehicle, drive to the PO, wait in an invariably long line, then pay and hand it off. Or you can pay for it online and print your mailing label! You go to the Postage Price Calculator found here, put in your zip codes, select which box you are using from the Flat Rate Service options and follow the instructions. You even save like 45 cents if you buy it online!

After paying online (you do have to create a little USPS account), then printing and attaching your label to your box, you may drop off your box at the PO (save the waiting in line to pay) OR you have the "Schedule a Pickup" option when paying online. This means you can schedule a pick up at your home from your postal carrier for free!

If you do this, your carrier will pick up your ready-to-go box whatever day you have it scheduled and you can even tell them how/where (do you want them to knock, will you leave it on your front step, etc). I love when JT saves me a trip to the PO!

Non-Flat Rate Box Tangent
Now you can use the online price calculator and print your shipping labels for non-flat rate boxes, too, but you do have to know the exact weight of your package in order to do that. Unless you have an accurate scale, it's probably not worth doing that for your regular packages/envelopes. Sometimes when I have a good guess, I'll use the online price calculator to just get an idea of what it'll cost me to ship priority versus parcel post ... or if it would be cheaper to go with the flat rate.

For example, shipping a package in my own box (a non-flat rate one) with just a one-ounce weight from Columbia to Williston would cost me $5.38 parcel post, $5.60 for priority. Shipping a 1.1-ounce package from Columbia to Williston would cost me $7.96 parcel post, $9.15 for priority. WHAT A DIFFERENCE one ounce makes! I would never know this if it wasn't for the nifty Postage Price Calculator.

Basically, if it's a light padded envelope deal, I usually try go parcel post if I have the time or regular priority if its not small enough to fit in the flat rate box. If it's heavy (anything over a pound), I go flat rate.

International?
You may be wondering about international flat rates? They are much, much spendier and they have a weight limit of 4 pounds. You can use the same boxes as above, but the price is different for each box and depending on what country you are sending it to. The cheapest is by far the Flat Rate Envelope... for here to China it costs $13.95. But this "envelope" is no package. As you can see (again DVD on top), it's small and it's hard to fit anything not-flat in it:

However, once I fit a couple of cookie mixes, some socks, candy, stickers, etc in one of these. I used a lot of tape. But $13.95 is easier to do than $45 or $50 for the medium and flat rate sizes. Basically, use the Price Calculator if you are planning on shipping overseas. And don't forget you still have to use the custom forms and all that jazz.

Fun?
For added enjoyment, decorate the white space of your box. I'm a big fan of polka dots. The reason I have learned all about shipping is mostly because of our nieces and nephews. And I know they enjoy their gift even more when we decorate the outside of the box!

I hope you have learned something. And I hope you are understanding the greatness of the flat rate boxes, my friends. And now you know if it fits, it ships.

Oh, and Eli is rolling to his side these days. And still attempting to eat anything that comes remotely close to his mouth:


If you click twice, you can barely see his very faint birthmark on his right bicep/arm roll!

-Heather