Help with Shipping a Basket

[SeanD]

What's the best way to ship gift baskets? How can I keep the contents from flopping all around, so they don't just get a bag of mess? One of my gift baskets has nuts, syrup and honey together. The other has syrup, coffee and pancake mix.

Thanks in advance,
Sean

[jmayerl]

You can check out mine on my facebook, they ship great. But there gift boxes not baskets. Boxes fit perfect into a flat rate box, baskets I'm afraid do not

[SeanD]

Is that the flat-rate box the products are sitting in in your pictures or is that a decorative box that you put inside the flat-rate shipping box?

[jmayerl]

Gift box picture

[SeanD]

Great. Thanks.

On another note, I saw in your pictures that you use a Kitchen Aid mixer to do your candy. I had read a while back that those mixers couldn't handle the load, that they would eventually burn out. Have you had success for a while with that mixer?

Sean

[jmayerl]

I make granulated sugar and cream with the kitchen aid no problem. It's the biggest/ beefier mixer and I do 1/2-3/4 gallon batches.

[SeanD]

That's great to hear about the mixer. Thanks for the tips with the basket. I won't be able to get a nice box before these need to go out, but I like the idea for next year.

This time I'm going to try shrink wrap. If I start with it down close to the stuff in the basket, It should tighten up and hold everything in place. Then I'll put the basket in a flat-rate box with shipping peanuts.

Sean

[SeanD]

Ok, shrink wrap is my new favorite toy. This stuff is the best. In the end I think it looks much better than my basket bags I use with a bow now. These things are as tight as a drum and ready to ship.

I did a fair last weekend and all the jostling going in and out of the hall really messed up the way they look. The shrink wrap has them packed in so nothing moves, now.

The only advice I would give is to tape as much of it under the basket before hitting it with the heat. The four corners will probably be okay once I get better at it, but I found it easier to put a piece of tape between the corners as well. I also had to be careful on the top near the bags of nuts because those are heat seal bags and react to the heat, too.

I'll post a picture when I get if uploaded.

Sean

[SeanD]

Finally got the picture into Photostream. Does anyone know the trick to get photos to update right away or to manually refresh Photostream? The pics I took earlier in the evening popped right up, but this pic didn't show up until this morning.

Sean 8214

[jmayerl]

82278228Sean, another 1/2 gallon batch in the kitchen aid.