Friday, January 29, 2010

Shipping and Receiving


I'm pretty sure that, no matter how rich and blessed they are, the vast majority of people wish they had just a little more space in their home (or homes). I am not alone.

The above photo is of my living room. Why does it look this way? I'll tell you.

Unless a resident of State College, PA, wishes to purchase 90% of their goods at Wal-Mart, Target, or Kohl's, one must rely on mail order. So, shown here, are boxes from my daughter's sewing machine, plastic bits and bobs for my daughter's upcoming birthday party, and a refrigerator-sized box for a smallish lamp ordered from crate and barrel. The lamp was also enclosed in two more boxes of diminishing size that are inside of the large box.

On occasion, I am lucky to find clothing at Target. Sometimes I find a piece or two at the increasingly-vacant mall. Wal-Mart I don't do. Ninety percent of my clothing is purchased through mail order. Each spring and autumn my living room looks far worse than this. Incoming are shoes, sweaters, Ts, skirts. Outgoing are 90% of the incoming. I try again. More bags and boxes arrive.

Then there's pet supplies to deal with. We do have one pet store. It doesn't carry what we need. So incoming are boxes of pet meds, treats, toys, etc.

We like books. Our one chain store that sells new books doesn't like to carry much. So we order from Amazon. Even more boxes. We like books.

My fabric and art supplies must be ordered. This also includes supplies for shipping (but not boxes, we've got that covered). While I hoard the bubble wrap that sometimes comes with my mail order goods, its not enough. I have to order bubble wrap. It comes in a big box. I even have to mail order thread. Good grief. Also incoming are paints, fabric, foamboard, scissors, glue, paper, brushes, sponges, vintage items, etc.

In my fantasy world, there is another room attached to my house. Its a wonderful room. Large. With windows, yet plenty of wall space. It has a double door with a ramp out to the alley. This is where deliveries are made. This is where items are wrapped and packaged to go out. This is shipping and receiving. It is a glorious room. It might even have an employee in it.

Shipping and receiving has long, wide tables for packing tasks. A recycling center. Open shelves for supplies. Small envelopes for mailing letters. Large envelopes for mailing elephants. Bubble wrap of all sizes. Containers for those damn foam peanuts that certain companies insist on using. Stamps. Paper cutters. Foam mailers. Foam board. Box cutters. Scissors of all sizes. Phone books. Lists of suppliers. My freakin' FedEx #. Coffee maker. Sink. Bactine and bandaids. A wide variety of tape in dispensers that can actually be refilled. And the aforementioned employee. Hopefully burly.

Instead I have a front door that opens straight into the living room and a back door that opens straight into the kitchen.

I'm going back to bed so I can dream of my own personal shipping and receiving.

10 comments:

ArtPropelled said...

Sighhhh .... more space would be nice.

SHANNA WHEELOCK said...

hahaha. i know exactly what you mean (but in our town, we have one wal mart - which we detest - and it is an hour away!!! we are very remote!)

so - we built this addition - with plans to have space for my boxes and shipping stuff...closets galore...well - plans changed as we went through the process...we end up with one closet and the boxes, bubble wrap, and such is still stuffed out in the cold barn.

Unknown said...

Now this makes me happy to be living in such a little town that is thisclose to the BIG city!!

Colleen Kole said...

You have it all planned out perfectly. Too bad we can't outlaw shipping peanuts!

jason said...

That said...I can see behind those boxes what looks like a lovely room.
Love that chair.

p said...

well if i lived near you i would gladly remove your peanuts and foam and cardboard :)

kendalee said...

What a great idea! I receive a lot more than I ship but a whole room for dealing with that whole process, organising and recycling the packaging would be wonderful :)

Fibra Artysta said...

I am a huge amazon shopper as well. I'm a total book whore so they are awesome for fixes...

Kathy Hodge said...

I like to order books from Hamilton Books (http://www.hamiltonbook.com/hamiltonbook.storefront). They have lots of big art books discounted, low shipping and minimal packaging. The only downside...you can spend hours pouring over their catalog!

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