packing area

The first area of my new workshop that I set up was my packing area. My giant white table is in the middle of the room surrounded by shelves holding all my stock and I can see through into the sewing room which is a mighty fine view! I made the table using bookcases for legs and a BIG piece of white board for the table top ::

I use the whole table whilst preparing orders....to pile up orders, cut felt & ribbon, count and bag buttons, pack kits, tie rainbows and pick felt-y colours....but I saved a dedicated corner of the table for my leaf green tissue and paperwork (the cardboard box holds all my completed orders, ready and waiting for when I do the weekly paperwork & accounts)

The shelf under the tissue has a space for all my packing stationery, cardboard (so things can't get bent) and white paper bags ::

sellotape, stickers, post office items, address labels and thank you cards are all close to hand ::

in the gap between shelves I keep all my large size purple packing bags & paper bags (in a wood CD rack from Wilkinsons) ::

the next shelf has smaller purple bags, shiny white boxes and a few (!) spare notebooks waiting for lists! ::

the next gap has my roll of bubble wrap, spare ribbon gift boxes and used jiffy envelopes; all stored in old boxes from the day job ::

the last shelf on the packing side of the table is where I stand to cut ribbon and count and bag buttons ::

It holds ribbon gift boxes, my tag gun (it's new...I'm still designing the swing tags so it has yet to be used!) and lots of different sizes of grip seal bags for buttons & findings, along with lots of little boxes that I count items into and then tip in to the bags.

It has to be said that I do really enjoy packing up orders...I enjoy shopping for nice stationery items but most of all I enjoy making my own stationery. I print and cut out all my thank you cards & address labels and I've just learnt how to print circle stickers which I have fallen in love with!

All my handmade products are made with care & attention to detail and all the supplies I sell are handpicked for good quality and design and I think they deserve to be packaged with care ... what about you? do you believe that packaging is important too?