Sent With Love And Bubble Wrap by Abigail Milovancevic
This year, I changed my university plans a month before school started. Instead of moving to a city an hour away, I packed my bags and came to Italy. At the beginning of September, all I had was two suitcases and a backpack with almost everything I would need for the next few months of my life. The extra room left in my suitcase won't be enough to bring back the items I've bought over the past few months of living in Rome, which means I'm going to need to figure out how to bring my items back home with me at the end of the year.
One of the items that will be difficult to take home is an antique painting I bought. While at the Sunday market near my apartment, I bought a painting. It is a small one—showing a cottage in front of a river. On the back is a short dedication, "for the kindest young lady". I absolutely adore it! The painting came framed and was painted 106 years ago in Turin. Even though I will not be going home until the summer, I am already trying to plan a way to bring this painting home with me. Right now, my plan is wrap it in bubble wrap then put it in a pizza box, but will that keep the fragile canvas and frame intact for 4,000 miles? Perhaps I could take apart the frame, and put the canvas into an envelope, but then I would need to reassemble a historic painting.
A service like Ship Smart would be able to help me mail my painting in a smart way. With over 19 years of experience, Ship Smart can offer me a way to move my painting safely and cheaply from Rome to Chicago. With a custom crate for my painting, the art can reach its destination in the same condition it left in. Besides only shipping, Ship Smart offers full replacement insurance, so the one-of-a-kind piece I found at the market will be safe.
Shipping and packing are more than just logistics. We only pack and ship items we care about. Especially when it comes to art, since art is delicate and precious. Art is not the only thing that matters to me. Somewhere in England, my Doc Marten boots, a belt, and some other American goodies are in a box on their way to me. I would be devastated if those items got lost or damaged on their way across continents, even though the items are not worth a lot of money. Packing tape, bubble wrap, and items go into packages, but so does our love.
In conclusion, packing and shipping is a personal affair, because the items we send mean something to us. Moving to another country has made me realize that in the boxes we send through the mail, our hearts go into them too. Currently, the logistics of my life include packing my items and shipping them across the globe. This is the first time I have condensed my life down to two suitcases, but certainly will not be the last. I want to continue exploring the world, finding items I love, and sharing them with my family, which means I will be sending carefully packed parcels back home.