Using Crates

Making crates work for the tasks you have in mind

Crates have long provided functionality and versatility to businesses. Made from wood, plastic, metal or other materials, they offer an excellent solution for shipping trade show equipment, artwork, sensitive equipment, machinery and many other items. Use crates for storage and short trips or to solve an interim furniture issue.

You'll often find that companies already manufacture the crates you need, but you'll discover dozens of options for custom shipping crates and wooden packaging crates. Remember the following before buying your next crates:

1. Properly protect items packed inside shipping crates by ensuring even distribution of the contents and sufficient interior padding.

2. When using crates very large or heavy creates that require a forklift for lifting, ensure the crates sit on skids, pallets or other similar base structures.

3. Look for crates on wheels if you expect to move them often yourself.

Order wooden shipping crates to get your items to their destination

Shipping crates come in different sizes and materials. Custom order them, buy standard crates assembled or purchase them unassembled. Factors influencing the type of crate you'll need include weight, size, shape and fragility of item(s) shipped and whether you intend to reuse the crate.

Use plastic or metal crates for storing or transporting smaller objects

Plastic crates work well for storing and transporting smaller items. In an office environment, you can use them for storing and transporting brochures, books, extra copy paper and other supplies. If you own a distribution company, carry your drink products in specially designed beverage crates. Benefit from produce crates if you own a market or produce stand. If you own a grooming service or veterinary clinic, take advantage of crates designed for pets.

Include crates in your office or warehouse decorating scheme

College students and young people on tight budgets have created makeshift tables, bookcases and other furniture and accessories for decades, and this secondary use of crates might even make perfect economical sense for your office, too -- even if it's only a temporary solution. Drape fabric over stacked milk crates or a shipping crate to make a coffee table or a small table for your own office coffee pot and supplies. If you get a shipping crate to use as a coffee table in your office, let it perform double duty as a storage container for archived files. If your desk doesn't include file drawers, look for a wood crate as a convenient substitute that offers quick access to the files you work with most often.

• When ordering wood crates for international shipping, only purchase wood shipping crates that have been heat treated or fumigated with methyl bromide and marked with the approved International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) logo. The treated crates prevent introduction of harmful insects into the U.S.

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