FORBIDDEN ITEMS:
1. ALCOHOL and flammables (including mouthwash, perfume, aftershave, nail polish remover and nail care products, lighter fluid, butane fuel cans, eye glass cleaner fluid)
2. GLASS containers or other breakable items
3. HOMEBAKED goods (only commercially wrapped food with good outdate can be sent by nonfamily members as many of these items get moldy during the long overseas shipping time and also to avoid unintended or intentional food poisoning)
4. PORK or any pork containing products, even if only used in manufacturing*
5. RELIGIOUS items if you don’t know the person
6. LIQUIDS (lotion, wet wipes, shampoo, conditioner, roll-on/stick deodorant, etc. are okay, but need to be put in ziplock bags in case they leak or melt. Double check caps are screwed on tight.)
7. AEROSOLS (since the London airline bombing threat, aerosol cans of anything cannot be mailed in priority boxes that go on airplanes). Tubes of shaving gel (nonaerosol) and sticks of deodorants can be sent.
8. BATTERIES cannot go IN the device that needs them, due to electrical spark hazard and chemical leak hazard of older batteries. Remove any batteries and include a SEALED pack of new batteries of the size needed.
Also forbidden:
9. TOBACCO
10. firearms and ammo
11. combustibles and explosives
12. drugs
13. PORN
*If you buy jerked sausage, Slim Jims, or like products, be sure they are label all beef, and no pork products are listed in the ingredient label. AND when you write them on the customs form, write ALL BEEF sausage or such, so the box isn’t rejected for loading on the outgoing mail plane.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Don’t mix FRAGRANT items (soap, lotion, shampoo, nonaerosol air wicks, etc) in the same box with food items as the food will taste like the fragrance and be inedible. Even when it separate boxes, it is a good idea to seal food and fragrant items in zipper lock plastic bags.
2. CHOCOLATE. We stop mailing chocolate candy to Iraq in April and don’t resume sending it till mid-October due to the heat. Temperatures on the tarmac can get over 140 degrees and even individually wrapped hard candy can fuse into a solid, inedible mass. Other items, like stick deodorant, can melt, too.
We have sent chocolate successfully during the summer as Tootsie Pops, Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies, Chocolate Splash drink mix boxes, and Hershey’s chocolate syrup (in zipper lock plastic bags)
BOXES (and other supplies you will need):
You don’t have to pack in the flat rate priority boxes you get from the post office, but it is simpler—and with the exception of those on the East Coast in the same mailing zone as the Army Post Office zipcode, it is cheaper to use priority flat rate boxes.
We have to send all our care packages by USPS priority mail as the Army relies on the U.S. Air mail Carriers to do the initial security screening for them. Packages sent any other way can be delayed by months.
You pay at the time of mailing the flat rate priority boxes.
Currently the cost is $8.95 regardless of weight for the 11 x 8 1/2 x 5 1/2” size, as long as the box is squarely shut, and not bulging.
The cost of the new 12 x 12 x 5 /12” flat rate priority boxes is $10.95 when mailed to an APO address, regardless of weight, and $11.95 to U.S. addresses. Postal rates are supposedly going up in May, but the new rates aren’t known yet.
To order 25 flat rate priority boxes (11x8x5 or 12x12x5) delivered to your home free within 10 days, call 1-800-527-1950 before 5 pm EST Mon-Fri.
Also you will need customs forms from the post office, one for each box. It’s a good idea to get one or two extra in case you mess one up.
You will need a wide roll of clear packing/shipping tape. The stronger tapes are much easier to use (brand names Scotch and Duck) and a roll of strapping tape is nice. Walmart carries a roll of Scotch wide strapping tape on a red plaster roller with a cutting edge for around $2.49.
To prepare your box for packing you need to open it (as it comes flat) and check which is the bottom side so you can tape it shut (as squarely as you are able), small flaps inside, large flaps outside for the 11x8 box and all flaps are equal size on the 12x12 box. The top has a place for the address label printed with TO: destinataire.
This is hard to do by yourself without getting the tape stuck to itself, so you may want to ask for help for someone to hold the bottom flaps squarely against each other before taping it along the seam, no overlap, and as little gap as you can manage.
Cut a piece of tape and hold it ready, and put it down and seal the bottom while someone holds the flaps square against each other, steadying the box on the unfolded flaps of the top side of box, which is steadied on the table or floor where you are working.
You don’t have to overlap the end of the box with the tape much, as this is a holder piece of tape, so when you cut this piece, estimate it as a few inches longer than the box length. You’ll be sealing up the whole box all around later for final strengthening of these flap closures.
(After taping the bottom, I turn the box over and estimate and cut off one at a time pieces of tape to seal the inside bottom flaps down (two flap edges in the 11x8 box and one flap edge in the 12x12 box) I’m in an agricultural area and keeping spiders out is a challenge.
Be sure your contents are listed somewhere (on a piece of paper or on the customs form) before you close and seal each box.
Be sure the top flaps close squarely and level without bulging up and without much gap before you seal them shut as you did the bottom.
Before doing any more taping, label the box.
You can label it with a preprinted form that has the return address on the form, or you can put your return address (handwritten or a little address sticker) in the upper left hand corner of the top of the 12x12x5 box or above the “TO: Destinataire” where it says “From: Expediteur” on the 11x8x5 box.
NOTE: if you are not using address labels for your return address, you will have to write yours in before you seal the top of the 11x8x5 box.
In the lower right hand corner of the 11x8x5 box, use a dark pen or black felt pen (especially for the APO AE number), and starting above and just to the left of the TO: write the name and APO address you have been given.
In the lower middle of the 12x12x5 box the labeling is ridiculous:
I have just ignored the labels and put the person’s name beginning with their rank in the first line, their unit identification in the next line (which is labeled “rank”) and the location identification as FOB, COP or Camp WhateverItIs in the third line labeled “military organization”. In the last line with the little boxes for the APO AE zipcode, don’t fret if you don’t have the extra four digits of the zipcode. Most APO zipcodes in the war zones don’t have the extra 4 digits.
Take your wide roll of clear tape and cover the return address and the recipient address with clear tape, to prevent smearing and damage in the mail.
If there is food in the box, we also now seal all the sides of the flaps top and bottom with tape to prevent insects and liquid getting in and make it harder to tamper with the package. It’s probably a good idea to do this regardless of contents.
You can use the same wide clear tape (or a strapping tape if you have it) to do the final sealing for strength to prevent breaking open in the mail. These two final seals are both all away around in the middle both ways, like ribbon on a gift package, for the 11x8x5 box, and creatively offset to the left of the APO address label area for the 12x12x5 box. If you are strapping a bigger box, then consider using two separate ribbons of tape around the top, and even one horizontally around the side of the box, depending on the weight inside and the strength of the box.
NOTE that light weight items may go cheaper in a non flat rate box, but that larger sized boxes are penalized now regardless of how light the box is.
The oversized rate applies to pieces that measure over 108 inches but not more than 130 inches in combined length and girth.
Parcels that weigh less than 20 pounds but measure more than 84 inches (but not more than 108 inches) in combined length and girth are charged the applicable rate for a 20-pound parcel (balloon rate).