How to Pack a Care Package for Deployed Soldiers

Do you have a son, daughter, husband, wife or friend who is deployed to Iraq or Afganistan? Here are some tips and ideas on how to pack and send them care packages.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Boxes
• Goodies
• Customs Form

1. The first step is knowing what to send them. Here are some of the most requested items:
   Beef jerky (pork products are forbidden, so keep it beef :)
   Baby wipes or moist towlets
   Razors/razor blades
   Shaving cream
   Soap
   Candy (chocolate is pretty hard to send, so you might want to think along the lines of hard candies)
   Games or books
2. Once you have the goodies together, you will need the boxes. You can get "flat rate boxes" in two sized from the post office, and the great thing about these boxes is that it costs less than $9 to ship it regardless of weight. You can go to www.usps.com and order these free boxes. They will be delivered to your door for no charge, so you can always have some on hand.
3. You need to remember that the mail service to US service members overseas in combat zones is not a perfect service. Boxes get lost, squished, and may sit at larger bases for weeks before being delivered to the smaller bases were you soldier is. Don't put in anything valuable, fragile or perishable. If you need to pad items that are fragile - use rolls of toilet paper - for anyone who has ever used military-issue toiled paper, you understand this.
4. You need to fill out a customs form for any packages going overseas. You can get these from www.usps.com, and have it filled out and ready to go when you get to the post office. Tape you box up well, take your filled-out customs form with you, and head off to the post office. Your soldier, sailor or airmen will thank you!

Tips & Warnings

• Alcohol and explicit material is prohibited, as well as pork items.