homemade air pouches for packing fragile items

I recently sold one of my birds nests, and had to figure out how I would ship something so delicate.
I thought of those air filled plastic pouches that I usually find in my own purchases.  But, I didn't have
any, and I wanted to get the nest shipped off right away.  I started thinking about what I might have
around the house so that I could make my own air pouches, and it hit me...zippered sandwich bags!

I learned from a friend that when you bake cookies for a future event and need to freeze them ahead of time, you can stick them in a gallon size zippered bag, and suck out the air with a straw before you zip it completely closed.  (zip it most of the way closed except for the part of the straw that fits into the bag before you suck in the air~And push out as much air first).  That way they will stay fresh.  It works so well, that I thought the opposite should work also...  If I inflated the bag with the straw just before completely zipping it closed, wouldn't I then have made my own air packing pouch?

I googled it to see if anyone else had come up with that idea. Sure enough, I found some leads and testimonials.  So I tried it myself...



Just to be sure that the bag would stay inflated in the changing temperatures that would occur with
shipping, I stuck it outside in the cold for the rest of the day!  It worked~remained filled with air.




Then, I considered actually sticking the nest in one larger gallon size bag and doing the same thing
instead of putting little pouches around the nest.  However, I realized that would put moisture in the bag,
which wouldn't be a good thing.

That led me to another idea.  I buy these large food and bread storage bags at my local grocery store.
I use them all the time.  They don't have zippered closure~just twist ties.  But, I realized that instead of
blowing in the bag, I could put the nest in it, and gently wave the bag towards me to fill it with air before twisting and tying it closed...kind of like waving a plastic grocery bag in the wind and watching it inflate and then flying it like a kite!  So that is what I did, and then I twisted it closed and then tied it with a piece of twine and ribbon.  It worked perfectly!  I made sure that when I put it in the box, I pressed on it lightly to make sure there were no leaks.




The great part about using air packing is that it saves on shipping costs!