9kg!

In the back of the car after collecting from the charity - Tuesday.


9kg lot being weighed up - Wednesday.


Weighed up boxes take over the living room! - Wednesday.


Boxed up and ready for stamping - Wednesday.

Nice stamps ready for the outside - Thursday.

Stamped up and waiting in the hallway - Thursday.

In the back of the car - Friday.

The walk to the Post Office - the reason boxes are 9kg and no heavier! - Friday.

Filling up the post office - why it's done in two runs over two days! - Friday.

The postmarker and sellotape - the final touch ensuring the stamps used for postage are nicely postmarked and protected on their journey to you - Friday.

A lot goes into your 9kg box! There's a 200 mile round trip to pick up from the charity. Normally I pick up 300kg of GB and 50kg of World.

The next day I start weighing up the 9kg boxes. The raw material comes in 10kg sacks and I normally make up the 9kg lots from at least two 10kg sacks and also include the smaller donations from about 25 other charities that come in on a daily basis.

It normally takes two days to make up all the boxes and label and stamp them up.

As they go to the village PO (to get the good cancellations!) it normally takes two trips - on Friday and Saturday - to clear the lot. This is due to space limitations in the car but, more importantly, at the PO.

With luck the boxes should arrive with the customer from Saturday onwards.