What you need to pack parcels from home — and what you don’t

Most people who consider packing parcels from home stop at one question before they start: don’t I need something for this that I haven’t got? A business, a van, a background in a warehouse?

No. This article is the list of what you do need — it is short — and of what you do not, which is longer. Then the sign-up, step by step, and which parcel sizes are realistic for which home. What it pays is worked out with real figures in how much can you earn packing parcels from home; this is the question before that one: can you do it?

What you need — and what you don’t #

• ✓A dry, clean place for a batch of stock. A shelf in a cupboard is enough for letterbox parcels; a corner of a room for shoebox-sized ones.
• ✓A printer. Black and white on plain A4 is fine; a label printer is handy but not required. Some services print the label at the parcel point from a QR code, but do not count on that for every order.
• ✓A valid ID document. Shops send their stock to your home; the identity check with a document and a selfie is what makes that possible.
• ✓A bank account in your own name, for payouts. Not someone else’s, not a business account for a business you are not.
• ✓A parcel point within walking or cycling distance. You drop parcels off; the closer, the less unpaid time.
• ✕A registered business. You can start as a private individual. If it grows into a business — many hours, several clients — that changes, and that is a question for your tax authority, not for us.
• ✕A car. A bike with a bag is enough for letterbox and small parcels. Only someone accepting large parcels needs wheels.
• ✕Experience. The work is reading an order, putting a product in a box, sticking a label on and dropping it off.
• ✕Money up front. You buy nothing and advance nothing. The shipping label is paid by the shop from its balance.
• ✕Fixed hours. You set how many parcels a day you can take, and on a day you are full shops skip you.

Where does this work exist at all? #

What a shop pays per country, and why a shop in one country would want stock held in another — a parcel that starts in the customer’s country is cheaper and faster than the same parcel crossing a border — is on /en/senders.

Which parcel sizes can you take? #

You choose which sizes to accept, and that decides which orders you get. The four sizes below are also the four a shop sorts its orders into, with the guide fee senders ask for each.

The practical rule: start with the top two. They fit in any home and any bike bag, and they are the great majority of small shops’ orders. Switch on large parcels only when you have the space, a car, and know your parcel point accepts them.

Sign-up in nine steps #

Each step is a few minutes. While any one is open, you are not in the sender list and no shop can find you — not as a penalty, but as the reason a shop dares to pick a sender from that list at all.

1. 1

   Choose your username

   Shops find you under it, and it is the only name they see.

2. 2

   Enter your postcode digits

   Shops see only your region from these — never your full address.

3. 3

   Enter your address

   It goes on the label as the sender address, with the shop’s name on it. Shops do not see it; the carrier does, because a label without a sender does not exist.

4. 4

   Say where you store parcels

   A cupboard, a room or a garage. Shops want to know where their stock will be before they send it.

5. 5

   Set how many parcels a day you can take

   When you are full, shops skip you that day. Start low; raising it is always possible.

6. 6

   Choose your carriers and parcel points

   You only get orders for carriers you tick. Pick one with a point near you.

7. 7

   Verify your identity

   With an ID document and a selfie. This is the step that keeps anonymous schemes out, and the reason a shop sends its stock to a stranger. Why it works this way is in why you verify your identity to pack parcels from home.

8. 8

   Set up your payouts

   An account in your own name. Without one we cannot transfer your earnings.

9. 9

   Confirm you can print labels

   One label per parcel; black and white on plain paper is enough.

After that you are listed and a shop can message you. Usually that starts with a conversation about what they sell and how much they expect, then a first batch, then the first orders.

What an ordinary week looks like #

An order arrives as a notification. You open it, see product, quantity and address, pack, print the label and stick it on. The day’s parcels go with you when you are leaving the house anyway. The fee is on your balance once the label is bought and becomes available a few days later — the whole chain is in how payouts work when you pack parcels from home.

Three things to be honest with yourself about first #

1. Space is the real limit, not time. A batch of fifty letterbox parcels fits anywhere. Fifty medium boxes do not. Look at your cupboard before you tick your sizes.
2. It is work in the margins of your day. No fixed hours, no guaranteed volume. Anyone who needs a fixed monthly amount needs something else.
3. You declare every euro. Even a small amount, even alongside benefits — tell the agency first. We give you a yearly summary, not tax advice.

And the question everyone rightly asks — is this not a forwarding scam? — has its own article with the five warning signs and where this model differs: is packing parcels from home a scam?. In short: you never forward anything from strangers, and no money ever leaves your account.

What you need fits on one shelf and in one drawer. What you don’t need is the list everyone gets stuck on.