Too Many Returns

Responsibly maximizing small spaces

My small business rents a mailbox at a packing and shipping company. Despite being impressively organized, the small retail-office is usually overrun with columns of boxes and puffy envelopes that have just arrived, or are awaiting their departure. In one corner, there’s a self-services kiosk specifically dedicated to returns for one particular online retailer. It’s a station the management added recently to better accommodate the high number of clients and the vast quantity of product being returned to the e-commerce giant. The hardworking employees themselves can logistically only handle so many packages and customer requests during office hours. 

Above: A vintage + repaired folding valet hook in our bedroom, anchored to a 2” stretch of wall between windows.

While checking my mailbox the other day, I found myself venting a recent frustration to the patient staff. I’d once again been asked by a major home decor resource for small space tips if and only if they are accompanied by links so readers can instantly purchase everything mentioned. (I know I’ve mentioned this on Rightsizing recently— there’s often an uptick in these editorial requests this time of year. While publications don’t pay me for my time and input, it’s their profiting off my work by selling mass-produced products with a problematic toll on people and the planet that upsets me.)

Above: A repaired and freshly painted wall-mounted candle holder from a local salvage shop.

The office team nodded in response, and gestured around their increasingly crowded space as proof that the last thing folks need is more junk from the retailer-that-shall-not-be-named.

Above: Long matches for our tiny wood stove are stored in a ceramic vessel crafted by our neighbor in his home.

 “I think that if [the company] would stop accepting returns, that might really help,” said the manager. “Buyers would get upset, but maybe then they wouldn’t shop so much. We handle so many of those returns. There are too many. You wouldn’t believe it.”

Above: Paper from open packs of office supplies donated to a local secondhand store. We mounted the sheets to the side of a shallow cabinet by the kids’ room with the help of a used clipboard and a leftover cut of wood.

(I believe it.)

Above: A hand-me-down sauce ladle on a small magnet block holds my grandmother’s ring and a handmade ring filled with Stanlee’s hair on a small stretch of wall in the kitchen while I get my hands dirty.

On my way to the exit, I apologized for dragging the busy workers into my brain tornado — a hazard of working at home alone, I said. They responded with kindness, which I appreciated. As the glass door swung shut behind me, I heard the manager remark with sincerity, “That’s the most interesting conversation we’ve had with a customer in a long time.”